Maternal Deaths
Each year, some 30 million women experience miscarriage and an additional 43 million terminate their pregnancies through elective abortions. Nearly half of these abortions occur in unsafe and clandestine conditions where abortion is illegal or highly restricted.
The failure to provide women with the means to prevent unintended pregnancies creates an extraordinary and avoidable public health threat that results in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women. From 1995-2000, nearly 700,000 women died from causes related to unintended pregnancies.
While more than one-third died from problems associated with pregnancy, labor and delivery, the majority - more than 400,000 - died as a result of complications resulting from unsafe abortions. Many hundreds of thousands more survived after hospitalization for complications of unsafe abortion.
From Global Health Council