SOME 2.6 MILLION ABORTIONS HAPPEN IN RI ANNUALLY

Yogyakarta, June 29 (ANTARA) - The abortion rate in Indonesia reaches around 2-2.6 million annually, or 43 abortions per 100 pregnancies, Dr Titik Kuntari, a lecturer at the medical faculty of the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) said.

"Around 30 percent of the abortion cases were conducted by those aged between 15 and 24 years old," she said here on Monday.

The data was obtained from a survey with relatively limited coverage, as comprehensive data on abortion in Indonesia was not available, she said.

According to data based on the Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (SDKI) on married women between 15-49 years old, the abortion rate in 1997 was around 12 percent of the pregnancies, she said.

"The figure was not too different from the analysis result of SDKI's data in 2002 and 2003," dr. Kuntari said.

According to her, unsafe abortions were estimated to contribute to the 11 percent of mothers' deaths in Indonesia, while in the world's average rate is 13 percent.

"Those deaths actually could have been prevented if women hand access to contraception information and services as well as to abortion complication medical treatment," she stated.

According to the survey carried out in 10 cities and six districts in Indonesia, abortion incidents are higher in urban areas than in rural areas, she said.

"More than two million abortions happen annually, and of the total, over one million cases or 53 percent occur in cities," she said.

As for the abortion provider profile, some 73 abortion cases in cities were handled by midwives, family planning clinics or hospitals. While in rural areas, traditional midwives carried out around 84 percent of the abortion cases.

"The majority clients are between 20 and 29 years old. In urban areas, it was around 45.4 percent, and in rural areas 51.5 percent," she said.

UII planned to hold a seminar on abortions seen from the medical, ethical, legal and religion points of view, at the Multi Media Training Center (MMTC), Yogyakarta, July 18, 2009, she said.