Vanuatu
ABORTION POLICY
Grounds on which abortion is permitted:
To save the life of the woman
To preserve physical health
To preserve mental health
Rape or incest
Foetal impairment
Economic or social reasons
Available on request
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Additional requirements:
Information is not readily available.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTEXT
Government view on fertility level:
Satisfactory
Government intervention concerning fertility level:
No intervention
Government policy on contraceptive use:
Direct support provided
Percentage of currently married women using
modern contraception (aged 15-49):
..
Total fertility rate (1995-2000):
4.3
Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000):
74
Government has expressed particular concern about:
Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion
Complications of childbearing and childbirth
No
Yes
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990):
National
Oceania
280
680
Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000):
69.5
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
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Vanuatu
BACKGROUND
Abortion in Vanuatu is governed by the provisions of Section 117 of the Vanuatu Penal Code, Act No. 17
of 7 August 1981. Under Section 117, the performance of abortions is generally illegal. A woman who
intentionally procures her own miscarriage is subject to two years’ imprisonment, as is a person who
intentionally procures the miscarriage of a woman. The Code, however, allows an abortion to be performed on
health grounds. Section 117 also provides that it shall be a defence to the charge of having committed the
offence of abortion that the miscarriage procured constituted a termination of pregnancy for good medical
reasons. The Code does not define what constitutes “good medical reasons”.
Although the Code does not set a specific limit on the period during pregnancy when an abortion may be
legally performed for good medical reasons, Section 113 of the Code implies that the period ends at 28 weeks.
Section 113 of the Code, which is entitled “killing unborn child”, provides that no person shall, when a woman
is about to be delivered of a child, prevent the child from being born alive. Under English law, from which this
section of the Code was derived, the term “unborn child” was usually applied to unborn children of a
minimum of 28 weeks’ gestation. Penalties range from 2 years for an abortion to life imprisonment for killing
an unborn child.
Although the Government does not have an overall population policy, family planning has been included
in the health policies of Vanuatu since it attained independence in 1980. Currently, health and family planning
services are organized at the district level and are free of charge. The Family Planning Association of Vanuatu
assists in the distribution of contraceptives to government centres and mission health centres. These
government institutions are the only entities allowed to distribute contraceptives, with the exception of
condoms, to the general population. Despite these efforts, however, the contraceptive prevalence rate is
believed to be relatively low in Vanuatu. Some of the obstacles to achieving greater acceptance of family
planning in Vanuatu include a cultural preference for large families, a reluctance to discuss family planning,
and service delivery problems to the 14 inhabited islands.
By 1990, however, a resurgence of interest in family planning, combined with a number of health
concerns, such as poor maternal health, led to the establishment of the Family Health Project. One of the
objectives of the project is the improvement of family planning services by enhancing the quality of care;
offering a wider range of family planning methods, including long-acting contraceptives; and facilitating access
to family planning services, particularly in rural areas.
Over the period 1970-2000, the total fertility rate declined from 6.5 children per woman to 4.3, but
remains high. The current population growth rate also remains high at 2.4 per cent.
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations
Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
174
Vanuatu
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
175