*Deadly Death toll of botched abortions*

BBC - Unsafe abortions in the developing world kill 68,000 women a year,
research suggests.

They also lead to at least five million other people going to hospital
for infection and other complications, the Lancet study estimates.

A team from New York's Guttmacher Institute made their estimate after
analysing data from 13 countries.

They suggested around 19 million unsafe abortions take place around the
world each year.

The evidence shows that the health burden of unsafe abortion is large-Dr
Susheela Singh

That tally includes back-street pregnancy terminations as well as legal
ones.

The researchers, funded by the pro-abortion Hewlett Foundation, said by
comparison, in developed countries complications from abortion
procedures or people going to hospital were rare.

Egypt, Nigeria, Uganda, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru were
examined. Some data for Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa was
also available.

The highest annual rate of hospital admissions was in Uganda, with 16.4
per 1,000 women. The lowest rate was in Bangladesh, with 2.8 per 1,000
women.

On average, the annual rate of hospital admissions was 5·7 per 1,000
women in all developing regions, excluding China.

Call for legalisation

Lead researcher Dr Susheela Singh said: "The evidence shows that the
health burden of unsafe abortion is large.

The burden of the study is clearly to promote the killing of more unborn
babies in poorer countries, regardless of the fact that women do not
want abortions-Paul Tully-Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

"The most effective way of eliminating this highly preventable cause of
maternal illness and death, would be to make safe and legal abortion
services available and accessible.

"A second, more immediately achievable, goal is to prevent unintended
pregnancies in the first place through improved contraception use."

Also writing in The Lancet, Marge Berer, editor of the journal
Reproductive Health Matters, said the study painted a grim picture.

"The burden of injury and hospital admission are all the worse for being
almost always avoidable.

"When legal restrictions on abortion are reduced, the rate of deaths and
morbidity decreases greatly."

Any procedure to terminate an unintended pregnancy done by individuals
lacking the necessary skills and/or in an environment that does not meet
basic medical standards is deemed unsafe by the World Health Organization.

Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of
Unborn Children, said Dr Singh's findings were guesses based on estimates.

"The burden of the study is clearly to promote the killing of more
unborn babies in poorer countries, regardless of the fact that women do
not want abortions," he said.

He also took issue with the notion liberalisation of abortion laws led
to a cut in death and disability among pregnant women.

"This is contradicted by hard data from Poland, which imposed new legal
restrictions on abortion in the mid 1990s and consequently showed
improved maternal and infant health."