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MUMBAI: In order to fulfill the need of women looking for a safe and non-invasive option for abortion, Project Kare from DKT India has launched a series of television commercials with the aim of creating awareness about medical abortion. These commercials present situations that can be seen in real life where a woman may want to terminate her pregnancy. These TVCs are currently being aired on the national television by DD and Colors.
The TVCs are part of a larger campaign by Project KARE to build awareness about the safety and non-invasive nature of Medical Abortion and the empowering role it can play in the lives of women in India. This TVC will also help dispel the popular notion that abortion is not legal in India.
Speaking on this campaign, Sandra Gass, Executive Director, DKT India and Dr. Sandeep Ghiya, Project Manager, Project Kare said, ?Despite abortion being legal in India, a majority of women opt for unsafe procedures to terminate pregnancy due to social stigma or non-availability of trained providers. Medical abortion is a safe, legal and non-invasive method to terminate pregnancies that can be provided by a larger section of trained medical practitioners than surgical abortion. With this generic communication campaign, we are trying to create awareness especially among women about medical abortion which will enable them to avail of this method from the medical practitioner.?
Women today are more in control of their lives and wish to have more information and choices before making any decision. Women often say that they do not have enough knowledge about medical abortion to make an informed choice leading to our decision to create this generic campaign to increase the basic awareness regarding medical abortion. She would, of course, need to go to her medical practitioner for additional details. Medical abortion, an effective alternative to surgical abortion, gives a woman the power to decide her response to an unwanted pregnancy. The TVCs also demonstrate the various people a woman usually turns to for help and support while making this important and difficult decision.
Although abortion has been legal in India for more than three decades, access to safe services remains limited for most women. It has been estimated that nearly 90% of abortions in India are performed under potentially unsafe conditions in unapproved facilities, by providers ranging from qualified doctors to those without training or qualifications. There are no definite studies linking maternal deaths to unsafe abortions, but statistics suggest that about 9% of maternal deaths in rural India are due to complications of abortion. While most causes of maternal mortality are not predictable, unsafe abortion is easily preventable if women have access to safe abortion care.
