MUGU, Feb 5: With the coordination of various government authorities, District Health Office (DHO), Mugu has announced to extend its safe medical abortion service in the rural parts of the district. However, the negligence of women, especially in remote areas, has made it challenging for DHO to provide the service.
Women living in the remote villages get married at an early age, they give birth to a large number of babies, don't adopt safe family planning measures and also use medicines without prescription of doctors or health experts for abortion. This has made abortion more complex here, informed Gyan Singh Budha, senior health worker of DHO.
According to Bali Bahadur Budha, information officer of DHO, this service has been extended in the rural areas to help women get a safe medical abortion without putting their life at risk. He further informed that this service will be provided at three rural municipalities and district hospital of Mugu.
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The service is available at primary health centre of Kotdanda and health post of Shreekot in Khatyad Rural Municipality; health post of Jima in Soru Rural Municipality and health post of Pulu in Mugum Karmarong Rural Municipality as well as at Chayanath Rara Municipality-based district hospital, informed Suraj Gurau, chairperson of DHO.
With the expectation of giving birth to a baby boy, women in rural parts of this region give birth to a large number of children.
Earlier, abortion facility was available only at the district hospital due to which rural women relied on medicines or pills available at local health centers for abortion. This had adversely affected their health. This had also cost the lives of a large number of women. However, the number has decreased significantly in the recent days, according to DHO, Mugu.
DHO now conducts awareness programs regarding safe abortions and also recommends medication at various health posts.
As per the legal provision, women in Nepal are allowed to abort fetus which is 12 weeks old. But in case of rape and incest, 18 weeks-old babies can also be aborted. According to the district hospital, the number of women who come to a hospital for safe medical abortion is still very low. According to private medical stores, the demand for banned medicines such as Misoprostal, Econ among others for abortion is very high.
