Mr Offiom Nyong, Country Director, Marie Stopes International Organisation Nigeria (MSION), says the organisation has averted 10,000 unsafe abortions in Nigeria in the last 10 years through Family Planning (FP).
Nyong said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
The country director who advocated for safe abortion said unsafe abortion continued to claim thousands of lives every year.
“As at the end of 2017, we had reached about 1.5 million women with FP method.
“If we calculate that using the measurement system, we would have averted just about 10,000 unsafe abortions if people had not taken up FP and prevented close to 4,000 maternal deaths, not to talk about the savings that this would have cost the country.
“We put that at close to 12 million pounds. Children should be by choice and not chance.
“The week marker study that just came out shows that 1.25 million unsafe abortions are done in this country every year, when they did the study before, it was 600,000
“40,000 women die from unsafe abortion every year. We in Nigeria advocate e for FP to prevent the huge maternal death rate in this country.
“Around 15 per cent to 23 per cent of women would not have died if there was FP and in Nigeria its 836 for every 100,000 women which is one of the worst indices in the world.
“We in Nigeria do not advocate for abortion, we say safe abortion must be considered. The law says that abortion is only permitted if a doctor makes the call and the life of a woman is threatened.
“We do not think it is right; rape can be a reason why someone should seek abortion, should we deny that right?
“Health concerns, mental balance can be a reason.”
He said choosing one form of FP method was essential to prevent unplanned pregnancies by sexually active people.
The country director said that there were short and long term family planning methods that could suit every individual and that these can be accessed in any Marie Stopes or government facility.
Marie Stopes International (MSI) is a global organisation providing personal contraception and reproductive health services to women and girls.
MSION, an affiliate of MSI was established in 2009 to increase access to affordable and high-quality modern contraceptives and confidential reproductive health services for both married and single.
The organisation is currently in 34 states of the federation and some of its services include counselling and support on FP, child spacing, contraception, pregnancy planning and painful periods.
Some of its services also include diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and cervical cancer screening. (NAN)