How can innovation help increase access to self-managed medical abortion in Sub-Saharan Africa?

1 August 2023
Jameen Kaur, FIGO Advocating for Safe Abortion Project, and Julia Hanne, Options Consultancy Services Ltd

Increasing access to safe abortion reduces maternal mortality and disability. However, currently, 45% of all abortions globally are unsafe and are a catastrophic public health problem, accounting for up to 13% of preventable maternal deaths worldwide and causing hundreds of thousands of survivors to live with preventable long-term complications.

The World Health Organisation states that in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a medical abortion can safely be self-managed by the pregnant person outside of a health care facility (e.g., at home), in whole or in part, and with access to quality medicines, accurate information and the support from a trained health worker (if needed).

Continued: https://www.figo.org/news/how-can-innovation-help-increase-access-self-managed-medical-abortion-sub-saharan-africa

FIGO Supports Strengthening Access to Telemedicine/ Self-Managed Abortion

1 October 2020
Jameen Kaur, Advocating for Safe Abortion Project, FIGO

28 September 2020: on the 100th anniversary of the first law to legalise access to abortion, FIGO stands in solidarity with the international safe abortion campaign calls to strengthen access to telemedicine/self-managed abortion.

In recent months Alexandra Kollontai’s name has been shared within the reproductive rights community. It was Kollontai’s visionary leadership that led to Russia being the first country in the world to legalise abortion in 1920.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/news/figo-supports-strengthening-access-telemedicineself-managed-abortion

COVID-19 lockdowns leading to a rise in violence against women and girls

COVID-19 lockdowns leading to a rise in violence against women and girls
The global COVID-19 pandemic in its indiscriminate spread has claimed loved ones before their time - once bustling cities and neighbourhoods now stand in ‘lock-down’.

14 May 2020
Jameen Kaur

While the spread of COVID-19 is indiscriminate, mounting evidence has revealed that COVID-19 has further compounded existing inequalities putting already marginalised women and girls, often with weaker access to political and economic power, at greater risk, not only to the coronavirus but also to the direct and indirect consequences of lock-down.

FIGO and our 132 National Member Societies commitment to promote women’s health and rights precedes the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the two are explicably linked. UN Women has reported a global rise in domestic violence cases and new evidence released by UNFPA reveals that for every 3 months the lockdown continues an additional 15 million cases of gender-based violence are expected, 13 million women will not be able to access modern contraceptives and there will be an estimate of 325,000 unintended pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/covid-19-lockdowns-leading-rise-violence-against-women-and-girls