Despite abortions being legal for the last 46 years, almost 60% of procedures in India are unsafe - a ratio much closer to that in countries where abortion is illegal. This discrepancy is primarily because of lack of access to hospital facilities, awareness and stigma around abortion, shows a latest study published in the international medical journal 'Lancet'.The study, conducted by lable on demand.However, in India, the number of unsafe abortions continues to be drastically high, reflecting a huge disparity when compared with other countries where abortion is legal.Experts say the govern WHO along with Guttmacher Institute, shows that 62 countries with highly restrictive abortion laws have 75% of all unsafe abortions compared to 13% in the 57 countries where legal abortion is avai ment's proposal to expand the provider base by including trained healthcare workers, mid midwives and Ayush doctors will help reduce unsafe abortions in India. To reverse this, India must take major policy and programmatic action. The government needs to urgently take forward the proposed amendments to the MTP Act. Without the expansion of provider base proposed in the amendments, safe abortion will never be a reality for women in rural remote areas of the country, Ipas Development Foundation executive director Vinoj Manning said.Findings of the study show a total of 55.7 million abortions occurred worldwide each year between 2010 and 2014. Of this, 30.6 million were estimated safe whereas 17.1 million were less safe and eight million were least safe.Thus, 25.1 million abortions each year between 2010 and 2014 were unsafe, with 24.3 million (97%) of these in developing countries.According to Susheela Singh of Guttmacher Institute, who was also one of the researchers of the study, the average unsafe abortions in the south central Asia region, which includes countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India, was as high as 58%.