Unwanted dilemma: 21,287 out of 28,452 abortions due to ‘contraceptive failures’ in Nagpur in last 29-months

Advertisement

Nagpur: In what could be portrayed the grim reality of ‘Contraceptives’, 21,287 out of 28,452 abortions — done between March 2020 and August 2022 — were fallout of contraceptive failures, the data procured by Nagpur Today revealed.

According to the Health Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), a total 28,452 women (849 unmarried) have gone through Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) between March 2020 and August this year. Out of which a whopping 21,287 abortions were caused due to contraceptive failures.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, a total of 8,046 out of 10,899 women underwent MTP due to failure of contraceptives. This was followed by ‘grave injury to physical health of pregnant mother’ as reasons for termination at 1,135 MTP and ‘grave injury to mental health of pregnant mother’ at 543. ‘Danger to life of pregnant mothers and substantial risk that the child born would suffer from physical or mental handicap’ came next at 378 and 325 respectively. At 31, the least terminations were of ‘pregnancy caused by the rape’.

In the period from March 2021 to March 2022, 9,322 out of 12,130 women have gone through the abortions due to failure of contraceptives. At 1,190, ‘grave injury to physical health of pregnant mother’ came second as the reason for termination. This was followed by ‘danger to life of pregnant mother’ (537), ‘grave injury to mental health of pregnant mother’ (445), ‘substantial risk that the child born would suffer from physical or mental handicap’ (374) and ‘pregnancy caused by rape’ (31).

Also Read : 849 unmarried women underwent abortion in Nagpur in last 2.5 years: NMC data

Between April 2022 and August this year contraceptives failure caused 3,919 MTPs out of a total 5,423. ‘Grave injury to the physical health of pregnant mothers’ attributed to711 terminations. This was followed by ‘grave injury to mental health of pregnant mother’ (222), ‘danger to life of pregnant mother’ (205), ‘substantial risk that the child born would suffer from physical or mental handicap’ (190) and ‘pregnancy caused by rape’ (33).

Speaking to Nagpur Today, Dr Sarla Lad, PCPNDT and MTP Nodal Officer informed that the consumption of contraceptives sans prescription is the key factor behind MTP.

“We’ve zeroed in on unauthorized consumption of contraceptives as the main cause behind MTP among women. Women tend to consume contraceptives without a valid prescription from the Gynaecologists,” Dr Lad said and urged that, “One should always contact doctors, during pregnancy, before taking any medication.”

– Shubham Nagdeve