Posted on 12/20/2004 7:47:02 PM PST by anymouse
At least six million Indian women have abortions every year - almost 10 times the official estimate - thanks mostly to its use as a family planning tool, says a new study.
The Abortion Assessment Project India (APP-I) in its final report has stated that even registered facilities do not report all abortions carried out, while many women in villages continue to use traditional methods like herbs and instruments to induce abortion.
"Around 4.8 million abortions are performed by formal service providers and another one-third of the abortions by informal service providers," said Ravi Duggal, coordinator of the Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (Cehat) that carried out the study.
"We estimate that around six million abortions take place annually in India as against government estimate of 600,000 based on the last census report.
"Reporting to the authorities is not complete so there are large gaps," Duggal said Monday at a presentation of the final report.
The findings of various studies done in Haryana, Kerala, Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram and covering all regions of the country reveal that "abortions are used frequently as a contraceptive to limit the family size or space out family," said Duggal.
In at least one third of the cases, women are known to have post-abortion complications.
Experts associated with the study, which has been shared with 24 state governments, stressed the need for India to step up advocacy of various contraception alternatives and create better awareness about safe abortion options while providing legislative support.
"In India, the crucial issue is of the use of abortion as a contraceptive. There is a need to shift the balance from sterilisation to advocacy of contraceptives for family planning," said Hilary Standing, fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Britain.
The Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation are among those who have supported the multi-centric study in six states, focusing on numerous dimensions of abortion services in public and private sector.
"There is not enough choice in the menu of the family planning service to shift the women from abortions to contraceptives, such that there is quite a lot of unmet need," Standing told IANS.
"The study has highlighted that a majority of abortion cases in India concern married women whereas in most developed nations, it is predominantly unmarried women who seek abortions. This points to the need to step up awareness about contraceptives."
The experts also emphasised that with continually evolving new technologies it is essential to more frequently amend legislation to meet such needs.
One of the most important changes "we are seeking is further amendment of the medical termination legislation to remove the word 'unmarried' and the right of women to seek abortion till 12 weeks (of pregnancy) on demand," said Duggal.
Where as 100% of their babys have post-abortion 'complications.' /sarcasm
Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.
Thanks? Thanks? I'm sure all those dead babies are ever so thankful.
How very sad. When I see pictures of the poverty in India I can understand which does not make it right but I can understand.
India's net birthrate has fallen since 1975.
No,only that about 70% of the population have become aware of family planning.
I wonder if they abort the girls like the Chinese who now have a
dearth of women for their men to marry.
Although there is a problem with boys being preferred to girls, it varies from region to region, and is nowhere near as bad as China's problem, largely because the Government didnt' force everyone to have only one child.
And although India still has a population problem, the population control and education measures that were implemented in the 60s and 70s have had significant effect. India's birth rate has dropped pretty sharply, and although it's still a problem, it's no longer a crisis kind of thing.
Like everywhere else, the key factors in population control are education (especially of women) and economic prosperity. Two of the most prosperous Indian states - the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu (which are, not coincidentally the states with the highest levels of education) actually have birth rates which have dropped *below* replacement level. That is, the birth rate needed to keep the population *stable*.
Replacement rate is 2.1 babies per woman on average to keep the population stable. Birth rate in Kerala and Tamil Nadu is *less* than that. By comparison, the birth rate in the US is 2.6 or 2.7. (The problem in the Indian context is that even if 80-90 million people in the above two states control the birth rate, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (two of the poorest, most backward Northern states) have 150 million people and birthrates of 3 or 4.)
Yes, but India's still got more men than women -- I'm rather more in favour of a 900 men for every 1000 women ratio -- makes life so much more varied ;-P
Yes, true. I wasn't trying to suggest that there is no problem - there is a very big problem indeed. But things are improving, not getting worse, and that's what I was trying to emphasize.
The classic demographic model as a country develops is:
1. Low Development: High birth rate/High death rate (population relatively stable, or growing, but not too much
2. In the process of development: Health care, nutrition, education, etc, improve rapidly, increasing life expectancy and reducing the *death rate* but not the *birth rate*. This is the period of most rapid population growth.
3. As a country heads towards being developed, the birth rate also falls (as a result of education, economic prosperity and conscious choices to have less children since fewer die in childbirth, you don't need more children to do farm work for free, etc), and population growth stabilizes.
4. And if you're Western Europe, you move into post-modern funk where population actually shrinks...
(There was a great Economist article on this some time ago).
As far as I can see, India has been in Stage 2 for decades now, but it is (slowly) beginning the move to Stage 3, which will probably take decades too. But as I noted in my earlier post, some parts of India are already getting to Stage 3..
I agree with you about the extent of the problem. I'm just not sure what you suggest to fix it is the best solution.
Firstly, population growth isn't unlimited. Most of the projections I've seen suggest that world population will level off at around 9 billion.
Second, Malthus predicted in what, 1860? that the overpopulation would lead to starvation. He's been proven wrong for 150 years and counting - technology and improved methods of agriculture have kept pace with population growth. Even today, places with hunger and starvation have that problem because of inefficient distribution and usually civil/social strife - not because of lack of food production.
Third, developed nations isolating themselves from the problem will make it worse, not improve it. If resources which only developed countries can afford are not applied, and they isolate themselves, the world *will* go to hell in a handbasket, and it will reach a stage where it will overwhelm everyone - in today's world you can't isolate yourself.
Fourth, I'm not sure what you mean by "allowing Darwinian selection to happen", but again, let me emphasize that the best population control methods are education and economic prosperity. Short of large scale genocide, isolating and ignoring poor countries will destroy their economies, reduce living conditions and *increase* birth rates and populations, not the opposite.
I do, however, agree with you that "the closer we are to each other", the greater the likelihood that some natural disaster will wipe out (more) of us..
Yeah,
From what I have gathered, if a woman goes in for a sono, it is because she is going to abort if it's female.
BUMP
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