Fact-checking claims on maternal deaths and abortion in Nigeria

Maternal mortality refers to deaths due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Okonofua told Africa Check he had been misquoted but has yet to provide us with the evidence for his claims. We will update this report once we receive a reply.

He said: “Nigeria has one of the worst indicators of maternal mortality in the world, second only to India.”

Ann-Beth Moller is a technical officer at the WHO’s sexual and reproductive health department. She referred us to the organisation’s trends in maternal mortality report for 2000 to 2017.

The report showed that in 2017 Nigeria had the highest number of maternal deaths in the world, at 67,000. The estimate was based on sources such as civil registration and vital statistics systems, population-based household surveys and specialised studies.

 (Note: Experts have told us that data on maternal mortality in Nigeria remains unreliable.)

India came second to Nigeria with 23,000 maternal deaths, while China recorded 4,900. When maternal mortality rates, per 100,000 live births, were considered, Nigeria was fourth, after South Sudan, Chad and Sierra Leone.

The available data does show Nigeria ranks lowly on key maternal health indicators.

The headline of the Nation article also claimed that according to Okonofua Nigeria had the highest rate of abortion in the world. 

Another newspaper reported Okonofua saying this was 45 “illegal abortions” per 1,000 women.

The professor told Africa Check he had again been misquoted. “Nigeria has one of the highest rates of unsafe abortion in the world,” he said.

Abortion is illegal in Nigeria and can result in a jail sentence of up to 14 years. It is only allowed if done to save the life of a woman.

The WHO’s Moller told Africa Check that the international health agency would soon publish country-level estimates. “But currently, I can’t confirm the statement,” she said.

Dr Oluwatosin Wuraola Akande is a public health physician and lead author of a 2020 journal article on unsafe abortions in Nigeria. She said she doubted the claim was correct.

Akande referred us to a global factsheet on unintended pregnancy and abortion which covered 2015 to 2019. It is compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a US-based research and policy institute for sexual and reproductive health. The factsheet is based on a study of unintended pregnancy and abortion trends published in the medical journal the Lancet.

According to the factsheet, western Asia and northern Africa had the highest abortion rate, at 53 induced abortions per 1,000 pregnancies, followed by central and southern Asia with 46 abortions per 1,000 pregnancies. 

It listed a rate of 33 per 1,000 for sub-Saharan Africa. The factsheet, however, does not break down these rates per country.

In the absence of recent and publicly available reliable data, we rate the claim as unproven. (Read the challenges of estimating abortions in Africa in our factsheet here.)