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Abortions and miscarriages in Iran: 685 daily, 250 000 annually

Iran Materials 30 January 2014 11:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 30

By Temkin Jafarov, Saeed Isayev - Trend:

Every year, about 250 000 illegal abortions and miscarriages occur in Iran, Director of Iranian Health Ministry's department of population's health, Mohammad Ismayil Motlaq said, Sharqh newspaper reported on Jan. 30.

The newspaper noted that this is the first time since 1998 that an official reveals the statistics of legal and illegal abortions in Iran. In previous years, the annual abortion in the country stood at 90 000.

The recent statistics indicate a 3-fold increase in illegal abortions in the country.

Motlaq went on deeper into the statistics, saying that from 250 000 annual abortions, means 685 daily and 29 per hour.

"The statistics say about 1.7 million pregnancies occur in Iran yearly. About 100 000 of those pregnancies result in stillborn babies, and 250 000 more are miscarriages and illegal abortions," he said.

Motlaq continued by saying that overall about 1.4 million people are born in Iran every year, while about 350 000 die every year.

Back in 2012, Iranian health ministry's officials said that about 80 000 legal and illegal abortions occur in Iran every year. Tabnak newspaper reported at the time that about 17 percent of country's annual 1.7 million births are "unwanted".

Some health experts at the time said that Iran's abortion rate is much higher than it's officially reported. According to the Islamic law, abortion is illegal in Iran, although permission can be sought if the life of the mother or fetus is endangered.

In 2005, Iran's Majlis (parliament) approved an amendment to the country's abortion law to permit terminating a pregnancy when three experts say it is necessary and the coroner confirms that the fetus could be mentally or physically impaired or if the mother suffers from an illness that makes pregnancy dangerous.

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