The figures of reproductive violence: 45% of abortions are performed in unsafe conditions

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A total of 121 million pregnancies are unintended. That means that Half of the pregnancies that occur in the world had not been wanted or planned by the women. 60% of all those pregnancies end in abortion, whether legal or illegal in the country, and the restrictions that are imposed do not prevent women from terminating the pregnancy, only that 45% of abortions are carried out in unsafe conditions in which the life of the woman is put at risk. That is the conclusion reached by the report ‘The State of the World Population 2022’ of the United Nations, a text that puts figures and faces to violence and reproductive rights of women in the world.

“This report is a wake-up call. The overwhelming number of unintended pregnancies represents a global failure to uphold the fundamental human rights of women and girls. For affected women, the most momentous reproductive decision of their lives—whether or not to get pregnant—is not an option at all. By putting the power to make this critical choice squarely in the hands of women and girls, societies can ensure that motherhood is an aspiration and not an inevitability,” said United Nations Population Fund Executive Director Natalia Kanem.

fear of side effects

As soon as the focus is on unintended pregnancies, we think of birth control through contraception. And, automatically, the minds of many Europeans and Westerners will think of the lack of access they have in developing countries to safe contraceptive methods such as condoms, pills, the IUD or the vaginal ring. Or in the lack of awareness in these countries about the use of contraceptives. However, the report highlights, as a very worrying fact, that this year lack of access and lack of awareness are no longer the main reasons why these methods are not used.

Nowadays, women do not use contraceptive methods mainly due to two factors: the fear of the side effects they may have and the myths created around them, or the opposition of third parties. This translates to “257 million women who want to avoid pregnancy do not use safe and modern contraceptive methods -like the well-known ‘reverse gear’- and, among them, 172 million do not use any method”, according to the UN. And, 26% of women do not take contraceptives for fear of side effects. And this happens, both in developing countries as well as in Western countries.

sexuality education

Some of the women consulted for this report, carried out in all United Nations countries, expressed fear of “gain weight, have acne, nausea, diarrhea, menstrual cramps, mood swings, blurred vision…“and a host of other possible side effects that occur, for example, when taking birth control pills. Others are afraid of certain myths such as that IUDs can move through the woman’s body, causing infertility, abortions, increased promiscuity, or cancer, among other completely false claims.

This could be combated with a weapon: sex education. “The absence of accurate information on sexual and reproductive health not only has serious consequences, but is also a violation of human rights. Education on sexuality and reproduction is a basic component of the right to healtheducation and non-discrimination, as articulated by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”, reads the report.

control over women’s bodies

However, there is another large percentage of women and adolescents who do not use contraception because, simply, someone controls this decision for them. For example, 23% of all women cannot refuse to have sex with their husbands and cannot negotiate the fact that the man wears a condom. So they are at the mercy of their partner’s decisions and can become pregnant at any time.

Sometimes this goes so far that what is known as reproductive control occurs, “a wide range of behaviors that prevent women from taking control of their bodies and their fertility”, for example emotional blackmail to have children, verbal and physical or threats so that no method is used. It is also reproductive control when couples sabotage contraceptives – for example when they puncture condoms – when they throw away contraceptive pills, hide them or take them away and, of course, this also includes when a man removes the condom in the middle of sexual intercourse without consent or knowledge.

Others do not do so because taking contraceptives to delay pregnancy, or directly choosing not to be mothers in their entire lives, may be unacceptable decisions for their families or their communities. In developing countries like India or Nigeria, where children are considered life insurance and a symbol of femininity and good fortune, delaying pregnancy or not having children is unthinkable. So, families or communities women are pressured to “have a big familycontinue having offspring or continue giving birth until a male child is born” and they humiliate them if they don’t.

A stigma created

Plus it’s the weight of religion since many confessions are against contraceptives and promulgate that children “are a gift from God” or that they should arrive “when God wants”, so a stigma and discrimination is created on women who end up seeing their freedom to choose whether or not they want to have children curtailed or how to avoid getting pregnant.

Finally, in this group are the women who suffer gender violence and who have no voice or vote in practically any decision in their lives, and, of course, not in this one either. They have Twice as likely that the man will refuse to use contraceptionbut they also risk making the violence they suffer worse if they try to impose their decision in this area.

The main reason: gender inequality

In addition to these two main reasons, there are many others why women do not decide about their bodies and their pregnancies: lack of information, lack of access to contraceptive methods, poverty, lack of sexual education, sexual violence, and even , the lack of education. Many girls and adolescents, if they do not have the possibility to continue studying, do not see reasons to reject motherhood if they become pregnant. All this happens much more in rural than urban areas and also more in developing countries. But, in general, in the world more than 86% of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have never used contraceptionand 21% of them will be mothers by the time they are 19 years old.

“6% of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have never used contraception, and 21% of them will be mothers by the time they are 19”

Behind all this lies the main reason why women cannot take control over their own bodies or decide on their pregnancies: gender inequality. There is still the concept that if an unwanted pregnancy occurs the woman is the one who must bear the consequences both anatomical and economic. It is she who faces childbirth, the risks that it entails, raising the child when it is born, conciliating work or reducing the working day to care for it, or even being fired after becoming a mother. According to social norms, man is still able to “escape” the consequences of his act. That’s why so many men choose not to use condoms, or force women to do so, and why there are so few contraceptive options for men.

60% end in abortion

Despite all these pressures, 60% of all unintended pregnancies end in an abortion, whether legal or illegal in the country. The report shows that the restrictions for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy do not prevent women from aborting, they do it anyway, but they do so in unsafe conditions. Total, 45% of all abortions are performed in unsafe conditionsin centers that are not sanitary, at the hands of non-professionals or with rudimentary instruments that endanger the lives of women.

This has caused that more than 7 million women have had to be hospitalized throughout the world as a result of having performed an abortion in risky conditions and it is the main cause behind the 800 maternal deaths that occur every day according to Doctors Without Borders, what the UN defines as “a public health emergency and a price that the world simply cannot afford”.

reproductive rights

Therefore, the UN recalls that “safe abortion is part of reproductive rights and human rights: everyone has the right to make informed decisions about their own body and health, as well as to choose if they want to have children and, if so, when and how many. In particular when the life and health of the pregnant woman or girl is in danger, or when carrying the pregnancy to term would cause considerable pain or suffering to the pregnant woman or girl, especially if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, Or if it’s not viable.

Thanks to this, it has been achieved that in 96% of the Member States of the United Nations, abortion is legal in any circumstance or for some reason, for example, to save the life of the mother in cases of rape and/or in cases of fetal malformation. . However, in 28% of these countries, married women they need the consent of their husband to be able to abort and, in 63% of these countries, women who abort illegally – that is, for reasons other than danger to the life of the mother, rape or malformation – can face criminal consequences.

Reasons for despair

The figures are not good, but the UN predicts that they could be even worse and that reproductive violence against women may increase in the coming years due to the war in Ukraine and the setback in the right to abortion that could occur in the United States, where the Supreme Court is seriously considering eliminating the right to abortion at the national level, so this right would remain in the hands of the states, and 16 of them, the most conservative, already have laws prepared for the total or almost total illegalization of abortion.

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The UN warns that war conflicts always “deprive women of their ability to decide at all levelsin addition to dramatically increasing the risk of unintended pregnancy at the time when it is most threatening” because they lose access to contraception and are more likely to experience sexual violence.

“If you only had 15 minutes to run away from home, what would you take? Would you take your passport? Food? Would you remember your birth control? In the days, weeks and months after a crisis begins, sexual and reproductive health and protection services save lives, protect women and harm girls and prevent unintended pregnancies. They are as vital as food, water and shelter,” adds Kanem.



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