
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 13, 1993                   TAG: 9309130018
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY: ILLEGAL ABORTIONS KILL THOUSANDS

As many as 200,000 women die each year from unsafe, illegal abortions, mostly in the developing world, a population research group said Sunday.

"Of the estimated 50 million induced abortions worldwide each year, more than one-third are illegal and nearly half appear to take place outside any health system," concluded a report by Population Action International.

The report contends that limits on voluntary access to safe, affordable abortion are a key cause of abortion-related death and injury.

The group said that Romania under former dictator Nicolai Ceausescu - who imposed a ban on abortion and contraceptives to increase the national birth rate - did not experience a higher birth rate. But there was a doubling of deaths of childbearing mothers, with 87 percent attributed to illegal abortions, said the report. After the ban was lifted, the number of maternal deaths fell by half.

"Unsafe abortion is a major cause of maternal death worldwide and has a devastating public health impact," said the report: "Expanding Access to Safe Abortion."

"Estimates of abortion-related deaths are imprecise, but range from less than 100,000 to as many as 200,000 deaths each year," it said.

The report said that even with contraceptive methods widely available, at least one out of five women would face an unplanned pregnancy.

by CNB