According to the Guttmacher Institute, 890,000 women have unsafe abortions annually in Pakistan. Of these 800 women die and 197,000 are hospitalized because of complications.

Safe Abortion hotlines run by our partners, Aware Girls and Peace Foundation have helped several women gain access to accurate information about medical abortion, and the availability of misoprostol. On March 20, 2013 Peace Foundation started yet another safe abortion hotline.

Here are the details:

Where: The Siraiki belt – 28 districts of South Punjab, North Sindh, South Kyber Pakhtunkha and North East Baluchistan.

Language: Siraiki

In the Siraiki belt, a woman’s life is complicated by social norms set down for her by a patriarchal society. The district has a very low literacy rate among women. Child marriage is also very common, and several young girls find themselves married by the time they are 13 or 14. Early marriages result in large families, and poverty. For many such women the access to safe abortion is key — it helps them control the size of their families, and take care of their existing children better.

But abortion stigma, religious fundamentalism and the lack of awareness about women’s reproductive lives, leads several women to seek unsafe abortion. Some of these young women lose their lives during these procedures. Others end up with severe complications.

The safe abortion hotlines provide information to women on

1. Safe Medical Abortion
2. The availability of Misoprostol
3. Information on using misoprostol for abortion and for post-partum hemorrhage.

These hotlines offer women a secure means to access information, and help them preserve their privacy. They are also cost effective, and help women who might be financial dependents or very poor.

ASAP congratulates Peace Foundation, and wishes them success!