Sheet Index Sexual Health Index Return to Fact Sheet Index Of the 46 million abortions that occur each year, roughly 20 million are performed under unsafe conditions because of poorly trained providers, unsanitary circumstances, and crude and dangerous methods of self-inducement. Each year, an estimated 80,000 women die from complications of unsafe abortion, accounting for at least 13 percent of global maternal mortality. The vast majority of these deaths are preventable.
Women often choose abortion when faced with an unwanted pregnancy.
Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are a fact of life. In every society, across all religious, cultural, and economic differences, women face unplanned pregnancies as a result of trying to negotiate the difficult balance between having sexual relations and choosing whether and when to have children. As long as there are unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, abortion will be a fact of life. When a woman decides to end an unwanted pregnancy, she will often go to extreme lengths to do so, regardless of whether the procedure is safe or legal. However, the chances of receiving a safe abortion vary widely and are determined by a variety of socioeconomic, legal, and cultural factors.