Guttmacher: The cost of unsafe abortion

Treating the complications that result from unsafe abortion costs Africa and Latin America $227-280 million each year, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute. These costs (reported in 2006 US$) place a considerable added strain on struggling national health systems in Africa and Latin America, which spend an estimated $490 million annually treating complications from pregnancies and births. Moreover, unsafe abortion costs the developing world at least $341 million when the Asian and Pacific regions are taken into account. Read the report from the US-based Guttmacher Institute.