Reduction of maternal mortality: a joint WHO/UNFPA/UNICEF/World Bank Statement / Reduction of maternal mortality: a joint WHO/UNFPA/UNICEF/World Bank Statement

ABSTRACT

Every year about 20 million women undergo the hazards of an unsafely induced abortion. About 70.000 of them die as a result, and millions more suffer lOng-term morbidity and disability. In addition, an estimated 5 million women require care for spontaneous second-trimester abortion. Almost all the deaths, and much of the morbidity associated with abortion, could be prevented if the women had access to appropriate health care and family planning services. Emergency care for the complications of abortion, whether sponteneous or induced, should be available 24 hours a day in every health care system