… As 45,000 of Maternal Deaths Occur Annually in Nigeria
As the world marks International Safe Abortion Day, ISAD, with the theme “Safe Abortion is Life-Saving Healthcare!” on 28 September, 2025, the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria, NRHJN, has once again reminded the world on the need to make access to safe abortion not only a medical necessity but also a matter of human rights, dignity, and justice.
Unsafe abortion continues to be a major public health concern around the world. Globally, nearly half of all abortions (45%) are recorded as unsafe, leading to preventable illness and death.
In a release signed by Mrs. Yinka Shokunbi and Hajia Sekinah Lawal, National President and National Secretary respectively, it was stated that unsafe abortion is recorded as one of the largest causes of maternal deaths in Nigeria. In fact, according to the National Demographic Health Survey (2018), “Nigeria’s maternal mortality ratio remains unacceptably high at 512 out of every 100,000 live births”
Besides this, the data shows that globally about 287,000 maternal deaths occur every year and 14% of these deaths, about 45,000 occur in Nigeria alone! The annual rate of reduction for maternal mortality was less than 4 percent the annual rate of reduction necessary to attain the Millennium Development Goal 5. (NDHS 2018)
This simply means unsafe abortion alone accounts for about 10 to 14 percent of all maternal morbidity and mortality in Nigeria.
The country therefore rates at having the second largest burden of maternal mortality in the world, after India.
Former Health Minister, Professor Isaac Folorunsho Adewole, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologists, in the Foreword to the National Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications, 2018, states:
“It is reported that an estimated 1.25 million induced abortions occurred in Nigeria in 2012, equivalent to 33 abortions per 1000 women aged 15-49 years.
“The estimated unintended pregnancy rate was 59 per 100 women aged 15-49 years. Fifty-six percent of these unintended pregnancies ended in abortion.
“About 212,000 women were treated for complications of unsafe abortion, representing a treatment rate of 5.6 per 1000 women of reproductive age and an additional 285,000 experienced serious health consequences but did not receive the treatment they needed.
Some members of the network at a recent event.
According to Adewole who was instrumental to the launch of the National Guidelines, “The high numbers of unintended pregnancies in the country have been attributed to the low contraceptive prevalence rate as well as the restrictive abortion law which permit abortion only on the legal grounds to protect the life and wellbeing of a woman. Even on these narrow legal grounds, information about legal services are unavailable to women and health care providers.”
Adewole also noted that it is falsely presumed that no legal provisions exist for abortion although this is not the case.
Marking the 2025 International Safe Abortion Day, the World Health Organisation and UN-Special Programme on Human Reproduction Programme (HRP) note that when carried out using WHO – recommended methods, abortion is a simple and safe intervention.
According to Dr. Bela Ganatra, WHO Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH)including HRP, “We should let evidence guide us, and center all of our policies, recommendations and service delivery on the needs of women, girls and other people seeking care. This comes out clearly in the WHO abortion care guideline.”
As media advocates on sexual and reproductive health, the International Safe Abortion Day truly underscores an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of safe, respectful and rights-based abortion care as a fundamental part of health and human rights.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN’s Special Programme in Human Reproduction (HRP) have remain committed to ensuring that all people have access to quality abortion care as part of universal health coverage and essential health services.
The Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria (NRHJN), a group of media advocates of sexual reproductive health and rights is lending their advocacy voices to call on all governments at subnational levels to immediately introduce and domesticate the Safe Termination of Pregnancy Guidelines as a Life-Saving healthcare tool.
Our governments must show care, love and social responsibility to the plight of young women who are victims of rape, incest, various sexual assaults for economic reasons and experience unexpected or unwanted pregnancies that traumatize their health beings.
We note also that ensuring access to abortion care reduces maternal mortality, improves health outcomes and protects the dignity and rights of women and girls especially when the pregnancy occurs not out of their choice.
“Oftentimes, due to the rising incidences of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and of recent, Technology-Facilitated Gender Based Violence (TFGBV) many young girls are violated, sexually assaulted and suffer unwanted pregnancy.
With many married women still lacking access to modern contraception in semi-urban communities, unintended pregnancies are occurring and so, are unsafe abortions.
The National guideline underscores that abortion care must be effective, safe, accessible and equitable, and that laws and health systems should be designed to respect human rights and ensure continuity of care.
The guideline provides information on the subsisting Nigerian law on the termination of pregnancy, a compendium of medical conditions and circumstances where the continuation of pregnancy endangers the women’s life and a description of the step-by-step options for ethical and safe medical management.
The NRHJN regrets the reality that a neglected major area of preventable maternal deaths is that related to the provisions of “The Nigerian Abortion Law”. The law permits the termination of pregnancy in circumstances where the continuation of such pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.
Unfortunately, efforts by some states like Lagos State to domesticate the 2018 National Guidelines which, primarily is intended to build the capacity of medical professionals to identify pregnancies for which the law is intended so that ethical and safe management can be instituted, continues to be frustrated by conservative religious groups.