Yearly 9,000 girls younger than 20 years go for abortion in Nepal

KATHMANDU, March 22: More than 10 percent of women undergoing safe abortion in Nepal are found to be aged below 20 years.

According to the Family Welfare Division, as many as 79,953 women underwent safe abortion in the country in fiscal year 2077/78 B.S.

As per the law, a woman can undergo abortion in 12 weeks of unwanted conception in Nepal.

According to data maintained by the division, the data of the past three years show that more than 9,000 girls undergoing abortion are younger than 20 years old. Of them, the highest number are from Bagmati Province.

The number of girls under 20 years old undergoing abortion in the fiscal year 2074/75 was 9,864. Similarly, the number was 8,160 in fiscal year 2075/76.

Sagun Thapa, chief nurse at the family planning and safe abortion division of the Paropakar Maternity & Women's Hospital maintained that around 14 to 16 women undergo safe abortion daily. Of them, the number of those younger than 20 usually stands at 1 to 2.

According to an official at the Family Welfare Division, many young girls prefer undergoing abortions in private hospitals than in the government hospitals.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only only around half of all abortions take place under methods recommended by WHO.

Tragically, however, only around half of all abortions take place under such conditions, with unsafe abortions causing around 39 000 deaths every year and resulting in millions more women hospitalized with complications. Most of these deaths are concentrated in lower-income countries – with over 60% in Africa and 30% in Asia – and among those living in the most vulnerable situations.