Maternal deaths rising due to low awareness about medication abortion: Survey

Due to lack of awareness, many women are dying after undergoing risky surgical abortions to end unplanned pregnancies instead of applying menstrual regulation with medication (MRM) procedures earlier, according to survey findings unveiled Monday.

Women's rights organisation Naripokkho conducted the survey in Dhaka North areas and fifteen upazilas of five districts, and published the results at a workshop in Dhanmondi in the capital.

The organisation's Project Manager Samia Afrin was present at the workshop alongside members including Sabina Yasmin and Nazmun Nahar.

Convinced by the research findings, the state-run Directorate General of Drug Administration has agreed to discuss the issue with Naripokkho and the pharmaceutical companies providing the required medicines, activists at the workshop said.

The medicines required for re-regularising menstruation to end pregnancies are affordable and effective but have to be administered seventy days after the final menstruation cycle while other guidelines also have to be followed. Otherwise, they can be ineffective and even cause serious health complications including bleeding to death.

Due to lack of awareness, the medications are either not adopted at all or are administered in the wrong way. The Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies do not conduct adequate awareness raising campaigns on MRMs while many a time, government healthcare workers are unwilling to extend support over social and religious concerns.

The government agencies are also running short of MRM supplies, are not required to follow accountability procedures and have little counselling facility for service seekers.

Retail drug sellers also have little knowledge about the medicines.

As a result, most women of childbearing age and new prostitutes have little-to-no knowledge about menstruation re-regulation through medication. In cases the medicines are taken, it is the male acquaintances who do the buying from stores, research findings revealed highlighting the low awareness among women.

Failure of proper medication forces many to resort to complicated abortion surgeries like dilation and curettage (D&C) as well as unauthorised services provided by quacks, unskilled health workers and traditional physicians.

MRMs were approved by the government back in 1972 and all the state-run upazila health complexes as well as maternal healthcare centres in the country provide them. As of 2018, 12 private companies produced the medicines.

With financial support from Sweden-based RFU, Malaysian agency Arrow conducted the MRM surveys in five Asian countries and Naripokkho was their advocacy partner in Bangladesh.