ABSTRACT
Unsafe abortion is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in Asia. Overall, the WHO and the Guttmacher Institute estimate that in the year 2008 the continent had 27 million abortions, a slight increase from 26 million in 2003. The rate of unsafe abortions was unchanged at 11 per every 1000 women aged 15-44. The rate of safe abortions remained around 17-18 per 1,000 women aged 1544 (Sedge et al. 2012a). (Unsafe abortions accounted for 17,000 deaths in 2008, which was 12 per cent of pregnancy related deaths (WHO 2011, Table 6). Asia’s population growth has reduced in recent years. In the period 1970-75 fertility was 5.0 children per woman. It fell to 3.0 in the period 1990-95, 2.3 in 2000-2005 and 2.2 in 2010-2015 (UN Population Division 2014). At this rate it was nearing the rate of replacement. The UN region of Asia includes many countries in the Middle East and those such as Turkey which many would consider to be part of Europe. However, in line with other researchers I shall follow the UN geographical regions. This further divides Asia into four sub-regions which are Eastern, South-Central, South Eastern and Western.
