About 34,000 Nigerian women reportedly die every year from complications related to abortions.    

Prof. Innocent Ujah, Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Lagos made the disclosure at the forum organised by the Federation of International Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO), which involved participants from Brazil, Mali, Cameroon, Ghana and Gabon.

He said, ''Unsafe abortions contribute 13 to 50 percent of deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa in pregnancy and child birth and we believe we can be part of the discussions on how to reduce it. We are not talking mainly of induced abortion, we are also talking of miscarriages that are not taken to the hospital and get infected or the women bleed to death.

''All these constitute a major problem to maternal mortality''.

He called for effective action to check the trend while stating that about 760,000 abortions are done in Nigeria every year.

SOURCE: NAN