At least six million Indian women go through abortions every year, which is almost ten times the official estimate. A new study says that abortion is used as a family planning tool.

The Abortion Assessment Project India (APP-I) in its final report has stated that even registered facilities do not report all abortions carried out, while many women in villages continue to use traditional methods like herbs and instruments to induce abortion."

Around 4.8 million abortions are performed by formal service providers and another one-third of the abortions by informal service providers," said Ravi Duggal, coordinator of the Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT) that carried out the study.

"We estimate that around six million abortions take place annually in India as against government estimate of 600,000 based on the last census report."Reporting to the authorities is not complete so there are large gaps," Duggal said Monday at a presentation of the final report.

The findings of various studies done in Haryana, Kerala, Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram and covering all regions of the country reveal that "abortions are used frequently as a contraceptive to limit the family size or space out family," said Duggal.

In at least one third of the cases, women are known to have post-abortion complications. Experts associated with the study, which has been shared with 24 state governments, stressed the need for India to step up advocacy of various contraception alternatives and create better awareness about safe abortion options while providing legislative support.

"In India, the crucial issue is of the use of abortion as a contraceptive. There is a need to shift the balance from sterilisation to advocacy of contraceptives for family planning," said Hilary Standing, fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Britain.

The Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation are among those who have supported the multi-centric study in six states, focusing on numerous dimensions of abortion services in public and private sector.

According to IANS, "there is not enough choice in the menu of the family planning service to shift the women from abortions to contraceptives, such that there is quite a lot of unmet need," Standing told IANS. 

"The study has highlighted that a majority of abortion cases in India concern married women whereas in most developed nations, it is predominantly unmarried women who seek abortions.

This points to the need to step up awareness about contraceptives."The experts also emphasised that with continually evolving new technologies it is essential to more frequently amend legislation to meet such needs.

One of the most important changes "we are seeking is further amendment of the medical termination legislation to remove the word 'unmarried' and the right of women to seek abortion till 12 weeks (of pregnancy) on demand," said Duggal.Report is silent that how many female are aborted against the male.