The Deadly Impact of the Philippines Abortion Ban (VIDEO)

A new video and report from the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) illustrate the devastating consequences of the criminal abortion ban in the Philippines, one of the only countries where abortion is illegal in all cases with no clear exceptions. Their report shows that the ban has not reduced the incidence of abortion, just made it unsafe and, in many cases, deadly.

A video from the CRR poignantly illustrates the lengths to which women will go to terminate their pregnancies. Tens of thousands of illegal procedures go awry, sending women into the hospital, where they are often abused by doctors and nurses:

The report is, if possible, even more chilling. The Filipino women who resort to abortion do so because of poverty, because of rape or incest, or simply out of a desire to control their own fertility, a fundamental human right. But the methods that are available to them are limited and dangerous.

These methods include, according to the report, “painful abdominal massages by traditional midwives, inserting a catheter into the uterus, medically unsupervised consumption of Cytotec (the local brand name for a drug containing misoprostol) to induce uterine contractions, and ingestion of herbs and other concoctions sold by street vendors.

“Common physical complications,” the report goes on, “caused by these methods include hemorrhage, sepsis, perforation of the uterus, damage to other internal organs, and death.”

Horrifying, right? And it’s a little easier to understand how, in 2008, 1,000 Filipino women died following complications from an abortion. To make matters worse, contraceptives and information about family planning are scarce, resulting in an estimated 1.9 million unplanned pregnancies per year (again, using statistics from 2008). These unplanned pregnancies lead women straight to the risky abortion methods that, in some cases, are deadly.

The CRR has a wealth of information about this issue on their site, and I encourage you to explore for yourself. It’s terrifying to realize that a human rights and public health crisis of this magnitude is moving forward unchecked. And if nothing else, this tragic example illustrates the need for safe, legal and accessible abortion worldwide.

Photo from Flickr.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Neil A.

10:59AM PDT on Apr 2, 2011

Grey M. you sound rather bitter twisted & uncaring no wonder you have no friends, you make statements where you do not know the desperate circumstances may be these women often have been raped or otherwise forced into having sex. JinkyHepburn P. your attitude is pretty yuckie. Old men in the RC church who PREY (not pray) on poor people & the irresponsible young men who cause the pregnancies( castrate convicted rapists) REPUGS ARE JUST VILE & STUPID in so many cases.

send a green star

Grey M.

7:53PM PDT on Mar 22, 2011

so...you very stupidly let someone stick a rod into your uterus in a back alley someplace, and then get sick....what a surprise...then you make your way to a hospital and expect the to make you all better...then you whine when people are not nice to you....because you deserve compassion? That nurse was correct when she told the woman to wait her turn, and that if she dies waiting it would be her " own fault".
You do something supremely stupid, and think everyone should be nice to you and make you all better.
I can't feel sorry for ANYONE who is stupid enough to have a coat hanger abortion...I put them in a category I call " Too stupid to live". If the abortion does not kill them they will find some other stupid unintentional way to die at their own hands.

Roberta C.

8:52AM PST on Feb 23, 2011

and in American where abortion is legal. Rates of death of women who have an abortion:
One out of every 6,000 women who have an abortion after 21 weeks gestation die.
One out of every 166,000 abortions ends in death.
Just under one out of every 100 abortions has a serious complication
[Source: AGI, 1998. Note: These figures may be low due to under-reporting of deaths due to abortions.]
This isn't about women's rights, this is about big business of abortion pushing it on the public as necessary to gain funding. In the Phillipines, where i have relatives, it is very rare for a women to choose abortion, and if she does, she goes to a "witch doctor" usually. The Christian church is trying to educate women, Planned Parenthood is trying to use them.

Phil S.

1:14PM PST on Feb 22, 2011

You're mixing Apples and Oranges here!!! "The Philippines is NOT about Abortion" ~~ They are about basic Human Rights!! The Men there treat their women as property and less than their animals.. Until THAT changes ,, Why make this an issue??
Try getting their men to accept their women as human beings , With feelings and emotions first!!!
Most of the sexual encounters that happen there are most likely rape or out of fear...

Francine P.

8:14PM PST on Feb 17, 2011

Every woman has the right to decide if she will carry a pregnancy or not. All I wish is that the decision is well thought out.
If you are against abortion then you should offer support to women who can't keep the child instead of berating them.

Past Member .

10:14AM PST on Feb 17, 2011

I believe women have the right to choose whether to carry a child or not. It is our body going thru the changes and the pain of delivery, no one elses.

Mike N.

6:07AM PST on Feb 17, 2011

It is the woman's body. It belongs to her NOT the government and NOT you!! Stop trying to tell women what to do with their bodies and their fetuses. It's THEIR choice; NOT YOURS!!!! Let them deal with God in the end.

Claire A.

4:11AM PST on Feb 17, 2011

People make mistakes and although we can do our best to take responsibility it's not always possible depending on how you have been brought up or what has happened to you. If a woman gets pregnant and realizes that it's not the best thing to do to have the baby if that baby were to be born then in the woman's eyes it wouldn't be the right thing to do and there would be problems for that reason. She would be doing something she didn't want to do and that would come out in the child's life probably in a big way somewhere down the line. I generally think that an abortion is probably not what the woman would like to do but feels that she has to do in the circumstances generally and I think that has to be respected. It does take 2 to make a baby and if the father is not going to be around or there is another reason for the pregnancy it's not fair to expect one person to have to shoulder what could then be seen as a burden. Also in cases of incest and rape where a father gets a daughter pregnant it's not fair to have to make the girl have the child when she wasn't consenting to sex in the first place. I don't agree with irresponsible people who just go out and look to have sex and get pregnant but then I don't think it would be fair on the child to be burdened with a parent or parents like that. So I would have to say that abortion should be legal round the world.

JinkyHepburn P.

7:39PM PST on Feb 12, 2011

I hate women who commits abortion. They are the youckiest person in the world.

David R.

10:40PM PST on Feb 8, 2011

The catholic church in the philippines is the reason why so many women have abortions,they are just a bunch of aging men who want to keep women down,abortion has always been practised down thru the centuries, the issue is about giving women the right to be in charge of their own bodies!!