This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Recently, I had the pleasure of hearing former Texas Sen. Wendy Davis speak at the University of Utah. In 2013, she held an 11-hour filibuster to block a bill that was going to limit abortion access in Texas. One of the most profound things I heard during that speech was that education alone could not lift women out of poverty. For women to reach their full potential, they must also have reproductive autonomy. As I begin a career in global health, this struck a chord with me. In order to reach their full potential, women in low and middle-income countries not only need access to education but also to reproductive autonomy.
Over the last two decades, there has been a decline in the number of women around the world dying from unsafe abortions. In 1990, worldwide 69,000 women died from unsafe abortions. That number had reduced to 47,000 by 2008. However, it is still one of the three leading causes of maternal mortality, and the United States refuses to acknowledge the role of unsafe abortion in maternal mortality as a global health issue.
The World Health Organization defines an unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating a pregnancy performed by persons lacking the necessary skills in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards. While the total number of women dying from unsafe abortions has declined, the proportion of maternal deaths represented by unsafe abortion has remained the same at 13 percent. These are preventable deaths, and there are two key factors that impact unsafe abortion rates: access to contraceptives and access to safe abortion services.
For example, in Sierra Leone during the recent Ebola outbreak, sexual violence increased against girls who had lost their parents. Not only did this then lead to an increase in teen pregnancy, but also young girls were kept from school in an effort to keep them safe. Young women began dying because there was not access to safe abortion. Without access to safe abortion procedures, these young girls began to take matters into their own hands with traditional medicine practitioners. In Sierra Leone, unsafe abortions account for 10 percent of the countries maternal mortality rate in public hospitals. The World Health Organization estimates that one half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe and that 98 percent of those are happening in low and middle-income countries.
In the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, the United Nations has set a goal to reduce maternal mortality to 70 per 100,000 live births. This is going to take governmental and nongovernmental collaboration to happen. While most parties are willing to discuss access to contraception, there is silence surrounding access to safe abortion services. Many agencies are hamstrung by the United States in regards to abortion services due to policies that do not account for issues that many women in low and middle-income countries face. The restrictions do not allow organizations to apply for or receive funding to promote family planning if they also provide abortion services from separately obtained sources. Even more restrictions include a focus on abstinence-only education to receive funding, which limits organizations ability to distribute contraception. The United States should take a leadership role on this issue by discontinuing the limitation of safe abortion access in our country and other countries as they work to address preventable maternal deaths.
The United Kingdom's Department for International Development states, "Safe abortion reduces recourse to unsafe abortion and saves maternal lives." The continued legislative shackling of women's access to safe, affordable abortion services by the United States and other countries creates unnecessary deaths of millions of women each year. As a society we can and must do more for the mothers and other women in our communities.
Marci Harris is a Master of Public Health and Master of Public Policy student at the University of Utah. She lives in Millcreek.