Illegal Abortion in Zika-Infested Latin American Countries May Be on the Rise: Study

Women in Latin American Countries Seeking Illegal Abortions Due to Zika?

By Mariel Peralta, CP Contributor Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Zika virus has been confirmed to cause birth defects on unborn children. Since the spread of the disease in Latin American countries, the government has advised women to put off pregnancy as the country does not permit abortions.

Women on Web and Abortion Pills

A non profit organization called Women on Web caters to request of abortion medication to women around the world. In their study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the group found that many Latin American women in particular requested for a lot of abortion pills after the Zika virus outbreak.

Before the virus hit, the Women of Web staff only received a little over 2,000 requests for abortion pills. In Venezuela and Honduras, there was at least a 70 percent request increase and in Brazil, the requests have more than doubled. El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia are experiencing a 30 percent increase. Additionally, the researchers did not find an increase in abortion pill requests in countries where there are no Zika alert and pregnancy advisories.

Women on Web Clients Only a Fraction of Latin Americans Getting Abortions

An expert not involved in the study or the organization, Dr. Gilda Sedgh of Guttmacher Institute, explained that women may only be responding to Zika health advisories. However, Women on Web clients may only be a small amount of women who do go through millions of abortions in Latin America yearly.

Sedgh adds that those who could use the net to contact the organization may be more well off than the average Latin American woman. She acknwoledges that the study provides clues about the plight of women in need of illegal abortions in Zika-infested Latin America.

However, the study is to be approached with caution. While Zika causes pregnant women to look for ways to get an abortion, it is not known how much it can affect them if they were infected and how many women are in the same situation.

Additionally, Latin American countries have a shortage of contraception and other birth control devices. With pregnancy advisories and little to no means to prevent conception, women are forced to look for other means to abort their pregnancies and it includes taking abortion pills. Abortion pills are only effective and advisable before the 10th week of pregnancy. Mothers infected with Zika virus in the first trimester have more than 20 percent chance of having a baby with neurological disorder.