Abortions: Up for foreigners, down for Singaporeans in 2011

Number of abortions by non-PR foreigners surged from 1,660 in 2003 to 3,020 last year

By Theresa Tan, The Straits Times, 3 Jun 2012

With more foreigners coming to Singapore to live and work, more are also becoming pregnant - but not giving birth.

Eight out of 10 abortions were performed on Singaporean women in 2003, and that number dropped to six out of 10 last year.

However, both the proportion and number of foreigners and permanent residents (PRs) terminating their pregnancies almost doubled in the same period.

The Sunday Times obtained the data from the Ministry of Health (MOH), which began collating the figures online in 2003.

In particular, the number of abortions by non-PR foreigners shot up from about 1,660 in 2003 to about 3,020 last year - almost twice that of PRs.

The influx of foreigners in the past decade is the key reason for the growing number of abortions among them.

Some are work permit holders who will lose their jobs if they are found to be pregnant, said abortion counsellors.

Female work permit holders 'should not become pregnant or deliver any child in Singapore', unless she is married to a Singaporean or PR with the approval of the Controller of Work Passes.

Those who become pregnant are not allowed to continue working in Singapore, said a Manpower Ministry spokesman, adding: 'This is to reiterate that, as transient workers, they ought to come to Singapore for work purposes only.'

The number of male and female work permit holders shot up from 540,000 in 2004 to 908,000 last year. Women tend to find jobs as domestic workers, or in the service and manufacturing industries.

Other foreign residents may not want to start, or expand, their families while starting a new job in a new land, said counsellors.

As a result, while the number of Singaporean women terminating their pregnancies plunged to a record low last year, the overall number of terminations remained stable - at about 12,000 a year in the past decade.

Among Singaporean women, a more widespread use of birth control has led to fewer unwanted pregnancies, said doctors and abortion counsellors.

The number of abortions by Singaporeans fell by about 25 per cent, from about 9,770 in 2003 to about 7,280 last year - good news for a country struggling with a long-standing baby drought.

Top reason: Being unwed

What is true for both foreign and Singaporean women, however, is that just over half of all abortions last year, or 51.1 per cent, were requested by married women.

Single women make up about four out of 10 who abort. The rest are divorced women, widows and women who are in steady relationships or engaged to be married.

The most common reason for getting an abortion is because one is unwed. The second is having 'enough children' already.

Counsellors said women often have two or three children and feel they cannot cope with the stress and expense of having another. Many want to focus their energy on the children they already have.

Madam Jennifer Chee, centre manager at aLife, a charity which supports women in unwanted pregnancies, said: 'Most families think that having three kids is a lot. Now the education system is so competitive, women worry whether their child can make it to university. They expect a lot of their children.'

A growing proportion of women are terminating pregnancies because they feel they are 'not ready to start a family'. Last year, 10.3 per cent of abortions were by women who cited this reason, up from 7.8 per cent in 2003.

They are usually newly-weds who want a few child-free years to 'enjoy life and travel the world', said counsellors. Others want to establish careers first.

With more high-tech antenatal screening, more foetal anomalies such as Down syndrome and other genetic diseases are being detected, doctors said. Last year, 2.3 per cent of abortions were by women who cited this issue as a reason, compared with none in 2003.

To reduce the number of abortions, it is compulsory for Singaporeans or PRs with at least some secondary education and fewer than three children to be counselled before they can get abortions. The MOH said it did not have the percentage of those who changed their minds after counselling.

Doctors and abortion counsellors interviewed said between 5 and 20 per cent of their patients decide not to go ahead with an abortion after being counselled.

Today's women are very clear about what they want and it is an uphill task persuading them not to proceed with an abortion, said Dr Kenneth Wong of the Obgyn Centre, a private clinic.

More well-educated women having abortions
By Theresa Tan, The Straits Times, 3 Jun 2012

The proportion of highly-educated women having abortions has more than doubled in less than a decade.

Last year, 36.3 per cent of all abortions involved university or polytechnic graduates - more than double the 15.6 per cent in 2003.

Doctors and abortion counsellors say this is largely because there are more women now with tertiary education.

In 2010, 37.6 per cent of the non-student population of citizens and permanent residents aged 15 and older had either a diploma, university degree or some professional qualification - up from 22.8 per cent in 2000.

Those interviewed say graduate women are often focused on their careers and may not want a baby.

A doctor said he had a patient, a banking professional in her 30s, who ended her second pregnancy so she could retire at 45 as planned.

He said she figured she would have to put off retirement by 10 years to maintain the same standard of living, if she had the baby.

Women who are successful in school and career also tend to have greater expectations of their own children, said doctors.

They feel a need to invest their time and resources to maximise the potential of their children, and having another child would spread their efforts too thinly.

Dr Kenneth Wong, of the Obgyn Centre, a private clinic, said couples have become more mindful about having children: 'Now it's no longer about bringing a child to this world and winging it. Parents don't want to wing it. They want to make sure their kid does well in school and the culture is just getting more and more competitive.'

Still, the biggest group of abortions last year, 44.1 per cent, involved women with secondary, O-level, or Institute of Technical Education education.

Counsellors say these women are more likely to be constrained by financial difficulties. The family income may be only a few thousand dollars a month and they feel they cannot afford to feed another mouth.

NOT THE FIRST TIME FOR SOME

About one in three abortions here involved women who have had previous terminations.

Last year, 22 per cent of abortions were by women undergoing a second, 7.5 per cent a third, and 3.2 per cent a fourth or more. These figures have remained fairly consistent in the past decade.

Doctors and abortion counsellors said women - both married and single - who have multiple abortions either do not use birth control or use it intermittently.

One doctor had a patient who has had 13 abortions. The housewife in her 40s has 'four or five' children and does not practise birth control, he said.

A divorcee in her 30s, the patient of another doctor, has had nine abortions and 'two or three' children. 'To her, the abortions were nothing. She aborted as she was either single when she got pregnant or her relationship failed,' he said.

Doctors cautioned that there are risks to having multiple abortions. They include a higher risk of infertility and repeated miscarriages. Depression or other emotional trauma may also result.

One married professional in her 30s who has been unable to conceive was diagnosed with Asherman's Syndrome, a condition characterised by the formation of scar tissue inside the uterus, which can cause infertility.

One cause of the syndrome is repeat abortions, and the woman had terminated three pregnancies before she was married.