Los Angeles Times Examines Apparent Increase In Abortions In Middle East

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 02 Jul 2008 - 10:00 PST

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The Los Angeles Times on Sunday examined how "changing social values and economic realities, as well as demographic shifts" have contributed to an apparent increase in the number of abortions in the Middle East.

According to the Times, abortion is illegal in much of the Middle East. Most interpretations of Islam, the prevalent religion in the region, hold that it "strictly forbids" abortions after the fourth month of pregnancy and allows abortions earlier in pregnancy only in cases of rape or an "extreme" physical or psychological threat to the pregnant woman, the Times reports.

However, despite legal and religious restrictions, many law enforcement officials do not prosecute abortion unless the parents or husband of the woman files a complaint, the Times reports. Some Islamic clerics also have given "tacit" approval to the procedure in certain cases, according to the Times. A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll released in June found that 53% of Egyptians, 57% of Palestinians and 55% of Iranians are opposed to their governments' laws that criminalize abortion.

The number of abortions in the region might be increasing in part because fewer people are getting married at early ages, leading more people to engage in premarital sex, the Times reports. Some family planning experts in the region said that Arab youths receive little sex education or access to birth control. According to the Times, some Middle Eastern women who already have several children have abortions after consulting with husbands because they are unable to care for another child.

Family planning advocates often provide reproductive health services "discreetly" in "conservative Muslim societies that hold women's maternal roles as sacrosanct," the Times reports. "If access to contraceptives was widely and freely available, abortion wouldn't be necessary," an unnamed official from a Western family planning group in Yemen said, adding that abortion is "a last resort" for women in the Middle East.

Although official statistics on the number of abortions in the region are not available, some family planning experts say there has been a 100% increase in the past 20 years. According to the United Nations, one of every 10 pregnancies in the region ends in abortion -- about half the U.S. rate. Mohammed Graigaa, executive director of the Moroccan Association for Family Planning, said abortion is "much less of a taboo" than in previous years. He added that people in the region "more and more accept abortion as a human right." However, family planning experts say that laws and traditions are out of step with reality and note that botched abortions that endanger women's health are still widespread. Graigaa added that Middle Eastern society is becoming "more and more permissive to abortions done within the framework of a couple" (Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, 6/29).

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