The Preventable Pandemic

The Lancet said it in 2006: "Unsafe Abortion: the Preventable Pandemic."

Legalisation of abortion on request is a necessary but insufficient step toward improving women's health

and

Direct costs of treating abortion complications [from unsafe abortions] burden impoverished health care systems and indirect costs also drain struggling economies.

and

Access to safe, legal abortion is a fundamental right of women, irrespective of where they live.

and

The underlying causes of morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion today are not blood loss and infection but, rather, apathy and disdain toward women.

—The Lancet. 2006 Nov 25;368(9550):1908-19.