Stakeholders Identify Unintended Pregnancy as Cause of Unsafe Abortion
Stakeholders, including health practitioners, researchers, and Non-Governmental Organisations, have identified the high number of unintended pregnancies as the root cause of unsafe abortion in Nigeria.
Warning that unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion pose major reproductive health problems in Nigeria, the stakeholders said unsafe abortion accounts for 30-40 percent of maternal deaths in the country
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The experts additionally noted that contraceptive prevalence rate remains poor with the unmet need for family planning at about 18 percent, representing the major cause of unintended pregnancy and abortion.
To address the challenges, however, the stakeholders said there is a need for a coalition, consisting of a multidisciplinary team of all relevant stakeholders, including the academia, the media, religious institutions, civil society organisations, youth groups, health practitioners, community leaders, non-governmental organisations, and government agencies, to tackle the challenge of unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion in Nigeria.
The views formed part of the resolve reached by stakeholders at the end of the first National Forum on Unintended Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria, organised by the Partnership for Advancing Abortion Research and Reducing Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria (PAARRUAN), held at Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
The communique signed by Prof. Akanni Akinyemi (Centre for Research, Evaluation Resources, and Development – CRERD) and Mr Ayoola Ojewusi (Academy for Health Development – AHEAD) reads in part: “Despite the restrictive laws of abortion in Nigeria, abortion figures remain high. Approximately 1.4 million abortions occurred in the country in 2019. Most induced abortions in the country are unsafe because the procedures are performed secretly, in settings without minimal standards, and by untrained persons. Reduction of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortion will contribute to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 3.”
The recommendations include: “PAARRUAN needs to synthesize current evidence and develop a research agenda on unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and other sexual and reproductive health issues in Nigeria. PAARRUAN should take advantage of relevant conferences on law, social sciences, public health, media, to present issues relating to unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion and need to take action to address it. To be effective, there is a need to develop a clear message supported by the evidence. Such messages can be disseminated using all available media including social media channels. The media have a critical role to play; however, to be effective, the media need data on the nature and impact of unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion. To this end, researchers should make relevant data available in journalism-friendly formats. Government should improve funding for reproductive health to address unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion.”
In attendance at the forum were: researchers, service providers, journalists, programme managers, drawn from tertiary institutions, and local and international organisations.
PAARRUAN is a platform for setting abortion research agenda, utilizing research findings, and implementing projects to reduce unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions in Nigeria. It is led by the consortium of the Center for Research, Evaluation Resources and Development (CRERD), and the Academy for Health Development (AHEAD) in Nigeria, with support from the Guttmacher Institute (GI), USA.
