Abortion rate in region soars from 6% to 24%

The abortion rate in Central Visayas has dramatically increased from six percent in 1994 to 24 percent in 2000 or at least 30,810 induced abortions happening in the region, says a research on Induced Abortion in the Philippines conducted by the Population Institute, College of Social Studies and Philosophy, University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

The research went on to say that the region has the biggest number of induced abortions compared to other regions in the Visayas. Western Visayas tails with a total of 13,309 induced abortion cases and Eastern Visayas with 11,903. But adding up that the report on the general trend in induced abortion rate increasing from 1994 to 2000 is indirectly estimated from hospitals.

Also part of the report is the appalling revelation that one-third of the three million pregnancies every year in the country ends in abortion, either induced or miscarriage.

Dr. Josefina Cabigon of the Population Institute presented the paper on Induced Abortion in the Philippines yesterday during a forum on abortion organized by the Population Commission.

Cabigon bared that of the three million pregnancies in the Philippines every year, 450,000 are miscarriages while another 450,000 are induced abortion. Unplanned births number to 930,000 while 1,170,000 are planned births.

According to Cabigon, there is an estimated 473,400 induced abortions in the Philippines in 2000. Listed as the causes of unintended pregnancy and unsafe induced abortion are contraceptive non-use, barriers to prevention of unplanned pregnancy, especially in high-risk groups, contraceptive failure and non-availability of contraceptives.

Some of the main reasons that were cited by Cabigon in her survey on why women would seek abortion are that most women find it expensive nowadays to have a baby or it is too soon after the last pregnancy.

Others said that they have already enough children, or their partner didn't want them to get pregnant. Others are health related reasons, problems with partner, too young, or they don't want to be interrupted with their studies or their work, and forced sex. In the survey, it also showed that the most numbers of women who have experienced abortion are Catholics. Only a little of the respondents are non-Catholics.

In the survey, Cabigon stated that most women go to great lengths to obtain abortion. More than a quarter of them would go through multiple steps like drinking herbs, to massages from hilots, to using prostaglandin pills. However, she said that only 30 percent of the women who attempt abortion will succeed because lower-cost methods tend to be less effective and riskier.

She also said that most of the consequences that a women will obtain if she has decided to end her pregnancy are severe bleeding, severe pain, moderate and severe fever and injury. Further, she said that from the survey that she had conducted, four of 10 women who reported to have experienced abortion say they have experienced emotional stress.

Of an estimated 76 million unintended pregnancies worldwide, some 44 million end in abortion, including 19 to 20 million that are unsafe. Unsafe induced abortion accounts for at least 13 percent of all maternal mortality globally and around 20 percent in Asia and Africa- making it a leading cause in maternal deaths. - Jasmin R. Uy