Unsafe abortion continues although abortion legally permitted: Study

Kathmandu / Feb 10: Despite legalization of abortion in Nepal since 2002, more pregnant women in Nepal still opt for unsafe abortion that’s again by unapproved or untrained service providers, a study shows.

A report containing the findings of the first-ever national study of the incident of abortion jointly conducted by Nepal’s Centre for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities (CREHPA) and the USA-based Guttmacher Institute shows that of around 323,000 opting for abortions in the country, only 42 per cent had availed the services by approved or trained providers.

Ministry of Health has issued permit to more than 12,000 health facilities for providing abortion services and post-abortion services.

The study was conducted among women of reproductive age (15-49) in total 27 districts from all regions in the country. A total of 386 health institutions were surveyed during the research, shared chief researcher Dr Mahesh Puri.

Furthermore, the report states that half of all pregnancies in the country during 2014 was found to be unintended. The proportion of unintended pregnancies varied considerably by region with Far-Western region recording lowest at 34 per cent and highest at 59 per cent at Central region.

It was also revealed that 31 per cent of all pregnancies and 62 per cent of unintended pregnancies ended in an abortion across the country in 2014. RSS