900,000 abortions a year, most of them unsafe

ISLAMABAD Whereas unplanned pregnancies are on the rise in Pakistan, the country is also suffering from high abortion rate, as every year there are about 900,000 abortions, and most of them are performed in unsafe way. This was revealed on Friday during a ceremony organised in connection with celebration of the World Population Day by RAHNUMA, Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP). Parveen Qadir Agha, Ex-Federal Secretary Women Development and Regional office bearers Rahnuman-FPAP was the chief guest at the occasion. It was further told that each year nearly 200,000 women receive hospital treatment for post-abortion complications. While speaking on the occasion the participants opined that adherence to family planning in Pakistan had risen significantly over the last two decades, but one out of every three pregnancies was still unplanned. They observed that if the government increased investment in family planning by $136 million between 2007 and 2015, which would satisfy the need for family planning, substantial savings could be realised. They maintained that as couples have fewer children, the costs to meet the needs of the population would go down, including costs for maternal health, education, water and sanitation, tuberculosis and immunization. By 2015,the government could have saved about $400 million, which is about three times the amount it would have spent, they added. They said that countries with smaller family sizes tend to have higher gross national incomes per person. At about four children per woman and a gross national income of $2300 per person, Pakistan still has a long way to go. While speaking at the occasion Parveen Qadir Agha highlighted importance of the family planning saying that many countries around the would have been able to make economic progress by managing their population growth. Ahsan Bahadur Ali Shah on behalf Amir Hameed, Regional Director RAHNUMA-FPAP revealed that about 30 per cent of the married women in Pakistan were using some from of family planning (PDHS 2006-07), but only 22 per cent were using modern methods of family planning, which are generally more effective. Today, he continued that we have the sixth largest population in the world with 180 million people. The growing population means more people in need of public services including housing, water, food, electricity, schools and health care, he noted. By managing the size of population, he said we could address the issues and contribute to Pakistans development. He said that in order to make economic progress, Pakistan must make a series of investments and step up the pace of its policy and program efforts.