More than 158,000 women were provided safe abortion services after the legalisation of abortion in 2002 under safe practices, according to a government data.
There are many who are conscious about the legal provision and the importance of safe abortion, still there are many more who go to unauthorised clinics and practitioners because of shame and to keep it secret, said Sharad Aryal, section manager at the valley branch office of Family Planning Association, Nepal.
There are only 165 authorised safe abortion places in 71 districts and 411 doctors and 299 assistants have been given comprehensive training on abortion methods. �There are thousands of private clinics who carry out abortion, but they are illegal," he added. Aryal further said 50 per cent women, who come to Maternity Hospital for infections and complications after abortion, are there due to unsafe abortion. He said that education really matters if safe abortion practice is to reach to the people.
He said 92 per cent of those who undergo abortion adopt family planning methods afterwards. According to data of the Kathmandu Valley branch of FPAN, 65 per cent of women prefer Dipo after abortion because of cost and even common people can easily afford it.
Age-wise, 70 per cent of women who have safe abortion are of 20 - 25 years age group. �Out of 503 who came to the Valley branch in 2007, three to four per cent were adolescent," Aryal said. Nineteen women from 15 to 19 years were registered for safe abortion in 2004/5 and that the number decreased to 15 in 2006.
As per the study in the clinic, many women, who are married and already have children are found to terminate pregnancy because that is unwanted. There are even data of a few women who already have six or seven children coming for abortion. Among the women 68 per cent were literate and 32 per cent were illiterate.
In 2004/05, eight unmarried girl came for safe abortion and the number was seven in 2006.
Regarding accompanying the women, he said women are mainly brought by husband, friends, sisters, brothers and volunteers and a few of them come alone, Aryal said.
He said that more than 60 per cent women face the risk of reproductive track infection after abortion and it is mainly because of lack of partner treatment in the country. This leads to the partner suffering from infections if one of the partners suffer from any kind of sexually transmitted diseases. �There is little awareness that both the partners should undergo treatment if one of the partners suffers from STDs or other such infections," he added.
The Strategy Plan of FPAN 2005 to 2009 aims at increasing access to gender sensitive Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC) services and education by lobbying and advocating for the universal rights of women to live healthy and safe lives thereby reducing socio-economic barriers in FPAN operational areas.
According to a study conducted by Crepa in 2006, 60 per cent of women - 40 per cent in urban and 20 per cent in rural areas - knew about safe abortion.
Despite abortion being legalised for five years, there still seem to be some controversy regarding abortion. A discussion conducted by Crepa among the Masters level students, found 50 per cent of them were against legalisation of abortion.
A client-exit interview at the valley branch office of FPAN, found 90 per cent of women were Hindus, five per cent Buddhists, three per cent Christians and two per cent of other religions. Among them 43 per cent used to live in urban areas, 40 per cent in the villages and 17 per cent were migrant people.
According to the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 2006 nearly one married women in every two (49 per cent) have been using one method of family planning and 44 per cent using a modern contraceptive method. Ninety-eight per cent of the people were aware about family planning methods, but many of them do not use them.
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