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Safe abortion a far cry
KATHMANDU, AUG 06 -
Despite good progress and availability of legal and safe abortion services, thousands of rural women still resort to illegal and unsafe abortion methods due to lack of access, awareness and monitoring of the service providers, said experts.
Talking to the Post, Country Director of IPAS, an INGO working for women’s reproductive rights, Dr. Indira Basnet underscored the need for enhancing women’s access to modern contraceptives, family
planning and safe abortion services.
She also stressed the need for raising awareness, especially among rural women, about the availability of safe and legal abortion services as well as legal provisions. Strict monitoring of the persons and institutions that provide illegal and unsafe abortion services is important for deterring unlawful practices, said Basnet. Since abortion was legalised in the country in 2002, more than 300,000 women have opted for it in around 300 centres, according to IPAS data.
Abortion — upon request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy — was legalised
in September 2002 through an amendment to Nepal
Civil Code. If the mother’s life is in danger or in cases of
rape and incest, pregnancy
up to 18 weeks can be
terminated.
The government started providing Comprehensive Abortion Care services from March 2004. Since then some 300,000 women have sought abortion services from 260 government certified health facilities. Only one death among this number has been recorded in Damak, according to IPAS. The government recently scaled up medical abortion services across the country.
“Due to lack of privacy and time constraints of authorised service providers, many women end up with unskilled health practitioners and in unauthorised clinics,” said Dr. Anjana Karki, obstetrician and gynaecologist at B&B Hospital, Lalitpur.
Meanwhile, a recent government survey on availability and utilisation of surgical abortion services at the Maternity Hospital (the first government-run hospital to provide abortion service) and MSI clinic at Chucchepati in Kathmandu showed that abortion services were sought and obtained mostly by married women, who already have delivered the desired number of children.
Posted on: 2010-08-07 06:49
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