Antallet af aborter i Burkina Faso, de fleste illegale og udført af utrænet personale, er dobbelt så højt som i Danmark. Især teenagere er udsatte fordi de ikke inkluderes i familieplanlægningstilbud, påpeger ny undersøgelse fra universitetet i Ouagadougou.
OUAGADOUGOU, 24 March 2014 (IRIN): One-third of all pregnancies in Burkina Faso are unintended (ikke planlagt) and a third of them end in abortion, according to a study published this month by the University of Ouagadougou and the reproductive health think tank Guttmacher Institute, which also found that more than 100,000 abortions were carried out in the country in 2012, most of them performed in unsafe conditions or by untrained health workers.
Abortion is illegal in most circumstances, but the practice continues in secrecy. In 2008, 25 out of 1,000 women between 15 and 49 years old terminated a pregnancy, the study says. The rate of abortion in rural Burkina Faso is 22 per 1,000 women, and 28 for 1,000 in urban areas. The rate in the capital, Ouagadougou, is 42 out of 1,000.
(I Danmark er tallet 12 ud af 1000 kvinder, det globale gennemsnit er ifølge WHO 28 ud af 1000).
Ud til de unge med information og prævention
Almost four in 10 of women who have an unsafe abortion suffer complications and do not receive proper health care.
“It’s alarming, and these are situations that could have been avoided by adopting preventive measures,” said Angele Sourabie, programme director at Burkina Faso Association for Family Welfare (ABBEF).
“In the field we conduct sensitization campaigns for 18-to-24 year olds. Since we cannot prevent them from having sex, we make sure they have safer sex by using contraceptive methods to avoid pregnancies,” Sourabie added.
The study, Unwanted Pregnancy and Abortion in Burkina Faso, recommends the expansion of family planning programmes throughout the country’s primary health services and the provision of family planning counselling and methods, which should be made a routine part of post abortion care.
Hver 4. kvinde har ikke adgang til prævention
Georges Guiella, a researcher in demographics and health at the University of Ouagadougou, said that teenagers are the most affected by clandestine abortions because of their low access to family planning methods.
“It is very important to rethink the services of family planning so as to improve the access to contraceptives by this category of teenagers, who are the most vulnerable,” Guiella explained.
According to the health ministry, 23.8 percent of women do not have access to contraceptives. “This means that these women come to the health centre and don’t receive what they come for,” Djénéba Sanou, director general of health services, told IRIN.
An effective family planning policy targeting teenagers and youths could reduce maternal mortality by 30 percent, says the health ministry. Maternal mortality in Burkina Faso stands at 341 for 100,000 live births, according to the 2010 Demographic Health Survey.
Poor health services, inadequate health worker training and medical costs are some of the barriers to contraceptive provision, said ABBEF’S Sourabie. The study recommends that more attention should be given to teenagers, the more neglected group in health service provision.
Revised health policies in 2009 abolished restrictions on providing family planning care to teenagers and girls. The move put focus on an individual’s contraceptive health needs rather than providing the service based on age group. Still, one in five Burkina Faso women did not have access to contraceptive health, and a quarter of married women did not use contraceptives in 2010, according to the study.
More subsidies, changing attitudes
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http://www.irinnews.org/report/99827/staunching-burkina-s-abortions
