Abortion rate among adolescents in Vietnam is higher than any other country in Southeast Asia and 5th in the world.
 |
| Abortion services booming in Hanoi |
The ranking is from the latest statistics of the Vietnam Family Planning Association.
The Central Obstetrics Hospital conducts over 5,000 abortions annually, 30% of those are performed on women below the age of 24. Hanoi Obstetrics Hospital deals with nearly 1,000 per year.
In Vietnam there are around 300,000 abortions performed annually on women and girls between the ages of 15 and 19. Many of them have had multiple abortions.
A major contributing factor is a lack of education about contraception and reproductive health.
Ms. Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF Vietnam Representative, said at a recent press conference in Hanoi that Vietnamese adolescents face a unique set of challenges due to impacts of economic insecurity, climate change and rapid urbanisation.
Abortions among adolescents made up 2.2% of all abortion cases in Vietnam last year. Among Vietnam’s 26.7 million people between the ages of 10 and 24, it is estimated that one third of them have difficulty getting access to reproductive health care, education and services.