[Illicit abortion, a public health problem in Kinshasa (Zaire)]

Illegal (242), therapeutic (6), and spontaneous (836) abortions were treated in the years 1978 to 1979 in the University Clinics in Kinshasa (Zaire). Spontaneous abortions are more common after the age of 20, but their incidence diminishes as parity increases. As a whole, they did not have serious complications. In the illegal group, two categories of high risk women were discovered. The first, characterised in girls under the age of 20 with first or second pregnancies who were unmarried, at school or socially and economically poor. The second group were women of 20 years or more who were married, educated and professionally active. Illegal abortions were performed before the twelfth week of pregnancy, generally by unqualified people. Society seems to tolerate then more or less because only 5% are taken to court. Bleeding, infection, traumatic lesions and 13 maternal deaths show how common complications of illegal abortion were. Both at individual and national levels the cost is high. Sex education, improvement in contraception and revision of the abortion laws are suggested as prophylactic measures towards this public health problem.