Deadly abortions

Having a baby in Pakistan can be a dangerous business and having an abortion, yet more so. Maternal and child health services are little better than a national disgrace and 390 women out of every 100,000 mothers die as a result of birth complications. The population growth rate is far above the rate needed for replacement and at 1.9 per cent a year, there are going to be 245 million of us by 2030 and 302 million by 2050 — a growth that is simply unsustainable. These depressing statistics were shared by Dr Asif Wazir of the Population Council during a seminar for the media entitled “The role of media in social change”. He went on to reveal that the numbers of abortions in Sindh were on the rise — 174,908 this year — and that nearly 15 per cent of women who had abortions subsequently died, a truly shocking figure.

Abortion is not and never should be an appropriate form of birth control. The national fertility rate has fallen from 6.5 births per woman in the 1980s to around 3.6 today. If this rate is maintained, the nation will need to create another 30 million jobs in the next decade. Family planning and birth spacing have never been high on the national agenda, with sociocultural factors doing nothing to improve the rate of contraceptive usage beyond the 30 per cent it is currently stuck at, a consequence being countless unwanted pregnancies and that is then linked to the escalating number of abortions and subsequent deaths, a vicious and deadly cycle. The media present were called on to play their part in changing the mindset that underpins the ongoing catastrophe in child and maternal health and indeed, it is crucial they do so. Pakistan faces a silent existential crisis in terms of the failure to address the consequences of the detonation of the population bomb. Women are dying every day, killed by a lack of education and awareness. Abortion is not to be taken lightly.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2013.

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