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Healthcare Prof:
About 1.2 million girls in Brazil have been hospitalized in the last five years with infections, vaginal bleeding as well as other complications resulting from illegal abortions, based on a report released on Wednesday by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Reuters reports.
The report, based on data from Brazil’s Ministry of Well being, found that about one million abortions are conducted in the country annually, such as illegal abortions and miscarriages. About 230,000 women seek treatment from the country’s well being system annually for abortion-related complications, which includes hemorrhaging and perforation with the vaginal wall and uterus. The report also found that about five girls die from complications that arise from unsafe procedures for every 100,000 live births.
Maria Jose Araujo, a member with the panel of well being experts that presented the report, stated the number of illegal abortions among young ladies is increasing. Based on the report, about 3,000 girls ages 10 to 14 had been hospitalized for complications resulting from abortions in 2005 and more than 46,000 girls ages 15 to 19 sought treatment. Araujo added that black, indigenous and lower-income ladies disproportionately seek abortions in Brazil.
“Legal prohibition does not eliminate the practice of abortion, everybody knows this,” Carmen Barroso, director of IPPF’s Western Hemisphere Region, said, adding that IPPF is in favor of developing a program to offer pregnant girls information and counseling even if abortion remains illegal in the country.
Brazilian Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao on Monday at a ceremony for a new family planning program renewed his promise to initiate a debate on abortion. “The government will get the issue rolling so girls can decide,” Temporao said (Welsh, Reuters, 5/30).
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