Increase in number of safe abortions in Kailali

By Chandani Acharya, Ghodaghodi (Kailali), Dec.10: Maya (name changed) from Ghodaghodi Municipality-1, Kailali, a young mother, is now 25 years old. She has four daughters. She has already aborted five times.

Maya was raped in the year 2010 when she was merely 14 years old, sadly, that rape was conceived, and only after seven months family came to know about Maya’s pregnancy.

In fear of being shamed and looked down upon in society, Maya was married off to her molester who was nearly thrice Maya age.

Maya said that her co-wife has already three daughters and two sons, and Maya herself wants to have a son.

Maya aborted five children in the hope of having a son. Maya visited a private clinic and a government clinic once at the beginning, however, she used aborting drugs most of the time. She said using pills resulted in ill health. 

Likewise, Rabina Chaudhary of Lamki Chuha -4, Kailali, had an unsafe abortion shortly after giving birth to her first child. 

She said that she took pills brought by her husband to abort her first-month pregnancy. 

After her second child again she had unsafe pregnancy, and then she aborted by using the machine at a recommendation of a health worker in a hospital. 

Like Maya and Rabina, many women have realized that unsafe abortions can be life-threatening, therefore, the number of women aborting their unplanned pregnancies safely in hospitals has increased in the district.

Dr Manuka Tamang, a gynaecologist at the Ghodaghodi Hospital, Sukhkhad, Kailali, said that pregnant women less than 12 weeks come for an abortion.

She said that 9/10 safe abortions a month by using tools as well as prescribing abortion pills from the company recognized by the government are done. 

The number of women visiting hospitals for safe abortions has increased compared to previously. 

Likewise, the number of safe abortions is increasing every year in the Seti Provincial Hospital, which is considered to be the most service facility in the Sudurpaschim Province. 

According to Ishwori Bhatta, assistant data operator of the Hospital, in the fiscal year 2077/78, 1,951 have used pills and operations for abortion, followed by 2,629 in the fiscal year 2078/79.

This data showed that the number of females under 20 to have an abortion has increased. 187 girls below 20 years and 217 girls below 20 years were aborted in the fiscal year 2077/78 and 2078/79 respectively. 

Institutions certified by the government the perform abortions either by giving pills or busing tools. There is a high number of women using pills than tools in the Kailali district.

Unsafe abortions have resulted in around seven per cent of maternal mortality in Nepal.  

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), unplanned pregnancies are around 19 per cent in Nepal. 

It is observed that around 166,000 packets of abortion drugs were consumed in Nepal in 2015-2016, of which, 7 per cent of pills are unregistered pills in Nepal. 

Lal Bahadur Dhami, Chief of the Health Office, Kailali, said that negligence in using temporary methods of family planning as well as having physical relations at an early age has resulted in the rise of abortions in the district,

Sharmila Shrestha, Advocate said that abortion was legalized in Nepal in 2002. It is available up to 12 weeks gestation on request, up to 18 weeks gestation cases of rape or incest, and at any time if the pregnancy poses a danger to the woman’s life or physical or mental health or if there is a fetal abnormality.