50 % of pregnancies in Uganda unplanned

What you need to know:

  • Positives. The report, conducted by researchers at the US-based Guttmacher Institute and Uganda’s Makerere University School of Public Health, also states that abortion rate has decreased from 51 per 1,000 pregnancies to 39 per 1,000 pregnancies.

KAMPALA.

One in every two pregnancies in Uganda in 2013 was unintended and 25 per cent of the women carried out abortions, findings of a new research reveal.

The report titled, “Incidence of induced abortion in Uganda, 2013: New Estimates since 2003,’ shows that the proportion of married women with the unmet need for contraception has dropped slightly from 40 per cent to 38 per cent.

“Overall, the percentage of women with unmet need fell to only 0.2 per cent per year in the last decade between 2000 and 2011,” the report reads further.

Conducted by researchers at the US-based Guttmacher Institute and Uganda’s Makerere University School of Public Health, the study indicates that an estimated 52 per cent of pregnancies to Ugandan women were unplanned in 2013.

It adds that the estimated national unintended pregnancy rate stands at 149 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49.

However, the rate of unplanned pregnancies has hardly changed over the past decade; from 158 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49 in 2003.

The number of women in birth giving age between 14 to 49 years, over ten years has increased from 5,476,435 in 2003 up to 7,300,000 in 2013.

Regionally, the report states that the estimates vary widely with Karamoja sub region in the north-eastern region having the lowest rate of unplanned pregnancies at 61 per 1,000 women.

“The proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion was lowest in Eastern at eight per cent and seven per cent in western [Uganda] and very high in Kampala (33 per cent),” reads the report.

Commenting on the lowest rate of unplanned pregnancies in Karamoja, Prof Christopher Garimoi Orach, a public health specialist from Makerere University, noted that “in Karamoja sub-region, women have sex only for procreation and not for pleasure purposes.”

Commenting on the findings, Dr Placid Mihayo, the family planning focal person at the Ministry of Health said the relatively high unmet need for family planning tools in the country currently rated at 34 per cent is responsible for the high rate of unintended pregnancies.

“Our target is to increase the accessibility of modern contraceptives up to 50 per cent and reduce the unmet need for contraceptives in our vision 2020 to 10 per cent from 34 per cent,” Dr Mihayo said.

The study adds that “unplanned births estimated or represent about one third of all pregnancies while abortion makes up 14 per cent. The proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion makes up 14 percent.”

Meanwhile, an estimated total number of induced abortions carried out in 2013 increased to 314,300 from 294,000 induced abortions in 2003.

However, the abortion rate has decreased from 51 per 1,000 pregnancies to 39 per 1,000 pregnancies.

“These rates suggest a declining trend in abortion behaviour among Ugandan women between 2003 and 2013,” the report reads in part.

The decline in the rate of abortion has been attributed to increased use of contraceptives.
A more noticeable increase occurred in the use of modern contraceptive methods where use among married women increased from 14 percent to 26 per cent over the ten year period, the report adds.

Worst still, the rate of women hospitalised for the treatment of complications from induced abortion have been found still prevalent although it has declined from 15 per 1,000 women in 2003 down to 12 women per 1000 women in 2013.

“We estimate that every year 93,265 women are hospitalised for treatment of complications from induced abortion,” reads the report, noting that morbidity is due to unsafe abortion which is still higher compared to other neighboring countries.

In Rwanda, morbidity due to unsafe abortion rates stands at seven per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, Kenya is nine per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49 and Nigeria nine per 1000 women aged 15 to 49.

“A common complication of induced abortion is hemorrhage, and the ability to access emergency blood transfusion services in Kampala is a further incentive to patients to obtain, and for providers to refer to services there,” the report explains.

The observed decline [of complications of induced abortion] is likely the result of the large increase in the use of modern contraceptives and possibly the use of safe methods to induced abortion such as manual vacuum aspiration(MVA) and misoprostol, according to the study.

The law on abortion
The Penal Code Act (Cap.120) sections;
141. Attempts to procure abortion.

Any person who, with intent to procure the miscarriage of a woman whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to her or causes her to take any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

142. Procuring miscarriage.
Any woman who, being with child, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means, or permits any such things or means to be administered to or used on her, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

143. Supplying drugs, etc. to procure abortion.
Any person who unlawfully supplies to or procures for any person any thing, knowing that it is intended to be unlawfully used to procure the miscarriage of a woman, whether she is or is not with child, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years.