Widening access to quality abortion care from the grassroots up

Testimonies of how access to quality abortion make a difference in the lives of women and girls

28 September 2023
World Health Organization

This year, International Safe Abortion Day profiles the unstoppable movement that is shaped by the diverse sexual and reproductive health community around the world, dedicated to protecting and promoting access to abortion care that is safe, affordable, timely and dignified.

In a series of captivating stories, the World Health Organization together with IBP Network highlights some important key players in this abortion care movement: local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs). In many parts of the world, these organizations are successfully translating WHO’s research and evidence-based recommendations into concrete actions that support women and girls’ agency and right to health.

Continued: https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/widening-access-to-quality-abortion-care-from-the-grassroots-up

Rwanda – Regional activists convene to advance sexual and reproductive health rights

By Bertrand Byishimo
January 17, 2022

Regional Civil Society Organisations have convened in Kigali for a two-day conference to discuss, share, and foster partnerships on access to safe abortion and sexual reproductive health.

The conference was organised by a coalition of Health Development Initiative (HDI), Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development (GLIHD), Ihorere Munyarwanda (IMRO) and Rwanda NGOs Forum on HIV/AIDS and Health Promotion (RNGOF on HIV/AIDS & HP).

Continued: https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/regional-activists-convene-advance-sexual-and-reproductive-health-rights

Archbishop of Uganda urges women to use contraception during lockdown

Archbishop of Uganda urges women to use contraception during lockdown

By Brinkwire
April 19, 2020

Family planning group hails Stephen Kazimba Mugalu’s break with Anglican tradition, but Catholic officials brand advice immoral

The new archbishop of Uganda has become the first primate of the country’s Anglican church to embrace the use of modern contraceptives after urging women to be “very careful” to avoid getting pregnant during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Continued: https://en.brinkwire.com/canada/archbishop-of-uganda-urges-women-to-use-contraception-during-lockdown/

Uganda condemns sex education for 10-year-olds as ‘morally wrong’

Uganda condemns sex education for 10-year-olds as 'morally wrong'

Ministry of Health declines to endorse proposals to tackle teen pregnancy rates, with distribution of contraceptives to 15-year-olds branded an ‘erosion of morals’

Samuel Okiror in Kampala
Friday 20 October 2017

A row has broken out in Uganda over proposals to extend sex education to 10-year-olds and give some 15-year-olds access to family planning services.

The Ministry of Health has refused to endorse the guidelines, which were designed to tackle the country’s high teenage pregnancy rate, objecting that they are morally wrong and would encourage promiscuity and abortions.

Activists condemned the decision as a “failure of leadership”.

Continued at source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/oct/20/uganda-condemns-sex-education-for-10-year-olds-as-morally-wrong

Uganda: Separating morality from service

Separating morality from service
Learning about sexual rights from Uganda

August 18, 2017
Zyma Islam

"According to the constitution nobody has the right to take a person's life, and so abortion is illegal unless authorised by a physician under health grounds.” Mondo Kyateka, Assistant Commissioner for Youth Affairs declares the official stance of the Ugandan government to a group of journalists sitting in a cramped board-room at the Gender, Labour and Social Development ministry in the capital city of Kampala. It is not an atypical stance in any way—unless required to save a mother's life, abortion is illegal in Bangladesh too, along with 52 other countries in the world.

Continued at source: Daily Star: http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/separating-morality-service-1450174

Uganda: These are the consequences of the 2017 version of US’ anti-abortion Global Gag rule

These are the consequences of the 2017 version of US’ anti-abortion Global Gag rule
Global Gag Rule Uganda

Written by Charles Ledford, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
August 13, 2017, Quartz africa

Uganda’s highway A-109 shoots across the plain from Kampala past the occasional storefront shops and open-air kiosks common to the continent’s roadsides. After rising into the verdant tea plantations of the country’s Western Region, it passes through Fort Portal near the Congolese border. From there, a turn off the main road leaves the reasonably well-maintained tarmac behind in favor of red clay washboard and bone-shaking potholes. Finally, it devolves into a footpath running between a few dozen housing compounds in a village called Kalera.

Though Kalera is poor by western standards, it doesn’t approach the desperation found in many poorer parts of Africa. Flinty, hard-working women tend small plots of bananas, potatoes, maize and soybeans. These plots border larger fields of tea, a cash crop. Goats and chickens roam. The village teems with children. Today, at least, there are no men in sight.

Continued at source: Quartz Africa: https://qz.com/1051605/trumps-anti-abortion-global-gag-rule-and-its-impact-in-uganda/