Govt to improve post-abortion care in hinterlands

The Kaduna State government has expressed commitment to improving access to post-abortion care services in the state to save lives of women who lost pregnancy especially in the hinterland communities.

The Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Mohammed Baloni, who spoke at a workshop organised by Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) Nigeria in collaboration with the Ministry of Health said this will help to reduce maternal mortality.

Represented by Director, Public Health, Dr Hajara Kera, the commissioner said post-abortion care does not limit the service to criminal abortions, adding that any woman who loses a pregnancy may be exposed to the risk of having sepsis and dying of it.

Earlier in his presentation and handover of findings of a survey, Professor of Public Health at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Tukur Dahiru, disclosed that 78.9 percent of women have unsafe abortion.

According to him, women in rural areas have abortion incidences twice as those in urban areas. He recommended improved availability of information on sexual and reproductive health care services.

“Some women have cogent reasons for terminating their unwanted pregnancy, such as family size, economic status and other reasons that should be considered by the government, so I think access to abortion should be improved.

“Countries where abortion is not legalised, unsafe abortion and maternal mortality is high. Women are also dying because of lack of education, information and poverty,” he said, noting that Kaduna and Kano states have the highest number of women with unsafe abortions.