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23/06/2016
The study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also said that in many of the affected countries abortion is either illegal or restricted. As a result, pregnant women are left with few options and this can force them to turn to unsafe methods of termination, such as accessing abortion drugs without medical supervision, or visiting underground providers.
Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and has been linked to a number of complications for unborn children, including hearing problems to microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects.
For years, one option for women seeking an abortion in Latin America has been Women on Web. This is a non-profit organisation that provides medical abortion outside the formal healthcare setting through online telemedicine, in countries where safe abortion is not universally available.
For this report, a team from the US and UK analysed data on requests for abortion through the website between 1 January 2010 and 2 March 2016 in 19 Latin-American countries, to assess whether requests for abortion increased beyond expected trends following the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) alert regarding Zika virus.
In almost all of the countries that issued a warning over the virus and had restrictions on abortions, the number of requests for abortion through Women on Web increased. In Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela, the figures effectively doubles, while they increased by more than a third in a majority of the other countries. In the countries that had issued no health warnings, there was no statistically-significant increase found.
Dr Catherine Aiken, from the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Cambridge, commented: "The World Health Organization predicts as many as four million Zika cases across the Americas over the next year, and the virus will inevitably spread to other countries.
"It isn't enough for health officials just to warn women about the risks associated Zika – they must also make efforts to ensure that women are offered safe, legal, and accessible reproductive choices."
Assistant Professor Abigail Aiken, from the University of Texas at Austin, added: "Accurate data on the choices pregnant women make in Latin America is hard to obtain. If anything, our approach may underestimate the impact of health warning on requests for abortion, as many women may have used an unsafe method or visited local underground providers."
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
The full study can be read here.
(JP/MH)
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Increase In Abortions Over Zika Fears
There has been a "significant" increase in demand for abortions in Latin America countries following a number of warnings over Zika virus, it has been claimed.The study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also said that in many of the affected countries abortion is either illegal or restricted. As a result, pregnant women are left with few options and this can force them to turn to unsafe methods of termination, such as accessing abortion drugs without medical supervision, or visiting underground providers.
Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and has been linked to a number of complications for unborn children, including hearing problems to microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects.
For years, one option for women seeking an abortion in Latin America has been Women on Web. This is a non-profit organisation that provides medical abortion outside the formal healthcare setting through online telemedicine, in countries where safe abortion is not universally available.
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For this report, a team from the US and UK analysed data on requests for abortion through the website between 1 January 2010 and 2 March 2016 in 19 Latin-American countries, to assess whether requests for abortion increased beyond expected trends following the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) alert regarding Zika virus.
In almost all of the countries that issued a warning over the virus and had restrictions on abortions, the number of requests for abortion through Women on Web increased. In Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela, the figures effectively doubles, while they increased by more than a third in a majority of the other countries. In the countries that had issued no health warnings, there was no statistically-significant increase found.
Dr Catherine Aiken, from the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Cambridge, commented: "The World Health Organization predicts as many as four million Zika cases across the Americas over the next year, and the virus will inevitably spread to other countries.
"It isn't enough for health officials just to warn women about the risks associated Zika – they must also make efforts to ensure that women are offered safe, legal, and accessible reproductive choices."
Assistant Professor Abigail Aiken, from the University of Texas at Austin, added: "Accurate data on the choices pregnant women make in Latin America is hard to obtain. If anything, our approach may underestimate the impact of health warning on requests for abortion, as many women may have used an unsafe method or visited local underground providers."
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
The full study can be read here.
(JP/MH)
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