8,000 clandestine abortions yearly in the capital - survey shows

A survey, whose results were made public on Wednesday, shows that 8,000 clandestine abortions are carried out every year in the capital alone, Ouagadougou, on teenage girls between 15 and 19 years old. "These abortions represent a real danger for the women's health because 60 percent of them end up with very serious complications," said Baya Banza, the director of the Unit for the Teaching and Research in Demography (UERD) and coordinator of the survey. While 62 percent of the abortions were facilitated by health workers and their assistants, 25 percent of them were self-induced and another 12 percent were conducted by traditional healers. The survey noted that 28 women died in Ougadougou every year after going through abortion. Most at risk are women who do the operation themselves, with 80 percent of self-induced abortions having a negative imapct on the patient's health. Abortion is illegal in Burkina Faso but can be allowed when the life of the woman is at risk or when the foetus is perceived as abnormal. It is also acceptable in cases of rape and incest. The survey also revealed that for social reasons, including a situation where the honor of the family wasat risk, one out of seven men and one out of four women accepted the case for abortion. "It is a condemned practice but [it is] highly practiced," Banza said of abortion in Burkina Faso, describing public attitudes as "paradoxical". Banza said that clandestine abortions were the result of unprotected sex. He said that 60 percent of the girls questioned in the survey said they had unprotected sexual relations. She described this as worrying trend in the context of the HIV-Aids pandemic. Since 1986, efforts have been made in this landlocked West Africa country towards family planning following the adoption of Burkina Faso's first population policy. To minimize the impact of illegal abortion, in 1987, health authorities set up a pilot programme at the main hospital in Ouagadougou, "Hopital Yalgado Ouedraogo", aiming to provide care for women who procure illegal abortions. A health activist contacted by IRIN said many NGOs in the reproductive health sector were now lobbying to have the government "tolerate" abortion if not legalise it - so that the operation could be done in a safer way. Despite the introduction of family planning in the basic health care systems and campaigns by non-governmental organizations to encourage the use of contraceptives, health experts say only 27 percent of sexually active women are using them. A source, working with a reproductive health NGO in Ouagadougou, told IRIN that majority of the women cannot afford contraception. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report for 2004, 61 per cent of the Burkinabe population live on less than one dollar a day.