The World Health Organization defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating a pregnancy that is performed by an individual lacking the necessary skills, or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both. Unsafe abortion is common in places where abortion is illegal. Every year almost 44,000 abortions occur globally and nearly half of them are unsafe whereby almost all unsafe abortions (98 percent) are happening in developing Countries.
In Countries where abortion remains unsafe, it is a leading cause of maternal mortality. According to the WHO unsafe abortions contribute to 13% of all maternal mortality globally and are direct cause of maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. When comparing women with their counterpart men in Sexual and Reproductive Health, there is no such a high cause of mortality in men. This difference shows the existent gender inequality in most developing Countries.
In these settings women are denied access to information, education on safe sex, contraception and are not offered an informed consent on their fertility choices. Gender based violence is one of the contributing factor to this inequality that women suffer and this affect their potential development and enjoyment of their right to health including their right to Sexual and Reproductive Health. These universal rights legitimate women to choose whether to conceive or when to form a family. This should have not been difficult to achieve in a World with so much technologies of modern effective contraceptive methods. And the issue of unsafe abortion and its complications could be averted.
Conversely this is not the case in the context where legal structures should determine the fate of those who should make decisions for their own lives. The legalization or non-legalization of termination of pregnancy has been a battle ground for Centuries in many Countries across the Globe with different variations in the trends of abortion legal frameworks. In this essay, I will discuss why unsafe abortion is perceived as neglected globally and evaluate the extent to which human rights-based approach can be useful to mitigate this public health problem and conclude with my personal view on this issue.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Why and how unsafe abortion is neglected
- Rights-based approach to mitigate unsafe abortion
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This essay aims to discuss why unsafe abortion is neglected globally and evaluate the extent to which human rights-based approaches can be used to mitigate this public health problem.
- The prevalence and impact of unsafe abortion globally
- The factors contributing to the neglect of unsafe abortion
- The potential of human rights-based approaches to mitigate unsafe abortion
- The legal and ethical considerations surrounding abortion
- The importance of access to safe abortion services
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: This chapter defines unsafe abortion and highlights the global prevalence of this practice, emphasizing its impact on maternal mortality rates, particularly in developing countries. The chapter also discusses the gender inequality that contributes to unsafe abortion by limiting women's access to information, education, and reproductive health services.
- Why and how unsafe abortion is neglected: This chapter explores the reasons why unsafe abortion is a neglected issue, including the stigma and sensitivity surrounding abortion, the difficulty in obtaining accurate data due to underreporting, and the disparities in access to safe abortion services between developed and developing countries. The chapter also discusses international efforts to address unsafe abortion, including the International Conference on Population and Development and the Millennium Development Goals.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
Unsafe abortion, maternal mortality, human rights, gender inequality, reproductive health, access to services, legal frameworks, international standards, global health.
- Quote paper
- Dr Leonard Kabongo (Author), 2015, Safe Abortion. Way forwards on one of the neglected Sexual and Reproductive Health issue, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/305674
