Health challenges
Economic impact of abortion related morbidity and mortality: modelling worldwide estimates
Estimating the costs of unsafe abortion
Authors:
M. Vlassoff
Publisher:
Eldis Health Resource Guide, 2006
This paper estimates the monetary costs of the 19 million unsafe abortions that take place every year around the world. This includes the direct costs of treatment related morbidity and mortality to health systems, and indirect costs to the national economy and households – the cost to women when they suffer from abortion complications whilst they receive treatment and recuperate from such treatment. The paper estimates that annually:
- direct costs of treatment are approximately $1.7 billion
- the cost of treating women from secondary infertility resulting from unsafe abortions is over $2 billion
- the cost to women while they suffer from abortion complications and receive treatment is approximately $800 million
- the impact of abortion related deaths to the economy is $35 million and the impact of morbidity is around $1 billion
The paper concludes that costing the impact of abortion-related morbidity more accurately requires that value of women’s work in non-market settings is also taken into account, and better information is available about the precise costs of treating complications and the prevalence of different levels of complication.
