Abortion rising among married women, Society for Family Health claims

Abortion among married women is currently on the rise in Nigeria, the Society for Family Health (SFH), has said.Health workers meet Tinubu, suspend 12-day strike

Although SFH did not cite any survey or study to back its conclusion,  it attributed the development to the rise in inflation and love for their families.

The nonprofit, non-political, non-governmental organisation which intervenes in various health fields, added that many married women undertake to abort pregnancies without the knowledge of their husbands.US women stocking up abortion pills to avoid scarcity

SFH’s Country Social and Behaviour Change Coordinator, Delivering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC), Michael Titus, made these known in Minna, Niger State yesterday. The event was a dissemination meeting of Niger State Family Planning/DMPA-SC performance of the Delivering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC).

Titus said that married women abort because they want to minimise the negative economic impact of having additional children on their families.

His words: “Abortion among married women is something that is on the rise. For married women, it is obvious because our men are shying away from the fact that family planning uptake is something that is important and beneficial to them and their families.

“Look at the situation in the country, we have so many issues like inflation which is causing the purchasing power of each family to reduce, especially now that the cost of buying pampers and paying school fees are on the rise.

“Women love their families, they love their husbands, they don’t want the situation whereby the purchasing power of the family declines.

‘’So, you find women who go behind to do the abortion. They don’t want a situation whereby they get pregnant again as another child added to the number they have would be seen as burdensome on the family and that is why abortion among married women is  found be rising.”

Titus said that some family planning methods, including Subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) self-injectable contraception, are readily available for married women who desire to space their children.

According to him, 27,000 women in Niger  State embraced the self-injection method of birth control in the first quarter of this year while 194,700 women accepted the use of the Subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) self-injectable contraception in the past 33 months.

Source: TheNation