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

How MSF is empowering women through self-care

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
Mar 12 2021

For many women and girls in New Zealand, the means to initiate self-care is readily available, with sufficient access to contraception, family planning resources and professional advice.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines self-care as, "the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health and cope with illness and disability, with or without the support of a health-care provider."

Continued: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/inspire-me/124488046/how-msf-is-empowering-women-through-selfcare

How the Pandemic Is Changing Abortion Care in Vulnerable Countries

How the Pandemic Is Changing Abortion Care in Vulnerable Countries

By Rachelle Hampton
May 18, 2020

This as-told-to essay from Dr. Manisha Kumar has been edited and condensed for clarity from an interview with Rachelle Hampton.

I am currently the head of Médecins Sans Frontières’ task force for safe abortion care. It’s a relatively new initiative that started in 2016 to increase provision of contraception and safe abortion care in MSF projects. Before this role, I worked for MSF in many different capacities. I was both a field staff doctor in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a medical coordinator in DRC and Bangladesh. Just like many people, I’m working from home now, in Amsterdam. I’ve never spent this much time in my apartment, behind my computer, on Zoom meetings and calls. So much of MSF and who we are is based in the field.

Continued: https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/coronavirus-abortion-doctors-without-borders.html

Colombia to decide on historic abortion ruling

Colombia to decide on historic abortion ruling

ELLA TORRES
February 16, 2020

Fourteen years after Colombia's landmark decision to legalize abortions in some cases, the country is once more bracing itself for a historic vote.

The Colombian Constitutional Court has until Feb. 19th to decide whether it will legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. The current law allows for abortion in only three instances: if the mother's life is at risk, if a fetus is malformed or if the pregnancy is a result of rape.

This is the "first real opportunity to actually advance reproductive rights," according to Paula Avila-Guillen, the director of Latin America Initiatives for the Women's Equality Center.

Continued: https://news.yahoo.com/colombia-decide-historic-abortion-ruling-120633539--abc-news-topstories.html

Lack of safe abortion provision a global health issue

Lack of safe abortion provision a global health issue
At least 22,000 women and girls die each year from unsafe abortions

Thu, Mar 7, 2019
Claire Fotheringham

Setting foot in the busy maternity hospital in West Africa in September 2011 , I was completely unprepared for what I found: women arriving on death’s door, with complications such as heavy bleeding and septic shock.

In the operating theatre, examining many of these women, I found trauma marks on the cervix, caused by objects such as sticks that had been inserted to terminate their pregnancies. Examples of unsafe abortion that had resulted in horrific injury.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/lack-of-safe-abortion-provision-a-global-health-issue-1.3816662

07.03.2019

Featured

Opinion

dangerous abortion methods

Dr Claire Fotheringham

maternal death

maternal mortality

Médecins Sans Frontières

MSF

post-abortion complications

Unsafe abortion: A forgotten emergency

Unsafe abortion: A forgotten emergency

Mar 7, 2019

Unsafe abortion remains one of the five leading causes of maternal mortality, despite the fact that it is almost always preventable.

More than 22,000 women and girls die each year after having an unsafe abortion, according to a comprehensive report published by the Guttmacher Institute in 2018.

Since 1990 the world has made significant progress to reduce the other main causes of maternal deaths—severe bleeding, severe infection, blood pressure disorders, and obstructed labor—yet there has been little improvement to diminish the dangers of unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/story/unsafe-abortion-forgotten-emergency

Africa: Unsafe Abortion – Neglected Emergency

Africa: Unsafe Abortion - Neglected Emergency

Mar 4, 2019

Unsafe abortion still accounts for at least one in 12 maternal deaths globally. And, compared to reductions in all the other direct causes of maternal deaths since 1990 - severe bleeding, severe infection, blood pressure disorders and obstructed labour - there has been little improvement in the negative impact of unsafe abortion.

Unsafe abortion is a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both, as defined by the World Health Organization. Abortion, whether safe or unsafe, is a common event worldwide: approximately one in four pregnancies ended in an induced abortion during the period 2010-2014.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/201903040646.html

“I’ve seen with my own eyes, safe abortion saves lives”

"I’ve seen with my own eyes, safe abortion saves lives"

27 September 2018

Dr Manisha Kumar is a family medicine doctor and the coordinator of the Task Force for Safe Abortion Care, a project that aims to increase access to contraceptive and safe abortion care services offered by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) projects.

Before I started working at MSF field projects, I saw abortion as more of a political issue, or as an aspect of women’s rights. But now that I’ve seen women and girls in need of safe abortion, day after day, with my own eyes, I’ve come to understand abortion as a medical necessity, something that has a very real impact on people’s lives.

Continued: https://www.msf.org/ive-seen-my-own-eyes-safe-abortion-saves-lives

Doctors Without Borders Reiterates Critical Medical Need for Reproductive Health Services

Doctors Without Borders Reiterates Critical Medical Need for Reproductive Health Services

By Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) -

March 2, 2017

NEW YORK, MARCH 2, 2017—As the “She Decides” initiative formally kicks off in Brussels today, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is stressing the importance of access to reproductive health services like safe abortions, a critical medical need for women and girls across the world. This global initiative is in direct response to the reinstatement of the US government’s Mexico City Policy, which endangers the lives of women and could encourage unsafe abortions. Unsafe abortion is one of the five main causes of maternal mortality worldwide.

Continued at source: Yubanet: https://yubanet.com/world/doctors-without-borders-reiterates-critical-medical-need-for-reproductive-health-services/