Women living in Latin American countries where the Zika virus is spreading locally are requesting more abortions, a new study finds.
When researchers looked at eight countries where Zika is spreading, where abortion is illegal and where there are national advisories warning women of the risks, they found the abortion rate increasing in all but one of the countries, by anywhere from 36 percent to 108 percent.
Abortion rates rose in Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Equador, Honduras and Venezuela, but not in Jamaica, according to the findings published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers also looked at seven other countries where Zika is spreading and abortion is illegal, but where there are no public advisories. Requests for abortion rose between 8 percent and 68 percent in five of those countries — Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay – but not in two of the countries, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
The researchers warned that while their work doesn’t prove that Zika concerns lead to more abortion requests, it does provide “a window on how concern about Zika virus infection may have affected the lives of pregnant women in Latin America.”
Abortion rights advocates responded to the study by calling for Latin American countries, many of which outlaw abortion, to make the procedure legal. Zika is known to cause severe birth defects in the fetuses of women who are infected during pregnancy.
“The solution to this serious public health crisis lies in the hands of government officials and policy makers — not the women at risk of harm,” said Nancy Northrup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “It’s time that Latin American countries take real, evidence-based steps to combat the spread of this virus while protecting women’s fundamental human rights.”
