Nearly half of abortions take place in hazardous conditions

The WHO reveals that 45% of voluntary abortions taking place in the world are not done under the right conditions.

In the world, 55.7 million abortions were performed between 2010 and 2014, and 22.5 million abortions were not carried out with sufficient health and safety measures, according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in 'The Lancet'.

The authors of the study point out in their introduction the need to ensure safe access to abortion as allowed by law, especially in low-income countries, in addition to the need for a change of methods, since many of them are performed in a dangerous way and without guarantees of success.

Data collected between 2010 and 2014, assessed on a "safe", "less secure" and "less than safe" scale, reveal that 55% of abortions are considered safe. This means that they were performed by trained personnel and according to some method recommended by WHO (suction and recommended drugs).

Approximately 30.7% (17.1 million) of abortions are considered "less safe", since they are performed by trained personnel, but use methods such as curettage. Also included in this section are those that use safe means, such as misoprostol (a widely used drug) but without anyone competent to manage it and control any possible complications.

At the bottom of the scale ("the least safe") eight million pregnancy interruptions (14.4%) occur that are terribly reckless. They are performed by people who are not trained and use invasive techniques (insertions of foreign bodies) and use as traditional medicines or caustic substances.

In the countries with the greatest economic development, 87.5% of abortions are considered "safe", according to the report, although in Europe there is an exception in Eastern Europe, where 14.2% are unsafe compared to 6.5 % of Western Europe.

The highest proportion of safe abortions takes place in countries where laws are less restrictive, there is a good economic level and a health infrastructure developed, according to the authors of the study.

Thus, in Africa and South America, the proportion of safe abortions is one in four (25%), although in the first case the category "the least secure" is overwhelming. In Latin American countries it is the one of "less insurance" that has the highest percentage of incidence.