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Monday, June 26, 2006
1M abortions in RP: study
By Jujemay G. Awit
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
ONE-THIRD of all pregnancies in the Philippines end up in abortion. That translates to a million abortions every year, according to a study of the University of the Philippines (UP)-Population Institute.
The study reports two types of abortion: induced and miscarriage. The country has an equal amount of both.
The study reports that the country has an equal amount of both.
An estimated 473,400 individual abortions were indirectly collated from hospital records.
Dr. Josefina Cabigon a professor of the UP-Population Institute, College of Sciences and Philosophy, who presented the study, recognized that the actual number is hard to determine since abortion is illegal in the country.
Estimation
“Unreported abortions must be estimated indirectly from hospital records,” Cabigon said.
In the study, UP collated 105,000 women hospitalized for complications due to “reported miscarriage.” An estimated 26,100 miscarriages were subtracted to the number.
The remaining 78,900 cases of complications were then multiplied to six, the estimated number of women who had induced abortions but did not obtain hospital treatment because there were no complications.
The estimates were brought on by nongovernment organizations, which conducted qualitative studies among women who have had abortion.
The number gives a total of 473,400 estimated induced abortions in the Philippines in 2000, an increase from the 1994 record of only 400,515.
Upward trend
The record in the Visayas shows a consistent increase with 34,475 in 1994 to 56,022 in 2000. Central Visayas owns 30,810 of these incidents, the most among the three Visayas regions.
The study reported that the increase in abortion is directly related to the low contraceptive use and high unmet need for contraception.
Only 33 percent of women in the country used contraception in 2003. Central Visayas, though, recorded a higher rate of 36 percent.
Major cause
In the same year, unmet need or the circumstance wherein married women did not want any more children, or wanted to wait before their next birth, but were not using a method of family planning, was recorded at 43 percent in the Philippines and 44 percent in Central Visayas.
In effect, the study concluded that “contraceptive non-use” is the major cause for unintended pregnancy resulting to unsafe induced abortion.
The major reason for abortion, noted by a community-based study quoted in the UP report, is that it’s too expensive to raise a child nowadays, with 72.4 percent of women surveyed saying so.
Fifty-seven percent of that number also stated that it was too soon to have a baby after their last pregnancy.
And while the Catholic Church has strongly opposed abortion practices, the same community-based survey revealed that 87 percent of the women who have had an abortion are Catholics.
Effect on health
In addition, abortions have strong implications on a woman’s health, said Cabigon.
“More than a quarter of women go to great lengths to obtain abortions—drinking herbs, massages from hilot,” she reported.
Eight in 10 women who succeeded in ending their pregnancy suffered health complications, 46 percent of which were severe, while 35 percent suffered moderate complications.
Through the study, Cabigon recommended that increasing the use of effective contraceptives can “prevent unintended pregnancies and abortion and reduce grave health consequences and costs of unsafe abortion.”
“This involves increasing knowledge about the access to modern methods, especially for poor and rural women,” she said.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 26, 2006 issue)
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