As Mexico City leads the way in the legalization of abortion in Latin America, the rest of the region remains behind. With the pressure of Pope Benedict urging the Brazilian government to keep abortion illegal on his recent visit to the country, new statistics from the Brazilian Health Ministry about deaths related to botched abortions is opening up a heated debate:

In the last five years, 1.25 million women — some 200,000 women per year — were hospitalized for complications related to illegal abortions.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly one million illegal abortions are practiced in Brazil every year. 20 Minutos reports that, in addition to the fact that 13% of deaths in pregnant women in Brazil can be attributed to illegal abortions, the financial toll of the injuries and deaths related to the procedures over the past five years amounted to 81 million dollars.

Via / 20 Minutos

Image via Belfast Telegraph