It is a known fact that abortion is only carried out in Nigeria when a woman’s life is at risk; still, abortions are popular amongst most Nigerians of childbearing age. Most clandestinely abortions are unsafe because they are done by unskilled health providers.
Research has it that unsafe abortion is a major contributor to Nigerians high levels of maternal death, sickness and disabilities. The use of contraceptives remains very low in the country, in 2013 only 16% of all women aged 15 to 58 used any form of contraceptive method. Nigeria records one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world, zero to no improvement has occurred over the years.
Most Nigerian women want like 4 to 5 children but end up having 7 to 8 children, fourteen percent of all women aged 15 to 48 have an unmet need for family planning, the majority are sexually active and would desire to space their births or stop childbearing but are still not using contraceptives. Among sexually active unmarried women 22% have an unmet need.
Back in 2012 about our fourth of Nigerians 9million pregnancies were unintended, more than half (56%) of these unintended pregnancies ended in an induced abortion, 32% ended up in unplanned birth and 12% in miscarriage.
Notwithstanding Nigerians strict abortion laws, an estimated 1.25million induced abortions occurred in 2012. The numbers doubled from an estimated 610,000 in 1996 because of both population growth and an increase in the rate of abortion.
Unsafe abortion places a serious burden on the nation’s health system as well on the health and well being of women and their families
