Zika Virus Update: Abortion in Zika-Affected Countries Increase; Government Issues Health Alerts to Pregnant Women

A new study has been published claiming that the request for medical abortion has increased dramatically in countries that are suffering from Zika outbreak after governments issued health alerts especially to pregnant women.

USA Today reported that authors of the research published the study in "The New England Journal of Medicine" and have found out that there has been a sharp increase in the requests of abortion pills from Women on Web. The non-profit based website is in the Netherlands and provides prescriptions for abortion pills to women who live in areas with restrictive abortion laws.

The group also provides abortion pills for free to women in Zika-affected countries. Women on Web uses a pharmaceutical partner to mail the pills such as mifepristone and misoprostol to women who are in the first nine weeks of their pregnancy. The study included the data for the four month period after Pan American Health Organization issued a health alert regarding Zika in November of last year.

It has been found that women in Brazil and El Salvador have sent twice as many requests for abortion pills in the months of November up to March. Requests have also increased in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, and Venezuela. Officials in the aforementioned countries have issued national health advisories and warnings to pregnant women regarding the risks.

In Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Jamaica, governments have urged women to delay their pregnancy due to the Zika virus.

The demand for abortion pills in Brazil has increased but the women requesting for it normally do not receive the items as Brazilian customs agents have been confiscating them since 2013.

Other countries in which abortion pill requests have increased are in Argentina and Peru. Argentina recorded a 20 percent increase while Peru had a 22 percent increase. However, the country did not have Zika outbreaks at the time of the study. It might have increased, however, as the government announced an emergency on the said outbreak in anticipation of it reaching the country.

In Jamaica, despite officials issuing warnings to pregnant women about Zika virus, the request for abortion pills did not increase.

Co-author Abigail Aiken, who is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said that the finding suggests more women are reacting to the advisories and are ending their pregnancies because of the government warnings.

It has also been reported that many Latin American and Carribean countries have short supplies of basic contraception. Abortion rights advocates have also reacted to the study saying that Latin American countries should make abortion legal.

Zika causes many birth defects such as microcephaly and sometimes invisible deficiencies that could not be detected immediately.