THERE is a diversity of definitions of abortion in law and in different countries and even in medicine. Sir Stanley Clayton and John Newton in their booklet: a pocket obstetrics, defined abortion as the expulsion of the conceptus before the 28th week of pregnancy. This view is held by British law. Ralph Benson in his book, “handbook of obstetrics and gynecology” defined abortion as “the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable. Viability is achievable by 23-24 weeks, when the fetus weighs slightly more than 600 grams.” The law in the United States varies from state to state, in general allowing abortion on demand in the first trimester of pregnancy, with more restrictions on certain medically indicated cases in the second trimester. The world health organization (who) defined abortion as, “the expulsion or extraction of a fetus or embryo weighing 500 grams or less from its mother.”
Medical opinion nowadays define abortion as the expulsion of conceptus prior to viability, defined as 20 weeks of pregnancy or a fetus weighing 500 grams or more. Recently, some states have lowered the weight of viability to 300 grams.
Such terms as miscarriage are usually used by the public to denote spontaneous abortion, while the term abortion denotes induced abortion, whether legalized or not.
The encyclopedia Britannica of 1982 defined abortion as the termination of pregnancy before viability, in turn defined as a 1000-gram fetus by weight or more than 20 weeks of pregnancy. An abortion therefore, is the murder of an unborn baby or child. It’s an intentional termination of a fetus to end a pregnancy.
INCIDENCE OF INDUCED ABORTION
Induced abortion for social reasons is spreading all over the world. It is estimated that globally 50 million unborn babies are killed annually, resulting in the deaths of 200,000 pregnant women and the suffering of millions. The complications of illegal abortion are very serious. The medical reasons for abortion are limited and constitute a small proportion of all abortion cases.
In 2018, 41.9 million pregnancies were prematurely terminated, making abortion the leading cause of death in the world. The staggering figure was tallied by worldometers, a site which aggregates statistical data from sources such as the world health organization.
According to Akinrinola Bankole et all, an estimated 1.25 million induced abortions occurred in Nigeria in 2012, equivalent to a rate of 33 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–49. The estimated unintended pregnancy rate was 59 per 1,000 women aged 15–49. Fifty-six percent of unintended pregnancies were resolved by abortion. About 212,000 women were treated for complications of unsafe abortion, representing a treatment rate of 5.6 per 1,000 women of reproductive age, and an additional 285,000 experienced serious health consequences but did not receive the treatment they needed.
In 2017, performance monitoring and accountability 2020 (PMA 2020) published that, an estimated 3 to 5% of reproductive age women had an abortion in the 12 months prior to this study, indicating that 1.2 to 2.0 million abortions occur annually in Nigeria. Also. In 2017, the annual incidence of abortions in Nigeria was 29.0 per 1,000 women age 15 to 49 based on respondent reporting—more than 1.2 million abortions. When including information related to the experience of respondents’ closest confidantes, the number of abortions in Nigeria rose to nearly 2.0 million. More than 6 out of 10 abortions were considered most unsafe, and 11% of women sought care at a health facility following perceived complications. Women living in rural areas, younger women, women with no education, and women who are poor were the most likely to have the most unsafe abortions. In Nigeria, most public tertiary facilities provided postabortion care (92%) and safe abortion services to save a woman’s life (83%); lower level public facilities and private facilities were much less likely to do so.
Yet unlike most of the other leading causes of death in the world, abortion is almost 100 percent preventable. Case in point: in the U.S., 9 out of 10 abortions are elective. That is to say they are performed not for medical reasons but because the baby is not wanted.
I wonder what would happen if we viewed abortion the same way we view smoking or cancer. Would it remain the leading cause of death in the world if we ran public service campaigns to dissuade women from seeking abortions, as we do for smoking? Or if we spent billions of dollars on research to save lives, as we do with cancer?
The sad truth is our culture champions, promotes and celebrates abortion.
The abortion law in Nigeria states that abortion is illegal unless done to save the life of the mother. Otherwise, the laws of Nigeria criminalize abortion with a steep penalty for both the woman and the personnel performing the abortion procedure. If caught, those who violate the law risk a 7-year (the patient) or a 14-year (the performer) jail term. Many Nigerian women seek unsafe abortion methods to avoid criminal and social penalties, leading to abortion-related complications and increasing mortality and morbidity rates in the country. According to research done by the Guttmacher institute, an estimated 456,000 unsafe abortions are done in Nigeria every year. In a joint study carried out by the society of gynecologists and obstetricians of Nigeria and Nigeria’s ministry of health, the number of women who engage in unsafe abortion was estimated at 20,000 each year.
By 1982, 80% of all pregnancies in girls under 20 in Britain were out of wedlock, and about half of them procured induced abortion.
It is evident that promiscuity and the sexual revolution constitute the major cause of unwanted pregnancies that result in induced legal and illegal abortions. The latter are fraught with serious and sometimes fatal complications. In the USA, the rate of pregnancy is very high. Time magazine (December 9, 1985) gave a figure of 30,000 pregnancies for those under 15. This figure jumped to 1,200,000 (also confirmed by the medical journal, pediatrics) by age 17. By age 20, there are two million pregnancies outside wedlock, a million of which result in abortion annually.
Induced abortion is illegal in Nigeria, except for a few medicolegal reasons. The medical indications for an abortion are broadened to include not only physical ailments, but also supposed psychological disturbances that may result from the continuation of pregnancy. Similarly, if the continuation of pregnancy will somehow affect any member of the family, then abortion is resorted to (the British law of 1967 regarding abortion).
HOW TO DEAL WITH AN UNPLANNED PREGNANCY
An unexpected pregnancy can be a difficult event to face. You might feel nervous, afraid, or overwhelmed, especially if you aren’t sure how you’re going to handle the situation. You may have already started to think over your options.
When you are faced with an unexpected pregnancy in a country where legal abortion is prohibited, the only safe, effective way is to carry on with the pregnancy. Abortion isn’t right for everyone.
All of your other options involve continuing the pregnancy, and below, learn more about these options and their pros and cons. When considering your choice, keep in mind there’s no wrong answer — the best choice is the one that works for you. The first option is adoption. Adoption means you go through with pregnancy and childbirth and then allow another family to raise the child. Adoption could be closed or open adoption, and there could be direct placement or you use an agency.
In a closed adoption, you have no contact with the child or their adoptive family once you give birth and place the child for adoption.
An open adoption allows you to keep in touch with the child’s adoptive family.
Like adoption, guardianship involves placing the child with another person or family and allowing them to raise the child. By choosing a guardian instead of an adoptive family, you keep some of your parental rights.
This option might be a good choice for you if you can’t raise a child right now but see your circumstances changing in a few years, or if you know you want to stay closely involved in your child’s life.
Guardianship may involve monthly child support payments, so it’s important to consider your financial situation as well.
UNSAFE ABORTION: A PREVENTABLE DANGER
Unsafe abortion is a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by people lacking the necessary skills, or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards, or both, as defined by the world health organization.
Unsafe abortion is one of the five leading causes of maternal mortality, and the only one that is preventable. Unsafe abortion is a significant contributor to maternal mortality worldwide. Over 29,000 women and girls die annually due to unsafe abortion. People resort to unsafe abortion due to a lack of safe options and unbearable pregnancies. Legal limitations, moral judgment, and stigma can inhibit access to safe abortion care.
Unsafe abortion remains one of the five leading causes of maternal mortality, despite the fact that it is mostly preventable. In recent decades, the world has made significant progress in reducing many causes of maternal deaths; severe bleeding, severe infection, blood pressure disorders, and obstructed labor, yet there has been little improvement to diminish the dangers of unsafe abortion.
Abortion, whether safe or unsafe, is a common event worldwide: one in six unintended pregnancies ends in abortion, and one in three of all pregnancies, including planned pregnancies, ends in an abortion. Forty-five percent of all abortions globally are deemed unsafe.7 million women and girls are injured or disabled due to unsafe abortions every year. 97% of all unsafe abortions occur in developing countries. 29,000women and girls die as a result of unsafe abortions every year. Unsafe abortion rates around the world
More than 29,000 people die each year due to unsafe abortion, the majority in developing countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. When a woman or girl is determined to end her pregnancy she will do so, regardless of the safety and legality of the procedure. Where safe abortion care is not available, she will often risk her life with an unsafe abortion because the prospect of continuing the pregnancy is deemed unbearable.
Meanwhile, the scale of post-abortion complications is enormous, with an estimated seven million women and girls hospitalized every year. Some will be permanently disabled, and some will never be able to carry a child again. Yet we will never know the full extent of the problem, because there are many women and girls who cannot get access to medical care.
Unsafe abortion is a medical crisis.
In 2022, Medcens San Frances staff treated over 25,000 women and girls for abortion-related concerns and complications, many of which resulted from unsafe attempts to terminate pregnancy.
The woman or girl may have consulted an unskilled provider, or attempted the abortion herself. The history of unsafe abortion is marked by dangerous abortion methods—including the use of sharp sticks inserted through the vagina and cervix into the uterus; ingestion of toxic substances such as bleach; herbal preparations inserted into the vagina; infliction of trauma, such as hitting the abdomen or falling. Many of these unsafe abortion methods are not even effective in terminating the pregnancy, but can leave lasting damage.
For women who use these unsafe methods, the life-threatening consequences include severe hemorrhage, sepsis (severe general infection), poisoning, uterine perforation, or damage to other internal organs. A woman may require urgent hospital care for a blood transfusion, major reparative surgery, or a hysterectomy—the complete, and irreversible, removal of the uterus.
Some women are able to access somewhat safer methods like medication on the black market, but they may still suffer complications due to poor drug quality, incorrect dosing, inadequate information, or a combination of these factors.
WHAT’S BEHIND THE PROBLEMS?
The reasons behind the high rate of unintended pregnancy can be organized into three broad categories. First, many young women and men lack sufficient motivation to avoid becoming pregnant until they are ready to do so. This fact is partially the result of changes in cultural norms over time: attitudinal data show that there is now substantially less stigma surrounding premarital sex and out-of-wedlock childbearing than was the case a few decades ago. Motivation to avoid pregnancy is also reduced by the pervasive sense among young women in many low-income communities that there are few attractive alternatives to motherhood available to them. Qualitative studies have found that such women often believe their life prospects to be so limited that they anticipate facing few significant economic or social consequences as a result of becoming pregnant before they are married. Strategies that prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place. Examples are a supportive family environment, comprehensive sexuality education, contraception, and prevention and detection of sexual and gender-based violence. Early pregnancy diagnosis and counselling on pregnancy, options for continuing the pregnancy. Prevention of adverse events associated with unintended pregnancy, for example, treatment of incomplete abortion; access to services for psychosocial trauma; and services for antenatal care and maternity services to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality.
THE ROLE OF WISDOM CLASS SOCIAL SUPPORT GROUP
A woman may hope to be pregnant one day in the future, but not necessarily right now. MSF’s experience in countries such as Colombia, Greece, Mozambique, and South Africa, to name just a few, has confirmed the diversity of woman and girls facing an unwanted pregnancy.
Some of these women and girls used contraception that failed or ran out due to interrupted supply. Some became pregnant due to sexual violence or coercion. Others faced financial and emotional hardship, with and without partners or family support. Some were caught up in a humanitarian crisis or forced from their homes, struggling just to survive.
There can be as much shame and stigma surrounding the reasons behind an unwanted pregnancy as the concept of abortion itself. This means that many women and girls are left to face difficult questions alone. Where can I go for help? What are my options? What will it cost? Will it be painful? What if I can never have children again? What will this mean for me and my family if people find out?
Most women have already thought about their options and made the decision before seeking care. Some women may ask for more information before deciding whether to have an abortion. Our role as a social support group is to listen and provide the appropriate level of support and information to carry on with the pregnancy, nevertheless, respecting her decision without judging or influencing her, but we will never support an abortion except for a medicolegal concern.
Consultation with our trained professional also ensures that the woman understands the risks and benefits of an abortion, knows what she will experience during the process, and has the opportunity to ask questions.
Part of our role is to raise advocacy for programmes that will lead to reduction of unplanned pregnancies and reduction of discrimination of unplanned pregnancies, improve support for unplanned pregnancies, sustain the criminalization of abortion with an improved implementation of abortion laws and reduce access to abortion drugs. Policy makers should therefore begin to look ways to improving existing legislations in these regards.
REDUCTION OF UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES
Pregnancy is a happy, anticipated event for many but unfortunately for others, this is not the case. In some cases, an unplanned pregnancy can cause all manner of issues, from not knowing how you will support the child to even a break up of a relationship. The best option to prevent the unknown wound have been to use contraception, but I don’t recommend this for young girls who don’t have any child at all. Also, with many varieties of birth control, you need to know which are safe or dangerous to your health.
PRACTICE ABSTINENCE.
The only sure way to avoid unwanted pregnancy is by practicing abstinence — that is, not engaging in sexual intercourse at all. It is also argued that abstinence-only education can do more harm than good. Those who are taught only to avoid sex are often not taught the methods of preventing unplanned pregnancy when they do engage in sex, therefore, they usually are more likely to experience an unwanted pregnancy. This is validly not true if teenagers are taught and encouraged to uphold the sanctity of abstinence.
While abstinence can be a valid method of unplanned pregnancy prevention, it’s important that those considering having sex are also aware of the other two methods available to them. Abstinence-only sex education programs are also designed to discourage teens from having risky sex. The bulk of the high-quality research literature on these programs suggests that they have little effect on the behavior of the individuals who participate in them. A partial exception to this rule can be found in a recent study conducted by John Jemmott, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and his colleagues. This study—which used random assignment to evaluate an abstinence-only intervention implemented in an unnamed northeastern city—found that the intervention substantially reduced the frequency of sexual initiation among program participants.
TAKING SEX EDUCATION MORE SERIOUSLY
To entrench abstinence and make it more effective, sex education should be taking more seriously very early in life, abstinence with early sex education is the safest method for preventing unwanted pregnancy and the most effective if done correctly. Sex education should start at home. A culture that promotes open communication can be the best way for kids to learn about sexuality in all its facets. Parents should be willing to answer any question their child has without making them feel ashamed or embarrassed. Sex education programs typically teach students about various topics such as reproduction, sexually transmitted infections, birth control, puberty, and healthy relationships.
Unplanned pregnancies can have severe consequences for the health of both mother and child as well as the relationship between family members.
Pre-marital sexual intercourse is more accepted than ever in the United States and the trend is similar in Nigeria. We must develop options to reverse this trend. A survey released in 2002 indicates that by age 20, 77 percent of Americans have had sex (whether marital or pre-marital) and, by age 44, 95 percent of Americans have had premarital sex. Attitudes toward sex outside marriage have become lax.
The vast majority of unplanned pregnancies occur because of one reason: the improper use or lack of contraceptives. Therefore, there is only one effective way to prevent an unplanned pregnancy, and it’s critical that anyone considering having sex understand the precautions involved before diving in.
Of the annual 121 million pregnancies worldwide in 2015–2019, an estimated 48% were unintended. Of these, 61% ended in abortion. People living in poverty, adolescents and other vulnerable groups are at higher risk of unintended pregnancies and death by unsafe abortions and pregnancy complications. More than 65% of women with an unintended pregnancy in low- and middle-income countries do not use any contraception or use ineffective traditional methods. Health concerns, side-effects and incorrect use are the most frequent reasons women do not use or stop using contraceptives. Frontline health workers are critical for providing effective counselling about family planning and to support correct usage of contraceptives. It must also be noted that the use of condom has left untoward side effects like recurrent infections and vaginal irritation leading to recurrent vaginal discharges. The promotion of condom use has further reduced young peoples will-power, the power to say no to premarital sex.
REDUCING DISCRIMATION AGAINST UNPLANNED PREGNANACIES
Young women’s behavior and decision-making on reproductive health may be significantly influenced by social norms and stigma. Research has yet to describe the presence and manifestations of social norms and stigmas around unintended pregnancy, parenting, adoption and abortion from the perspective of this population. Relatedly, stigma is defined as social disgrace or disapproval, which functions as an informal control mechanism for those who do not adhere to socially defined norms.
That abortion is criminalized in most countries is a fact, but why no efforts are being made in the positive direction to support girls with unplanned pregnancies is a source of concern. Also, discrimination against unplanned pregnancies need to be reduced.
SUPPORT FOR UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES
Families, traditional and religious institutions should give more room to support unplanned pregnancies, rather than total ostracization of young girls for getting pregnant out of wedlock. Mother and child care institutions should be set up to encourage young girls who fail to get appropriate support from family and friends.
CRIMINALISATION OF ABORTION
The criminalization of abortion is one of several strategies endorsed by the anti-abortion movement and adopted in states attempting to enforce abortion bans and defend them against circumvention by medication abortion. It is a tool for preventing abortions from ever occurring and should be fully reinforced and implemented.
REDUCTION TO ACESSS TO ABORTION MEDICATION
A medication abortion was approved by the FDA for terminating a pregnancy of up 10 weeks, accounted for 63% of abortions in the United States but currently faces a challenge before the US supreme court. The goal of the lawsuit is to remove the medication abortion from the U.S. market, a result that would drastically reduce access to medication abortion for all women in the United States, regardless of the state in which they live. The way medication abortion is disrupting abortion bans; the lack of prosecution of women and men who self-manage abortions with medication; the lack of restriction to access abortion medications, and the deployment of modern surveillance technologies enable law enforcement investigations of abortion crimes should top the list of modern legislations to enforce abortion laws.
Do not commit abortion, instead, call the purpose doctor on 07032461384
