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

Five takeaways from MSF’s study on unsafe abortions

Posted 6 Sep 2023
Reliefweb

A study of two hospitals in conflict-affected settings finds patients at significantly higher risk of developing severe complications resulting from unsafe abortions.

Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the world, with over 20,000 people dying each year due to related complications. In fragile or conflict-affected settings, the complications resulting from unsafe abortion are up to seven times more severe.

Continued: https://reliefweb.int/report/central-african-republic/five-takeaways-msfs-study-unsafe-abortions

06.09.2023

Research

maternal mortality

Medicins sans Frontieres

Africa

Central African Republic

Abortion: Women more at risk of death in fragile and conflict-affected settings

5 September 2023
Médecins Sans Frontières

Complications following unsafe abortions are up to seven times more severe in fragile or conflict-affected settings: these are the findings of one of the very first studies on the subject, carried out in two referral hospitals in Bangui in the Central African Republic and Jigawa State in northern Nigeria. Behind the statistics, real stories of real women – and a universal vulnerability.

“I was distraught. I had drunk the traditional medicine. Before that, someone had shown me how to insert a piece of iron into my vagina... It was a piece of iron like this [she shows the interviewer the size],” says Rasha*, a 32-year-old woman admitted to Bangui referral hospital with potentially life-threatening abortion-related complications.

Continued: https://www.msf.org/abortion-women-more-risk-death-fragile-and-conflict-affected-settings

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

Empowering women worldwide: A revolution in safe abortion care

28 September 2021
by Dr Manisha Kumar, head of MSF’s task force on safe abortion care

I became an abortion provider almost 10 years ago. Since then, I have helped countless people around the world access safe abortion care. I’ve also witnessed the devastating complications from unsafe abortion when people do not have access to this essential healthcare. Unsafe abortion is one of the main causes of maternal death and suffering worldwide, and the only one that is almost entirely preventable.

An abortion with pills is a game-changer. The simple regimen, taken over 24 hours, has the power to completely revolutionise access to safe abortion care, especially in low-resource and humanitarian settings, where MSF works. Used by millions of people for over 30 years, we have decades of research and experience showing how safe and effective abortion pills are.

Continued: https://www.msf.org/self-managed-abortion-pills-opens-access-millions-people

MSF welcomes reversal of the Global Gag Rule

28 Jan 2021

More action is needed to expand access to safe abortion care

On January 28, President Biden rescinded the Mexico City policy, more commonly known as the Global Gag Rule.The policy prevents US government funds from going to any foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide abortion-related information, referrals, or services, even with privately raised or non-US funds. It acts as a "gag" on health care providers worldwide, prohibiting them from even counseling women about their reproductive choices or referring them to other health providers for care.

Continued: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/msf-welcomes-reversal-global-gag-rule

28.01.2021

Featured

News

Doctors Without Borders

Dr Manisha Kumar

Global Gag Rule

maternal mortality

Medicins sans Frontieres

Mexico City policy

traditional abortion methods

South Africa: Providing safe abortion care during a national lockdown

03 July 2020
Kgaladi Mphahlele, Doctors Without Borders

In 2015, MSF surveyed 800 women between the ages of 18 and 49 in Rustenburg and found that one in four women had been raped in her lifetime, yet fewer than 5 per cent of those women reported to a health care facility. Since then, MSF has run several sexual and reproductive health programs for the community— including for survivors of sexual violence— across Bojanala district, where Rustenburg is located, in partnership with local health authorities.

In addition to community outreach and health
education in more than 20 schools in the district, MSF supports four Kgomotso
Care Centers (KCC) providing sexual violence care.

Continued: https://www.msf.org.za/stories-news/fieldworker-stories/south-africa-providing-safe-abortion-care-during-national-lockdown

Colombia – Unsafe abortion: women at risk

Unsafe abortion: women at risk

Report 25, September 2019
Women's health, Colombia

Colombia decriminalised abortion in some circumstances in 2006 yet only around 10 per cent of terminations of pregnancies are safely performed in health structures. Unsafe abortions are responsible for some 10 per cent of Colombia's maternal deaths. MSF has published a report in Spanish Aborto no seguro, mujeres en riesgo (Unsafe abortion, women at risk), highlighting the barriers women encounter when seeking to terminate their pregnancies. It is based on information collection during the implementation of our safe abortion service in Colombia in 2017 and 2018.

Executive summary

Unsafe abortion is one of the five leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide, along with postpartum haemorrhage, sepsis, birth complications and hypertensive disorders. Of all these, unsafe abortion is the only one that is completely avoidable.

Continued: https://www.msf.org/unsafe-abortion-women-risk-colombia-msf-report