Kampala — A Ugandan pharmacist is the lucky recipient of a $40,000 (about Shs66 million) fellowship to study abortions. Mr Joseph Babigumire, who is currently a doctorate candidate at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Washington in the US, will study the economic impact of unsafe and induced abortion in Uganda.

According to the university's website, the fellowship has been granted by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Institute of International Education. The two-year fellowship is awarded to doctoral candidates studying population, reproductive health and economic development.

The website quotes Mr Babigumire saying his research will focus on measuring the cost of unsafe procedures of abortions on the health care system.

Abortion is illegal in Uganda, and according to a 2006 study conducted by Makerere University Medical School and the New York -based Guttmacher Institute; an estimated 300,000 women carry out induced abortions every year. Close to 65,000 of these abortions, the report says, end up in complications that may lead to death.