A survey by United States (US) based Guttmacher Institute and Ipas Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that focuses on female reproductive rights, showed that, in spite of Nigeria’s highly restrictive abortion law, the estimated abortion rate was 33abortions per 1, 000 women aged 15-49 in 2012 and it has increased in 2015.The report said not less than 1. 2 million induced abortions take place in various parts of Nigeria annually. The report, presented in Abuja, showed that the South-South region is in the lead, while the South West is at the bottom of the ladder. North East is in the second position.
“The proportion of abortions is lowest in South West, at 11 per cent, and highest in the South-South at 17 per cent, and 16 per cent in the North East,” the report said. A consultant lecturer at the department of gynaecology at the University of Ibadan, Dr. Olutosin Owolude, speaking on abortion law and the consequences at a media training workshop on women reproductive health and rights, held in Abuja, explained that the study went through series of checks before its publication in 2015. He said increased rates of abortions, done mostly through unsafe methods, have further heightened maternal mortality in the country.“As we all know, Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, presently put at 560 per 1000 births,” he said.
According to him, the number of induced abortions nationwide doubled from a previous report in 1996, which gave the number as 610, 000 nationwide. Attributing the reason for the increase to poor economic conditions, he said this had forced people to desire smaller families. In his paper titled: ‘Health System Response to Maternal Mortality from Unsafe Abortion’, at the workshop, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecology at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Dr Akaba Godwin, said there is need for harm reduction strategy for women.“The goal of equality in health system is being eroded in Nigeria and this has contributed to high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria,” Godwin stated. “In Nigeria, unsafe abortion constitutes at least 13 percent of the maternal mortality.“Of the women who survive unsafe abortion, many suffer acute and short-term complications including; haemorrhage, sepsis, peritonitis, trauma to various organs as well as long-term sequelae like infertility, increased risk of ectopic pregnancy and spontaneous abortions.”Continuing,he said, “A review of maternal deaths in a tertiary institution in Nigeria’s federal capital showed that unsafe abortion accounted for as many as 15.3percent of all maternal death. Case fatality rate of 15.7 percent was reported among parents with abortion complication in Abakaliki, South East Nigeria.
Unsafe abortion was responsible for 34.2 percent of all gynaecology deaths”. Hauwa Shekarau, Acting Country Director of Ipas Nigeria, insisted that the life of a woman is as important as that of a man. Shekarau, who is also the Chairman, Federation of Women Lawyers in Abuja, said a step to improve female reproductive health in Nigeria starts with the review of laws directly and indirectly related to maternal issue .
According to her, it had become imperative for the Federal Government to ensure strong abortion law reform to hurt the increasing rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria. The Ipas boss explained that instead of halt law on abortion to reduce maternal mortality, it encouraged unsafe abortion by quack doctors, stressing the need for the law to be adjusted to empower women to decide on unwanted pregnancy.“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,” she stated.
On the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act 2015, she described it as comprehensive law, but VAPP could only be implemented in the Federal Capital Territory.“Shekarau maintained that for the VAPP Act to achieve it desire goal, the law must be domesticated by all the 36 states of the federation.“She called for a strong political will to enforce all laws created to improve women’s sexual reproductive health in the country. A former Country Director of Ipas, Dr Ejike Oji, called on government at all levels to stop treating the symptoms but focusing on the real issue by making woman to have access to safe abortion through review of the law. He also advocated creation of family planning programs as well as increasing sex education as some of ways to salvage the situation, adding that promoting use of contraceptive products would also be helpful.
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