70,000 women a year die from illegal, unsafe abortions

70,000 a year die from illegal abortions

The Guttmacher Institute recently published a study of worldwide abortions and tried especially to tally as many illegal abortions as possible. Admittedly impossible to measure, these procedures claim tens of thousands of lives every year. While the number 70,000 is staggeringly high, I feel certain that this figure sadly could not represent all deaths, as there is no way all “back alley” abortions could be accounted for in this statistic due to the harsh punishments to those caught performing or receiving them.

According to the study, 41.6 million terminations were performed worldwide in 2003, and 19.7 million were “unsafe and clandestine”. The majority of these were performed in countries with restrictive abortion laws. These studies are always shocking for people on both sides of the abortion debate. I imagine anti-choicers’ jaws dropping at the staggeringly high number. Well, we’ve found some common ground. My jaw dropped too, but for different reasons.

Illegal abortions are a problem for everyone. They are a problem especially for the women who die or are maimed or sterilized as a result. They are part of the greater problem of global maternal health. They are a problem for all of us. To put the number of deaths in context, approximately 58,000 US soldiers died in service during the Vietnam War. In New York City, once the “murder capital” of the US, 516 homicides were committed in 2008. It is estimated that 100,000 Iraqis have died since the war in Iraq began six years ago.
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What will it take for deaths from illegal abortions to become an important story? Why was this story posted in a section of the newspaper usually reserved for Op Eds about the newest shoe trend? Could it possibly, incredulously be because 100% of those who died were women?

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http://www.genderacrossborders.com/2009/10/19/70000-a-year-die-from-illegal-abortions/