Migrant women who were raped before crossing the border grapple with restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.

Mexican cartels are using sexual violence as a weapon against migrants, leading women to discover they are pregnant after they cross the border — and face abortion bans.

March 27, 2024
By Paola Ramos and Kay Guerrero
(with 7-minute video)

Six weeks after a young asylum-seeker from El Salvador crossed into the U.S. from Mexico, she realized she was carrying a rape-related pregnancy.

The woman — who like the other women interviewed for this article aren’t being identified for security reasons — said she was sexually assaulted by the Mexican cartel that was holding her hostage in the dangerous border town of Reynosa, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, just a few miles from the U.S. border.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexican-cartel-sexual-violence-migrant-women-abortion-laws-rcna145164

27.03.2024

Commentary

Doctors Without Borders

Jennifer Harbury

mifepristone

migrant women and abortion

rape and abortion

self-managed abortion

Stories of safe abortion care in Mozambique

29 JAN 2024
Médecins Sans Frontières

In every country, women from all walks of life may seek out an abortion at some time of their lives due to many reasons. Where safe abortion care is too difficult to access, people with an unwanted pregnancy often have no choice but to resort to unsafe abortion, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality globally.

To reduce the high number of women dying from unsafe abortion, Mozambique in 2014 legalised abortion up to 12 weeks and beyond in cases of rape, incest, and severe foetal anomalies such as heart defects. This essential care is provided free of charge. But even though abortion is free and legal, other barriers including stigma and misinformation can still make it difficult to access safe care.

Continued: https://msf.org.au/article/stories-patients-staff/stories-safe-abortion-care-mozambique

Democratic Republic of Congo: At the forefront of the fight against gender-based violence

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2023
HABYGAELLE MUZIE, Communications Advisor, Ipas

No matter the cause, humanitarian crises often mean an increase in sexual and reproductive health needs—yet access to safe abortion remains one of the most forgotten of those needs. Ipas Democratic Republic of Congo is making sure that access to abortion is included in humanitarian aid response to the devastating armed conflict in North Kivu.

North Kivu is in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an area marked by extremely violent conflict. Despite all diplomatic efforts, clashes between Congolese troops and an armed rebel group have displaced thousands of people who have been forced to flee their homes to take refuge in makeshift camps. This instability has led to the complete collapse of the health system and contributed to a precarious health situation—with women, girls and children being the most affected.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/country-impact/ipas-democratic-republic-of-congo-at-the-forefront-of-the-fight-against-gender-based-violence/

04.12.2023

Commentary

Doctors Without Borders

National Reproductive Health Program

sexual and reproductive health

sexual violence

Africa

Democratic Republic of Congo

Health

Human Rights

Fatal abortion in sub-Saharan Africa: ‘She dilated my cervix with a cassava root and the fetus fell out’

A study by Doctors Without Borders and others warns of the proliferation of complications suffered by women following a terminated pregnancy in conflict-affected regions

MONICAH MWANGI, BEATRIZ LECUMBERRI, (REUTERS)
SEP 11, 2023

“I arrived at a hospital in Bangui and a 25-year-old woman had just died in my colleagues’ arms from complications following an abortion,” says Estelle Pasquier, a researcher with Doctors Without Borders (MSF). “This can happen several times a month, but it is a preventable death with the right measures. The doctors there have their hands tied by legal and social impediments, but the vast majority consider that the healthcare in these circumstances is a right for all women because they see the damage wreaked on a daily basis when that right is ignored.” What Pasquier is describing prompted a pioneering study, of which she is co-author, on the complications suffered by women after abortion in particularly volatile regions of sub-Saharan Africa, a corner of the world where 70% of deaths related in some way to maternity occur.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-11/fatal-abortion-in-sub-saharan-africa-she-dilated-my-cervix-with-a-cassava-root-and-the-fetus-fell-out.html

MSF statement on Supreme Court mifepristone decision

April 21, 2023

Today, the United States Supreme Court granted the Biden Administration’s emergency request to allow the continued use of mifepristone—one of two drugs used for medication abortions—while lower courts consider an appeal of an earlier ruling revoking the FDA’s approval of the drug.

Dr. Carrie Teicher, director of programs for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) USA, gave the following statement:
MSF has witnessed the devastating complications from unsafe abortion when people don’t have access to this essential health care. As a provider of safe abortions in countries all over the world, we know that medication abortion reduces maternal death and suffering.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-statement-supreme-court-mifepristone-decision

21.04.2023

News

Doctors Without Borders

Dr. Carrie Teicher

Food and Drug Administration

maternal mortality

Medicins sans Frontieres

Q&A: How MSF provides abortion care now

September 28, 2022

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides safe abortion care at many of its projects around the world and is working to expand access to these services to more people. While the legal and cultural landscape around safe abortion care continues to change, the clear medical need for it does not. As we mark International Safe Abortion Day on September 28, here is an update on our work and perspective on abortion care now.

What are the medical impacts of criminalizing abortion, based on MSF's experience around the world?
MSF has seen that regardless of legal restrictions, when safe abortion care is not accessible, women and girls* will often turn to dangerous methods to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/qa-how-msf-provides-abortion-care-now

28.09.2022

Featured

Doctors Without Borders

International Safe Abortion Day

Medicins sans Frontieres

Why Are We Restricting the Abortion Pill to First-Trimester Pregnancies?

By Lux Alptraum
JULY 8, 2022

For the past few years, medication abortions have been on the rise in the United States, accounting for 54 percent of abortions performed in 2020 (up from just 39 percent in 2017). With last month’s gutting overturn of Roe v. Wade, that number is now expected to spike even higher despite the legal risks in states where abortion is now criminalized. The reasons are obvious: Medication abortion — a.k.a. “the abortion pill” — offers a safe way to terminate a pregnancy from the comfort of your home, even in places where abortion is criminalized. Clinics may shut their doors and doctors may refuse to provide abortions, but pills remain readily available online.

https://www.thecut.com/2022/07/medication-abortion-pill-after-first-trimester.html

Why abortion should be treated as an essential health service in humanitarian emergencies

Nelly Staderini, Doctors Without Borders
February 10, 2022

According to data from the World Health Organization, each year there are seven million hospitalizations due to complications related to unsafe abortion methods. For this reason, access to voluntary termination of pregnancy in humanitarian contexts should be considered a matter of public health, although unfortunately this is not how it is usually interpreted. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) knows first-hand the consequences of unsafe abortion. I personally know of numerous cases of women who have died trying to use sticks, pins, or hangers to terminate a pregnancy. Others ingest soap or laundry detergent, and some are poisoned by herbs or medications that are not indicated for this purpose.

We usually work in contexts where it is very common to receive women who have tried to have an abortion in a medical consultation, although they also go to the emergency services. This fact has a huge impact on our staff. Regardless of the reasons a person may have for terminating a pregnancy, the medical consequences of an unsafe abortion are always the same.

Continued: https://plainsmenpost.com/why-abortion-should-be-treated-as-an-essential-health-service-in-humanitarian-emergencies-on-the-front-line-future-planet/

10.02.2022

Commentary

Featured

Doctors Without Borders

humanitarian aid

Médecins Sans Frontières

Nelly Staderini

self-managed abortion

traditional abortion methods

World Health Organization

How a Young Woman’s Death Led Me to Fight for Sexual and Reproductive Health Care for All

Dr. Melusi Dhlamini shares why he is an activist for sexual and reproductive health and rights.

By Dr Melusi Dhlamini
December 10, 2021

Dr. Melusi Dhlamini is a sexual and reproductive health care provider in South Africa and was named as one of the Mail & Guardian's 200 Young South Africans in 2020.

I was born in the small rural town of Sannieshof, South Africa, in February 1988. I spent most of my early life, until the year I matriculated, between my birth town and Rustenburg.

Raised by my mother and aunt, I became a social justice activist whose values are rooted in intersectional feminism and what it aims to achieve. My activism is underpinned by a desire for gender equality and a world in which your gender and its various expressions; race; and social and economic standing do not negatively affect you. And I carry this into my work every day as a sexual and reproductive health care provider.

Continued: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/dr-melusi-dhlamini-sexual-reproductive-health-care/

10.12.2021

Commentary

Featured

Doctors Without Borders

Dr Melusi Dhlamini

Ibis

maternal death

Médecins Sans Frontières

’The court owes it to women’: Groups decry Colombia’s abortion ruling delay

The Constitutional Court had been expected to make history Friday, but it didn't happen. Unsafe abortions are the country's fourth-leading cause of maternal mortality.

Nov. 23, 2021

By Albinson Linares, Noticias Telemundo

Women's groups that sued to decriminalize abortion in Colombia are pushing for
a decision after a much-anticipated ruling from the country's top court was
postponed last week.

“The court owes it to women," Catalina Martínez Coral, the Latin America
and Caribbean director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Noticias
Telemundo.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/-court-owes-women-groups-decry-colombias-abortion-ruling-delay-rcna6477