Drop in abortions

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

The number of legal abortions carried out in Sri Lanka has dropped to 6.5 percent. This was 12 percent in 2005 and the drop is attributed to the continuation of awareness programmes throughout the country, a family Health Bureau official said.

According to the official, a majority of illegal abortions are carried out due to the lack of awareness on sexual health. In case of married women, this is a result of economic issues faced by them as well as the lack of proper family planning methods.

According to statistics, about 1,000 abortions both legal and illegal, are performed daily throughout the country and 300,000 annually. If only there is a risk to the mother at delivery or before that, a foetus can be aborted. It is difficult to arrived at the number of abortions since most are done through unconventional methods.

The Child Development and Women Affairs Ministry has taken measures to enact laws that would permit parents to abort physically or mentally deformed children during the initial stages of a pregnancy, a ministry official said.