DEFINITION

Abortion has been a controversial term since the

ancient times. Literally, the term is used to refer to the
act of bringing a pregnancy to an end, by either
extracting an embryo or the fetus before maturity.

In some case it is referred to as the removal of the

fetus which is done when it has the potential to survive
in the outside environment. Sometimes it is called
'termination of pregnancy' (Kolls, 2008).
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Accidental abortion is known as
miscarriage; however, intended
form of abortion is what we call
induced abortion.

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 Each year, throughout the
world, approximately 210 million
women become pregnant and
over 135 million of them deliver
live born infants. The remaining 75
million pregnancies end in
stillbirth, or spontaneous or
induced abortion. It was estimated
that in 2003 approximately 42
million pregnancies were
voluntarily terminated: 22 million
safely and 20 million unsafely
(WHO, 2011).
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In the Philippines, the Catholic Church hierarchy wields strong
influence on society and on government officials. The church
not only condemns abortion, but forbids the use of modern
contraceptives.

Philippines’ abortion law is among the strictest in the world. The

Philippine government has made efforts to improve access to
contraceptive services, but abortion remains illegal in the
Philippines under all circumstances and is highly stigmatized.
Nonetheless, abortion is common, but is often performed in
unsanitary conditions and using outdated techniques (Hussain
and Finer, 2013).

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The most recent study on national abortion incidence in
the Philippines used indirect estimation techniques
and hospital records to estimate a rate of 27 abortions
per 1,000 women of reproductive age in 2000, with
lower and upper estimates of 22 and 31 abortions per
1,000 women.

Notably, this rate was considerably higher than a more

recent estimate of the unsafe abortion rate in
Southeastern Asia as a whole (22 abortions per 1,000
women), indicating that the Philippines may have
more unsafe abortions than some neighboring
countries. Projections based on the 2000 national
abortion rate, and taking into account population
increases, estimated that 560,000 abortions occurred
in 2008 and 610,000 abortions in 2012 (Juarez, 2005).

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 Tens of thousands of Filipino
women are hospitalized each year as a
result of complications from unsafe
abortion, at a rate of 4.5 individuals per
1,000 women, and countless others
have complications but do not receive
treatment. Projections based on data
from 2000, assuming that the rate
stayed the same and taking into account
increases in population, indicate that
90,000 Filipino women were
hospitalized for abortion complications
in 2008, and over 100,000 women in
2012 (Hussain and Finer, 2013).
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