Making abortion safer in Thailand

KALYAPAT RACHITROJ
6 OCT 2023

Safe abortion is a basic healthcare service and an important enabling factor for Thailand to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Under Target 3.1 of Goal 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages), a two-thirds reduction in maternal mortality -- in which unsafe abortion is a leading cause -- is called for by 2030. And this is directly under the mandate of the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) to deliver.

While Thailand has legalised abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy in 2021, women still face an information deficit, social stigma, and lack of access to safe abortion services. In recognition of the International Safe Abortion Day last week, I would like to speak out as a woman and a member of parliament.

Continued: https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2658555/making-abortion-safer-in-thailand

06.10.2023

Opinion

International Safe Abortion Day

Kalyapat Rachitroj

maternal mortality

Move Forward Party

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Sustainable Development Goal 3

Sustainable Development Goals

Kenya – Entrench safe motherhood

To uphold the fundamental human right to health, as enshrined in the Constitution, maternal health must remain a top government priority.

Thursday, August 03, 2023

By Tamia Nuna, Youth Advocate

In 2020, nearly 800 women died daily from pregnancy- and childbirth-related preventable causes, a maternal death every two minutes. While the global maternal mortality ration (MMR) dropped by 34 per cent from 2000 figures, that 95 per cent of cases were in low- and lower-middle-income countries is a concern. Kenya had a high MMR, of 530 deaths per 100,000 live births, above the global average of 223, thus the urgent need for action.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/blogs/entrench-safe-motherhood-4324120

03.08.2023

maternal mortality ratio

MMR

Sustainable Development Goal 3

Abortion complications killed 311 Ghanaian women in 2019 – Ghana Health Service

Source: Nestor Kafui Adjomah
16 November 2021

311 women have died in 2019 from complications of abortion, accounting for 9.2% direct maternal deaths in Ghana.

Ghana Health Service (GHS) has therefore put in place pragmatic approach to strengthening the integration of Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC) services into the routine reproductive health services in Ghana.

Continued: https://www.myjoyonline.com/abortion-complications-killed-311-ghanaian-women-in-2019-ghana-health-service/?param=

COVID-19 lockdowns leading to a rise in violence against women and girls

COVID-19 lockdowns leading to a rise in violence against women and girls
The global COVID-19 pandemic in its indiscriminate spread has claimed loved ones before their time - once bustling cities and neighbourhoods now stand in ‘lock-down’.

14 May 2020
Jameen Kaur

While the spread of COVID-19 is indiscriminate, mounting evidence has revealed that COVID-19 has further compounded existing inequalities putting already marginalised women and girls, often with weaker access to political and economic power, at greater risk, not only to the coronavirus but also to the direct and indirect consequences of lock-down.

FIGO and our 132 National Member Societies commitment to promote women’s health and rights precedes the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the two are explicably linked. UN Women has reported a global rise in domestic violence cases and new evidence released by UNFPA reveals that for every 3 months the lockdown continues an additional 15 million cases of gender-based violence are expected, 13 million women will not be able to access modern contraceptives and there will be an estimate of 325,000 unintended pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/covid-19-lockdowns-leading-rise-violence-against-women-and-girls

Ghana – Towards an End to Abortion Stigma

Towards an End to Abortion Stigma

By Joshua Okyere
1.05.2020

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are imperative components of ensuring good health and wellbeing of all. It covers issues of family planning, contraceptive use, abortion, comprehensive sexuality education and gender equality. As a matter of fact, it is the fundamental human right of individuals to decide freely and responsibly without coercion and violence, the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health (ICPD 1994). Hence, the global community has championed the need for SRHR to be prioritized with UNICEF and UNDP being at the forefront of this.

The world has made great strides in this regard yet there is more to be done. Among all of these SRHR issues, abortion has been a perennial concern for individuals and decision makers. In the true sense of it, abortion can happen clinically, hence, it is dubbed as spontaneous abortion. The main issue of contention has to do with induced abortion.

Continued: https://www.modernghana.com/news/999259/towards-an-end-to-abortion-stigma.html

India’s Liberal Abortion Law, Nullified by Social Stigma

India’s Liberal Abortion Law, Nullified by Social Stigma

By Stella Paul

NEW DEHLI, Apr 14 2020 (IPS) - Arti Zodpe is from the Tamasha (folk dance-drama) theatre in Sangli, in India’s Maharashtra state. After evening performances, some of the singers and dancers offer sex work services to the audience.

“We [Tamasha sex workers] live outside of the city as people feel disturbed by the sound of our ghunghroo [anklet bracelets with bells] and music. When we go to the city, especially to a sex health clinic, the staff say, ‘so you have come to spread your filth here’. If we get an abortion, they make us clean the floor afterwards,” she had said at a recent gathering of doctors and abortion rights experts.

Continued: https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/04/india-liberal-abortion-law-nullified-social-stigma/

Zambia: Adolescents muse on reproductive health encounters

Adolescents muse on reproductive health encounters
May 23, 2017

LILLIAN BANDA, Lusaka

ONE of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 is that by 2030, the world should ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes.

One of the proposed indicators of this target is that the proportion of women of reproductive age 15-49 years- should have their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods.

Increased access to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) information and services is key to reducing the number of girls becoming pregnant, leading to a reduction in the number of unsafe abortions among this age group, which according to expert reports, is mostly affected by unsafe abortions.

Continued at source: Daily Mail: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/adolescents-muse-on-reproductive-health-encounters/

23.05.2017