Postabortion Family Planning: Addressing the Cycle of Repeat Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion (Comment) (Report‪)‬

Some 35 million abortions occur in developing countries each year. Approximately 20 million of these are unsafe abortions, which claim the lives of 67,000 women as a result of related complications. These deaths represent 13% of all pregnancy-related mortality and in some countries as much as 25% of maternal deaths. (1) In developing countries, one of every 75 women die of pregnancy- or childbirth-related causes, compared to one of every 7,300 women in developed countries. (2) If contraception were accessible and used consistently and correctly by women Wanting to avoid pregnancy, maternal deaths would decline by an estimated 2.5-35%. (3) Fifty-five million unintended pregnancies in developing countries occur every year to women not using a contraceptive method. Another 25 million occur as a consequence of incorrect or inconsistent use of a contraceptive method and method failure. (4), (5)