The State of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: A Conversation with Dr. Zara Ahmed

October 9, 2020
By Deekshita Ramanarayanan
15-minute podcast

“Unintended pregnancy and abortion are reproductive health experiences shared by tens of millions of people around the world, irrespective of personal status or circumstance. What differs though are the obstacles,” said Dr. Zara Ahmed, Associate Director of Federal Issues at the Guttmacher Institute in this week’s Friday Podcast. Research from the Guttmacher Institute on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) found that in 2018, there were 121 million unintended pregnancies globally, and of those, 61 percent ended in abortion. About half of these abortions were in unsafe conditions and led to approximately 23,000 preventable pregnancy related deaths, said Ahmed.

“A major finding of our research is about the legal status of abortion,” said Ahmed. “This is important. Abortion rates are the same where abortion is broadly legal and where it’s restricted – exactly the same.” Guttmacher research shows that in settings where abortion is restricted, the proportion of unintended pregnancies that end in abortion increased nearly 40 percent over the last 30 years.

Continued: https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2020/10/state-sexual-reproductive-health-rights-conversation-dr-zara-ahmed/

09.10.2020

Commentary

Featured

Covid-19 and abortion

Dr. Zara Ahmed

Global Gag Rule

Guttmacher Institute

sexual and reproductive health services

unintended pregnancy

unmet need for contraception

Africa: Essential Women’s Health Services at Risk Amid Covid-19

By JOHN LAZAME TINDANBIL
Oct 4, 2020

Bolgatanga, Ghana — The COVID-19 pandemic is setting back important progress on women’s health across Africa. There are many reasons for this, including lockdown restrictions which are keeping women at home, concerns about catching the virus, and the closure of women’s health services. These problems are not simple ones, but they to be acknowledged and addressed.

In my own country, Ghana, where my organisation runs safe abortion and family planning services in the north of the country, we saw a sharp drop in the number of women accessing our services from April to August 2020, compared to the same period last year.

Continued: https://thestreetjournal.org/2020/10/africa-essential-womens-health-services-at-risk-amid-covid-19/

Nigeria – Prioritise girls sexual reproductive health, SFH tasks Nasarawa Government

By Abel Abogonye, Lafia
12 September 2020

Society for Family Health (SFH) has urged the Nasarawa state government to prioritise adolescent girls’ access to sexual reproductive health services to reduce morbidity and maternal mortality.

The Northern regional coordinator, SFH, Anita Elabo at the closeout of the first phase of the A360 project yesterday in Lafia, said access to reproductive health services would promote social inclusiveness and help reduce maternal mortality such as unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortion among adolescent girls and women.

Continued: https://guardian.ng/news/prioritise-girls-sexual-reproductive-health-sfh-tasks-nasarawa-government/

12.09.2020

sexual and reproductive health services

Society for Family Health

Latin America – Covid-19 hospital beds and abortion

There is hard evidence that the pandemic presents a heightened risk to reproductive health

DEBORA DINIZ and GISELLE CARINO
31 JUL 2020

“Abortion is a public health matter,” scientists say. This notion seems a bit abstract – how can a criminalized practice constitute a public health need? The Covid-19 pandemic is a teachable moment. But it is the teaching of horror: according to the World Health Organization, thousands of women visit health services every month to receive care for incomplete abortions. In Argentina, the figure was 3,330 women; in Chile, 1,522; in Colombia, 7,778; and in Mexico, 18,285, in different years. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 760,000 women in Latin America and the Caribbean are treated annually at healthcare services because of complications from unsafe abortions, averaging out to 63,000 beds a month. When a woman goes to a hospital for complications from an unsafe abortion, she might end up needing a bed twice: once, to treat the unsafe abortion and next, to be treated for the Covid-19 she contracted in the hospital.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/opinion/2020-07-31/covid-19-hospital-beds-and-abortion.html

Abortion rates highest where legally restricted: study

July 24, 2020

Abortion rates are highest in countries that legally restrict access to terminations, but lowest in high-income countries where abortion and contraception are accessible, a new study has found.

Women in the world's poorest regions are three times more likely to experience an unplanned pregnancy than women in the global North. Abortion rates are also highest in middle- and low-income countries, the research found.

Continued: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-abortion-highest-legally-restricted.html

24.07.2020

sexual and reproductive health services

Sustainable Development Goals

unintended pregnancy

United Nations Human Reproduction Programme

Asia

Global

Nepal

Marie Stopes Uganda speaks out on COVID-19, population growth

Julius Businge, The Independent
July 14, 2020

As Uganda joined the rest of the world to
commemorate the World Population Day on July 11, Marie Stopes Uganda, a health
focused international organization working in Uganda urged the government and
other actors to work towards having a healthy and productive population to
achieve social economic transformation.

This year’s day commemoration came at a time when the country and the rest of
the world governments were relaxing restrictions put in place earlier to combat
the spread of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Uganda had by press time,
recorded a total of 1,029 coronavirus cases with 0 deaths.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.ug/marie-stopes-uganda-speaks-out-on-covid-19-population-growth/

14.07.2020

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News

Carole Sekimpi

Covid-19 and abortion

family planning

Marie Stopes Uganda

Peter Ddungu

sexual and reproductive health services

Maldives records 12 unintended pregnancies per day amidst COVID-19

Shahudha Mohamed
05 July 2020

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) revealed on Sunday that every day, 12 women unintentionally get pregnant, as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), even before the pandemic, only 15 percent of married couples in Maldives used some form of modern contraception – one of the lowest contraceptive prevalence rates anywhere.

Continued: https://edition.mv/news/17692

05.07.2020

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Covid-19 and contraception

sexual and reproductive health services

UNFPA

unintended pregnancy

United Nations Population Fund

The Pandemic And Legal Abortion: What Happens When Access Is Limited?

The Pandemic And Legal Abortion: What Happens When Access Is Limited?

June 8, 2020
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

In April, Johanna Cruz terminated her pregnancy with drugs obtained through a telemedicine consultation.

Abortion is legal in Colombia. And Cruz, a street performer from Chile who was backpacking through the Colombian state of Antioquia, did not feel she was in a position to raise a child. She didn't have a steady income or stable housing. And with stay-at-home orders in place to control the spread of coronavirus, she found herself facing homelessness in the town of San Rafael and unable to travel to Medellin, the nearest city with an abortion clinic.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/08/864970278/lockdown-limits-access-to-legal-abortion-in-colombia-telemedicine-is-now-an-opti

Zimbabwe – Timely Pitch: Women Still Need Contraceptives During Lockdown

Timely Pitch: Women Still Need Contraceptives During Lockdown

by Edinah Masiyiwa
28.4.2020

Recently, my work phone rang and on the other end was a woman called Tendai (not her real name). Tendai needed to get a replenishment of her contraceptives. She tried to go to the women’s clinic that morning.

Our clinics were deemed essential and are open, but Tendai could not reach one as there was no public transport running in her area. Quickly, I assured Tendai that I would call her back with a solution. Fortunately, Women’s Action Group, the organisation I work for, is part of a coalition working on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and I was able to connect her to a service provider who helped her obtain her contraceptives as they could offer transport within a given radius and she lived close enough to receive that help.

Continued: https://www.thezimbabwean.co/2020/04/timely-pitch-women-still-need-contraceptives-during-lockdown/

Lockdown in Colombia will affect the right to abortion, says human rights lawyer

Lockdown in Colombia will affect the right to abortion, says human rights lawyer
What happens when a woman has to terminate her pregnancy during lockdown?

Translation posted 3 April 2020

Although necessary for the health protection of citizens, measures taken by the Colombian government to contain the COVID-19 infection, including the national lockdown and closing the borders, may hinder the access of Colombian and Venezuelan women to services that are essential to their sexual and reproductive health.

“In times of pandemic, women will still require the services necessary for accessing safe abortions, emergency contraception, and protection from sexual violence and abuse,” Selene Soto, a lawyer from the Women’s Link Worldwide organization in Bogota, told Global Voices.

Continued: https://globalvoices.org/2020/04/03/lockdown-in-colombia-will-affect-the-right-to-abortion-says-human-rights-lawyer/