Home abortions soar in Iraq as unwanted pregnancies rise [View All]

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/26/wirq26.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/26/ixnewstop.html

Women in Baghdad are turning to backstreet abortionists to avoid the risk of family honour killings, reports Damien McElroy


In a makeshift clinic behind locked doors, a nervous young woman sits on the edge of a bed preparing herself for an operation that will rid her of one unintended consequence of Baghdad's new atmosphere of freedom.

The austere room belongs to Samira Ali Baddria, a midwife turned backstreet abortionist, one of dozens of medically trained people who now offer an illegal escape from pregnancy to the city's women. The nervous young woman is her latest "patient".

In Iraq, a Muslim country, abortion has long been illegal - and socially taboo - except in medical emergencies. But since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's rule turned the established order on its head, Baghdad has witnessed an upsurge in promiscuity - and the emergence of a practice too risky to carry out under the former regime, with its network of spies. Abortion has become readily available.

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