Ipas DRC and Canada partner for sustainable access to reproductive health care in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Access to safe and legal abortion and contraception improves the health of women and girls and represents a fundamental human right. The ability to decide if and when to become pregnant is a symbol of reproductive justice and gender equality.

HABYGAELLE MUZIE, Communications Advisor
APRIL 15, 2024

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the publication of the Maputo Protocol in the official gazette has been followed by other milestones, such as the publication of a circular guaranteeing access to abortion care in line with the Protocol’s indications and the Ministry of Public Health’s adherence in 2020 to the evolving standards and directives relating to the application of the Protocol’s guidelines. All these actions made DRC the first country in French-speaking Africa to have implemented far-reaching changes promoting wider access to abortion care.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/country-impact/ipas-drc-and-canada-partner-for-sustainable-access-to-reproductive-health-care-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo/

Abortions are legal in much of Africa. But few women may be aware, and providers don’t advertise it

By Maria Cheng And Misper Apawu, The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 2, 2024

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — When Efua, a 25-year-old fashion designer and single mother in Ghana, became pregnant last year, she sought an abortion at a health clinic but worried the procedure might be illegal. Health workers assured her abortions were lawful under certain conditions in the West African country, but Efua said she was still nervous.

“I had lots of questions, just to be sure I would be safe,” Efua told the Associated Press, on condition that only her middle name be used, for fear of reprisals from the growing anti-abortion movement in her country.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/africa/abortions-are-legal-in-much-of-africa-but-few-women-may-be-aware-and-providers/article_24b7ad8d-aa20-5134-aa5f-a381fc7ea56c.html

Malawi – Media asked to question Govt why Termination of Pregnancy Bill is not being tabled in Parliament

March 21, 2024
Watipaso Mzungu JNR

A consortium of civil society organizations (CSOs) implementing Breaking the Barriers Project has made an impassionate appeal to the media in the country to question why, up to now, government is reluctant to table the Termination of Pregnancy Bill in Parliament.

Continued: https://www.nyasatimes.com/media-asked-to-question-govt-why-termination-of-pregnancy-bill-is-not-being-tabled-in-parliament/

Ugandan Women Risk Their Lives to Access Abortion

“Many girls are dying because we have chosen to ignore them.”

Friday, 8 March, 2024
Culton Scovia Nakamya

For Jovia (not her real name), 2023 was the worst year of her life. The 20-year-old business student was gang-raped at a drunken house party in the Kampala suburb of Kansanga and six weeks later realised that she was pregnant.

“I wondered what I am going to tell my parents. For God’s sake, I am just in my second semester of year one, and I didn’t know who did it,” she said.

Her options were limited, as abortion is illegal in Uganda except under rare circumstances. She confided in a female friend, who suggested they visit the Kampala suburb of Nakulabye, an area known as a hub of clinics that administer clandestine abortions, mostly to students.

Continued: https://iwpr.net/global-voices/ugandan-women-risk-their-lives-access-abortion

Nigeria – Safe Abortion: Groups want Sanwo-Olu to reinstate suspended guideline

The campaigner said unsafe abortion in Nigeria constitutes 10 per cent of the global maternal death rate and stands as the country’s second leading cause of maternal mortality.

By Mariam Ileyemi
February 26, 2024

Women groups and representatives of civil society organisations led by the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) have appealed to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to reinstate the suspended guidelines on safe termination of pregnancy.

The groups in a webinar on Monday said the guidelines are important to make provision for termination of pregnancy in cases of incest, rape, and sexual and gender-based violence.

Continued: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/672011-safe-abortion-groups-want-sanwo-olu-to-reinstate-suspended-guideline.html

Liberia – Unsafe abortion threatens women’s health

--As CSOs seek a joint alliance to target the menace

New Dawn
February 19, 2024

A 2023 report released by the Ministry of Health revealed that about 38,779 induced abortions took place in Liberia in 2021. The Ministry released the report in partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), and Guttmacher.

This translates to an induced abortion rate of 30.7 per 1,000 women of reproductive age and an induced abortion ratio of 229 abortions per 1,000 live births.

Continued: https://thenewdawnliberia.com/unsafe-abortion-threatens-womens-health/

19.02.2024

News

African Population and Health Research Center

Clinton Health Access Initiative

Nigeria – ‘Should women continue to die?’ – CSO asks n’assembly to review restrictive abortion laws

Sept 28, 2023
by Claire Mom

Ipas Nigeria Health Foundation has asked lawmakers to review restrictive abortion laws in the country that continue to endanger the lives of young girls and women.

In a statement released on Thursday to mark the “International Safe Abortion Day”, Ipas noted that unsafe abortions contribute between 13% and 30% to maternal mortality in Nigeria.

Continued: https://www.thecable.ng/should-women-continue-to-die-cso-asks-nassembly-to-review-restrictive-abortion-laws

30.09.2023

News

CEDAW

International Safe Abortion Day

Ipas Nigeria Health Foundation

Lucky Palmer

Maputo Protocol

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

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

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

Africa – AU commissioner: Unsafe abortion a leading risk factor for death in many countries

July 19, 2023
by Claire Mom

Janet Sallah-Njie, a commissioner at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, says unsafe abortion is among the leading cause of death for women in many parts of the continent.

Sallah-Njie spoke on Tuesday during the 20th anniversary of the Maputo Protocol organised by ODAS Mouvement and other sexual and reproductive health partners at the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda.

Continued: https://www.thecable.ng/au-commissioner-unsafe-abortions-a-leading-risk-factor-for-death-in-least-developed-countries

19.07.2023