Abortion rates in Nigeria, where the procedure is mostly banned, are significantly higher than in the United States, according to a study of the nation’s abortion rate. The study found that 1.25 million abortions take place each year in Nigeria—or about 33 per 1,000 women. Among some groups the rate is as high as 55 per 1,000. Abortion is banned in Nigeria, except to save the woman’s life.
The study, which was published in 2015, gained renewed media attention thanks to a Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative roundtable dedicated to addressing reproductive health.
Does Banning Abortion Increase its Prevalence?
The study gathered 2012 data from a nationally representative sample of 772 Nigerian health facilities. It also included interviews with 194 health professionals. Using this data, including data on women who sought care for abortion complications, researchers were able to estimate the rate of both legal and illegal abortions.
Researchers found an unintended pregnancy rate of 59 per 1,000, more than half of which ended in abortion. More than 200,000 women (about 16%) were treated for complications of unsafe abortion. The study estimates that about 3,000 women died in the 1990s each year from unsafe abortion.
When abortion is banned, women often have poor access to other reproductive health services. Research consistently shows a correlation between banning abortion and an increase in the overall abortion rate. Across Latin America, where abortion is mostly banned, the abortion rate is 44 per 1,000 women.
When abortion is legal, complications remain low.
The U.S. abortion-related death rate consistently remains lower than 10 per year. In 2013, just four women died from abortion-related complications.
The U.S. abortion rate is 14 per 1,000 women. The abortion rate fell to its all-time low under President Obama. It’s too early in the Trump presidency to assess abortion trends.
State lawmakers have steadily chipped away at abortion rights in states across the U.S. States that restrict abortion also tend to provide few reproductive health resources. The result is usually a higher rate of unwanted pregnancies.
Mississippi abortion clinics now face some of the toughest barriers to abortion in the nation. More than half of Mississippi high schoolers are sexually active, and 39% report not using a condom the last time they had sex. The state has the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the nation.
How Abortion Regulations Kill Women
Banning abortion doesn’t end the procedure. It only drives it underground. Anti-choice lawmakers know this, and the scientific data proves it. In 1960 in California alone, 27 women died of unsafe abortions. In 1976, after abortion was legal, no women died of abortion. Before Roe, unsafe abortion accounted for up to a fifth of maternal deaths. In 1930, it was the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that at least 8% of maternal deaths worldwide are due to unsafe abortion. At least 22,000 women die each year from unsafe abortion. The actual figure may be substantially higher due to underreporting.
If Republicans have their way, women will die when they seek illegal abortions. That’s exactly what they want. No penalty is too great, and anti-choice politics have never been about preserving life.