The Growing Challenge of Meeting the Reproductive Health Needs of Women in Humanitarian Situations

The Growing Challenge of Meeting the Reproductive Health Needs of Women in Humanitarian Situations
Recent Progress Is Threatened by Rising Nationalism in the United States and Europe

February 13, 2017
News Release

About one in four of the 129 million people around the world in need of humanitarian assistance are women and adolescent girls of reproductive age. Women and girls are at particular risk when a region or country’s social, health and other support systems collapse, exposing them to sexual violence, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, STIs (including HIV), and maternal illness and death. And yet, sexual and reproductive health services in humanitarian settings continue to lag far behind the enormous need, argues a new analysis in the Guttmacher Policy Review.

“Humanitarian agencies have made substantial advances in issuing sexual and reproductive health guidance in crisis settings. But implementation of these policies and standards has often fallen far short of what is needed,” says Sneha Barot, author of the new analysis. “Fundamentally, the same barriers that can interfere with access to sexual and reproductive health care under normal circumstances are often magnified during emergencies.”

Continued at source: Guttmacher Institute: https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/growing-challenge-meeting-reproductive-health-needs-women-humanitarian-situations