Creative math

Pro-choice ideology and politics are key components in the math of maternal health

June 24, 2010 | by Andrea Mrozek , Researcher, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada
PDF:  Creative math

Endnotes

  1. Åhman, E., Shah, I. (2004). Unsafe abortion: Global and regional estimates of the incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2000, fourth edition. Geneva: World Health Organization, p. 6.
  2. The following paragraph includes study references, including one that surveyed American women between 1976 and 1988, but also an embedded opinion that abortion is cross-culturally prevalent without exception. It is clear the researchers don’t view this as an opinion, but where no data exists to verify, it remains fair to call it such.
    “Whether legal or illegal, induced abortion is generally stigmatized and frequently censured by religious teaching. Women are often reluctant to admit to an induced abortion, especially when it is illegal. Surveys show that under-reporting occurs even where abortion is legal. When abortions are clandestine they may not be reported at all or reported as spontaneous abortion (miscarriage).The language used to describe induced abortion reflects this ambivalence: terms include induced miscarriage (fausse couche provoquée), menstrual regulation, or “regulation of a delayed or suspended” menstruation. It is therefore not surprising that unsafe abortion is one of the most difficult indicators to measure.”
  3. Unsafe abortion (2004), p. 6.
  4. “Whether legal or illegal, induced abortion is generally stigmatized and frequently censured by religious teaching or ideologies. Women are often reluctant to admit to having had an induced abortion, especially when it is illegal.”
    Åhman, E., Shah, I. (2007). Unsafe abortion: Global and regional estimates of the incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2003, fifth edition. Geneva: World Health Organization, p. 27.
  5. “It is assumed that subnational data can be extrapolated to country level with adjustments.” Unsafe abortion (2007), p. 28.
  6. Ibid.
    In effect, this assumption suggests that the per cent of live births in hospitals is equal to the per cent of miscarriages and abortions that end up in hospital. To give an example, if researchers knew that 1000 babies were born in a particular region in a particular year, but only 750 of the births were in a hospital, that would mean one quarter of births occur outside hospitals. They therefore assume that if 150 women are admitted to hospital due to spontaneous or induced abortion, one third of that number again, a 25 per cent of the total, occur outside the healthcare system, meaning 200 total spontaneous or induced abortions. Researchers also rely on the fact that in the hospital the cause of the abortion, natural or induced, is more likely to be known and apply this to non-hospital abortions, spontaneous or induced. These assumptions are then connected with the number of women who die in the perinatal period, and further linked to death the result of abortion.
  7. Harrison, D. (2009, May 1). Removing the roadblocks from achieving MDG 5 by improving the data on maternal mortality. New York: Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, p. 3.
  8. Ibid, p. 4.
  9. Yoshihara, S. (2010, June 3). Researchers Asked to Hide Scientific Debate over Maternal Deaths. Retrieved online at http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1641/pub_detail.asp
  10. Associated Press. (2010, April 14). Lancet: Sharp drop in maternal deaths worldwide. Retrieved online at http://www.physorg.com/news190462124.html
  11. Horton, R. (2010, April 10). Maternal mortality: surprise, hope, and urgent action. London: The Lancet.
  12. Unsafe abortions (2007), p. 5 and Unsafe abortions (2004), abstract.
  13. “Specifically, many United Nations (UN) agencies and non-governmental organizations pressure decision makers to liberalize abortion laws, promising everything from a decrease in maternal mortality to an increase in the well being of women if such laws are put into effect.”
    Harrison, (2009), p. 2.