In Brief

Facts on Unwanted and Induced in

POPULATION AND FERTILITY • About six in 10 women obtaining avoid having any more children (20% in • Roughly 125 million people live in did so with the approval of the North and 14% in the South). Nigeria, making it the most populous their partner, indicating a high level of country in Sub-Saharan Africa. The male involvement in the decision-making PROVIDERS country’s population growth rate of 2.8% process. • Almost six in 10 abortions are carried per year means a doubling in size every • Abortion is officially permitted only to out in private or public hospitals or 25 years. save the life of the woman. clinics. Another two in 10 are initiated • Of the 6.8 million that through medications or treatment given occur each year in Nigeria, 63% end in PRIMARY REASONS WHY WOMEN by chemists. The remainder are per- planned births, 10% in mistimed or HAVE ABORTIONS formed by a traditional provider, by a unwanted births, 11% in induced • Twenty-seven percent of women friend or by the woman herself. abortion and 16% in miscarriage. nationwide who ended an unwanted • Poor women are more likely than pregnancy did so because they were not nonpoor women to obtain abortions from UNPLANNED PREGNANCY married at the time. However, this figure • Roughly one in five pregnancies each masks regional differences—35% of untrained providers: Only 44% of poor year in Nigeria are unplanned; of those, those in the North and 20% of those in women, compared with 66% of nonpoor slightly more than half end in abortion. the South cite marital status. women, had an abortion performed by a medically trained professional in a • Almost one-third of Nigerian women of • Nineteen percent of women said they hospital or clinic; 30% of poor women, childbearing age say they have had an were too young or still in school (16% in compared with 14% of nonpoor women, unwanted pregnancy; of those, half have the North and 22% in the South). went to a traditional healer or induced attempted to obtain an abortion at some the abortion themselves. time. • Nineteen percent of women said that their partner did not want the child, • Northern women are more likely than • Women in the North and in the South claimed he was not the father or had left Southern women to obtain unsafe are equally likely to have experienced an her (10% in the North and 26% in the abortions: Forty-eight percent of abor- unwanted pregnancy. South). tions in the North take place in a ABORTION • Seventeen percent of women said that medical facility, compared with 66% in • About three-quarters of a million they wished to space the next birth or the South. In addition, 29% of abortions Nigerian women have an induced Figure 1 abortion each year. Who Has Abortions? • Most Nigerian women who have Nigerian women in all circumstances have had an abortion. abortions obtain them early in preg- Women 25 or older Unmarried women Women without children nancy: Eighty-seven percent of women Women younger than 25 Married women Women with children who ended a pregnancy did so before 12 weeks of gestation.

• Two-thirds of women obtaining 45% 55% 63% 37% 60% 40% abortions have discussed the decision with their partner, a friend or, to a much lesser degree, their mother or sister. in the North are performed by a instrumental injury (11%) and UNMET NEED FOR • Make abortion care safer by traditional healer or at a home, shock (4%). CONTRACEPTION improving training for medical compared with 12% in the • About one in four women of staff: All medical practitioners South. COSTS childbearing age are in need of should be trained in the : They are • Women report that the correct use of surgical and sexually active and able to COMPLICATIONS average cost of an abortion medical techniques. • One in four women having have a child, but do not want was 1,805 naira (US$15). If • Improve postabortion abortions experience serious one soon or ever and are not the woman tried to perform services. The World Health complications, but only one- using any contraceptive the abortion herself or relied Organization strongly advises third of women with serious method. on a friend, the average cost that all health facilities that complications seek treatment. was 491 naira (US$4). • Six in 10 Nigerian women treat women with incomplete • Poor women are more likely who had had an abortion say abortions should have the • On average, the costs to than nonpoor women to have they were not practicing family appropriate equipment and women treated for abortion- planning at the time they complications (30% vs. 21%). trained staff needed to ensure related complications are about became pregnant. that care is consistently • A surprisingly high proportion 13,819 naira (US$115). • Women having abortions who available and provided at a (25%) of women undergoing are least likely to use contra- reasonable cost. surgical abortion report serious • Abortions performed by ceptives are poor women complications, possibly due to medically trained practitioners These data are the most current (80%), women with no inexperienced or improperly are typically too costly for available and are from Reducing schooling (78%), adolescents trained providers. many women. Women who Unintended Pregnancy in Nigeria (72%) and those living in the and Unwanted Pregnancy and cannot afford appropriate care • Poorly performed abortions North (71%). Induced Abortion in Nigeria: run the risk of long-term, and are known to contribute to Causes and Consequences, by often dangerous and costly, • Women who had an abortion Akinrinola Bankole, Boniface Oye- Nigeria’s high maternal mortal- consequences to their health. and were not using contracep- Adeniran, Susheela Singh, Isaac ity rate, which is estimated to tives at the time they became Adewole, Deirdre Wulf, Gilda Sedgh be 800 per 100,000 live births. • At the national level, unsafe pregnant were often unaware and Rubina Hussain. Funding for both documents was provided by abortion drains the country’s of family planning (38%). • Hospital patients admitted The David and Lucile Packard already depleted health care with complications from unsafe Others believed that they Foundation and The John D. and abortions were treated for the infrastructure; hospitals must would not get pregnant (19%), Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. retained products of conception allocate scarce medical feared the side effects of (50%), fever (35%), hemor- resources and personnel to contraceptives (17%), did not rhage (34%), sepsis (24%), assist women suffering from have access to contraceptives pelvic infection (22%), life-threatening complications. (6%) or were concerned about the objections of their partners Figure 2 or family members (6%). Abortion Methods Poor women are more likely than their better-off peers WHAT CAN BE DONE TO to use unsafe methods. REDUCE UNWANTED PREGNANCY AND UNSAFE Advancing sexual and % of women obtaining abortions ABORTION? reproductive health worldwide through research, policy 100 • Improve contraceptive analysis and public education services and information to 80 ensure greater and correct use New York 120 Wall Street of contraceptive methods. New York, NY 10005 60 Tel: 212.248.1111 • Provide sex education in all [email protected] 40 secondary schools and make contraceptive services more Washington DC 1301 Connecticut Ave, NW Suite 700 20 accessible to young people. Washington, DC 20036 • Reform school policies so Tel: 202.296.4012, 0 [email protected] that school-age girls can All Poor Nonpoor return to school to complete www.guttmacher.org Dilation & Curettage/ Ingested remedy/ inserted object their education following the Additional copies may be purchased Manual Other/Don't know delivery of a baby. for $0.25 each. /other tablets Volume discounts are available. Injection June/2006