Unsafe abortion

Regardless of whether abortion is legal or illegal, safe or unsafe, some women will choose to have an abortion. The difference is that where abortion is illegal and unsafe, many of these women will be killed or left severely injured by the experience.

An estimated 20 million unsafe abortions occur each year, the vast majority of these in developing regions. Globally, one woman dies from an unsafe abortion every seven minutes. An additional five million suffer permanent or temporary disability. Almost all of these occur in the developing world. The consequences of unsafe abortion - death, serious injury, infertility and increased health care cost are largely borne by poor women. Reducing the incidence of unsafe abortion would result in an immediate and substantial reduction of maternal mortality and improve maternal health.

Lack of access to family planning services is a major contributory factor to unsafe abortion. The lowest abortion rate in the world is in for Western Europe (12 per 1,000 women aged 15–44), where contraceptive services and use are widespread and safe abortion is easily accessible and legal under broad grounds.