According to the report which focused on female reproductive rights, the south-south has the highest incidences of abortion in Nigeria, the Southwest has the least. It added that the proportion of abortions in the southwest stands at 11%, while in the south-south where it is highest, the rate is 17%, closely followed by the northeast with 16%.
In its findings, the report revealed that at least 1. 2m induced abortions take place in various parts of Nigeria every year. Professor Olutosin Owolude, a consultant lecturer are the Department of Gynaecology at the University of Ibadan, who presented the report in Abuja yesterday, said increased rates of abortions, done mostly through unsafe methods, have further heightened maternal mortality in the country.
Professor Owolude said: “As we all know, Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, presently put at 560 per 1000 births. This study, which was conducted in 2012, went through series of checks before its publication in 2015.
“These involve scientific methods that you have to rigorously follow. It takes a long time to do this kind of study and to make sure that we do our analyses in a way that we are very confident of the findings."
He added that the number of induced abortions nationwide doubled from a previous report in 1996, which gave the figure as 610,000. Professor Owolude associated the reason for the increase to poor economic conditions, which he said has led to an increase in the desire for smaller families.
Furthermore, Professor Owolude said that Nigeria’s growing population was another notable factor. He pointed out that the report also showed that about 40% of women who engage in induced abortions suffer complications serious enough to require treatment.
Calling on the government to salvage the situation by creating family planning programmes, Professor Owolude also asked for an increase in the availability of sex education. He said the government should provide equipment and manpower to meet the health needs of women suffering from complications resulting from abortion, as well as introduce programmes focusing on improved use of contraceptive products.
Ipas country lead and senior advisor, Hauwa Shekarau, said the programme was aimed at exposing the challenges of women and highlighting their reproductive rights, stressing that the life of one woman is as important as that of every woman. She called on the Nigerian government and people to face the challenges posed by incidences of abortion in order to avoid an increase in mortality rates in the country.
“Because of the restrictive nature of the law regarding abortion in Nigeria, many women suffer, due to fear for stigmatization, among others. Yet every day the numbers of abortion continue to rise,” Ms Shekarau, added.
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