five (four votes)
Healthcare Prof:
4.five (2 votes)
Officials in the Mozambican government are considering legalizing abortion in an effort to reduce maternal deaths resulting from illegal, unsafe abortions, IRIN News reports. In accordance with the Ministry of Well being, unsafe abortion may be the third-leading cause of death among pregnant women in the country, which has one of the highest maternal death rates worldwide. More than 40% of serious pregnancy complications treated at the central hospital in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, are the result of illegal abortions, and unsafe abortions accounted for 11% of maternal deaths at the hospital during the 1990s.
Abortion is banned in the country except if the life or well being of the pregnant woman is in danger. Physicians in some urban areas during Mozambique’s civil war routinely performed abortions if the pregnancy was the result of rape. Some urban physicians still perform the procedure in cases of rape; however, the $25 fee is too high for most Mozambicans. In accordance with IRIN News, if the ban is lifted, safe abortions would be more widely available to low-income women and foreign donors would be able to fund the procedure.
“Changing the law and removing the stigma and taboo that surround abortion also allows ladies to openly seek and receive safe services and for their communities to offer the support they need for this,” Eunice Brookman-Amissah, vice president for the reproductive rights group Ipas in Africa, said. Based on Ipas, abortion-related deaths decreased by 91% in South Africa after it lifted restrictions on abortion 10 years ago.
There has been little public debate in Mozambique on whether to change the law, IRIN News reports. Catholic leaders in the country recently distributed a pastoral note that stated although the Roman Catholic Church wants to reduce maternal deaths and promote women’s rights, abortion “is not the solution.” Based on the World Health Organization, 68,000 women worldwide die from unsafe abortions annually (IRIN News, 5/29).
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