Sky-high abortions in Vietnam as family planning excludes youth

At a small Hanoi cemetery, Nguyen Van Thao opens a fridge and pulls out a bag of bloody foetuses to prepare for burial -- a grim reminder that Vietnam has one of the highest abortion rates in the world.

Around 40 per cent of pregnancies in the country end in abortion, according to a report by doctors from Hanoi’s Central Obstetrics Hospital, the figure is double the rate given by official statistics.

A legacy of childbearing quotas, poor family planning advice for the young, and conflicting messages about sex have created a situation where some are relying on abortion as a form of contraception.

There are 83 abortions per 1000 women of childbearing age in Vietnam, compared to between 10 and 23 abortions per 1000 women in much of western Europe and the US, according to sexual health non-profit group, the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

“On our busiest ever day, we received 30 foetuses,” said Thao, who for around a decade has led a team of mostly Catholic volunteers in collecting foetuses, normally disposed as medical waste, from abortion clinics across the capital.

“It’s hard to count how many we’ve buried,” said volunteer Nguyen Thi Quy, 62, who helps Thao shroud the foetuses before giving them a proper burial at the cemetery in Hanoi’s Soc Son district.