Nigeria – Maternal mortality: NGO seeks implementation of safe abortion law by A’Ibom govt

May 12, 2025
by Bassey Anthony

Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) has urged the Akwa Ibom state government to implement the safe abortion law to reduce maternal morbidities and mortalities.

The nongovernmental organization said that the National Health Demographic Survey report (2018) places Akwa Ibom as the state with the highest number of maternal mortality of 420 deaths/100,000 live births.

Continued: https://thenationonlineng.net/maternal-mortality-ngo-seeks-implementation-of-safe-abortion-law-by-aibom-govt/


Nigeria – How Unsafe Abortion Causes Life-Threatening Complications For Women – LIFE

Taiwo Jimoh 
January 29, 2025

Unsafe abortion is a significant contributor to maternal deaths in Nigeria, with estimates ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 deaths annually. This high mortality rate is primarily due to restrictive abortion laws, which drive women to seek unsafe procedures from unqualified practitioners majority of maternal deaths in Nigeria are linked to unsafe abortions.

According to a recent study carried out by the Leadership Initiative For Youth Empowerment (LIFE), unsafe abortion is still a major public health concern in Nigeria and a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in the country.

Continued: https://newtelegraphng.com/how-unsafe-abortion-causes-life-threatening-complications-for-women-life/#google_vignette


Ghana – Maternal mortality: actors in Volta commit to promoting safe abortion, family planning

Octobre 26, 2024
By Samuel Akumatey

Ho, Oct 26, GNA – Actors and stakeholders in the Volta Region have committed to the promotion of safe abortion and family planning as a means to addressing maternal morbidity and mortality in the country.

The Ghana health service maintains that unintended pregnancies accounts for the majority of maternal health challenges, and thus the need to make known and accessible, safe and approved methods of birth control.

https://gna.org.gh/2024/10/maternal-mortality-actors-in-volta-commit-to-promoting-safe-abortion-family-planning/


Malawi: Enact Termination of Pregnancy Bill to Reduce Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

27 September 2024
Centre for Solutions Journalism (Blantyre)

Every year on September 28, Malawi joins the rest of the world in commemorating the global day of action for access to safe and legal abortion.

As we commemorate this year's International Safe Abortion Day, statistics from medical facilities regarding the number of women and girls experiencing complications from unsafe abortions show that the nation's abortion law, which was passed in the colonial era in 1930, is not only out of date but has also utterly failed to lower the number of unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202409270375.html


Abortion access expert talks about the U.S. position in the global abortion landscape

Rollback of abortion rights post-Dobbs makes U.S. a global outlier.

by Rachel Crumpler
June 5, 2024

Since the Dobbs decision in June 2022, nearly half of states in the United States — including North Carolina — have curtailed access to abortion by implementing increased restrictions.

The significant rollback in abortion legality throughout much of the country puts the United States in sharp contrast to the global trend of loosening abortion laws and increasing protections for abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2024/06/05/abortion-access-expert-talks-us-position-in-the-global-abortion-landscape/


Blurring the lines – The stark reality of safe abortion access in Nigeria

In Nigeria, accessing safe abortion care is a contentious issue fraught with myths, misconceptions, and misinformation that often obscure the reality of sexual and reproductive healthcare.

April 22, 2024

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 73 million abortions take place worldwide every year. Worldwide, an estimated 22 million abortions continue to be performed unsafely each year, resulting in the death of an estimated 47,000 women and disabilities for an additional five million women with 29% of all pregnancies ending in an induced abortion. Almost every one of these death and disabilities could have been prevented through sexuality education, family planning, and the provision of safe, legal induced abortion and care for complications of abortion.

Continued : https://www.premiumtimesng.com/promoted/688183-blurring-the-lines-the-stark-reality-of-safe-abortion-access-in-nigeria.html


Standard pregnancy care is now dangerously disrupted in Louisiana, report reveals

MARCH 19, 2024
By Rosemary Westwood
4-Minute Listen with transcript

In the wake of Louisiana's abortion ban, pregnant women have been given risky, unnecessary surgeries, denied swift treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, and forced to wait until their life is at risk before getting an abortion, according to a new report first made available to NPR.

It found doctors are using extreme caution to avoid even the appearance of providing an abortion procedure.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/19/1239376395/louisiana-abortion-ban-dangerously-disrupting-pregnancy-miscarriage-care


Between law and sexual rights in Nigeria

Is extant legal framework protecting the sexual and reproductive rights of the Nigerian woman? YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE in this piece explore factors that answer the concerns on the attainment of reproductive health rights, lack of specific legislation, and the seeming unwillingness to domesticate international protocols that Nigeria co-signed.

by Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare 
January 31, 2024

The issue of reproductive and sexual health rights has not always been an open discussion in the African society, repressed mainly by cultural beliefs, including in Nigeria, despite the prevalence of maternal mortality and morbidity. According to statistics in the OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development, every day, Nigeria loses 145 women of childbearing age from complications of child birth leading to more focus on health issues and the right to health. But while the right to health has been recognised globally since reproductive health rights gained formal acceptance in 1993, the need for women to have access to quality reproductive health services such as medical care, planned family, safe pregnancy, delivery care and treatment and prevention of sexually-transmitted infections, while gaining recognition, cannot be said to have been given its due pride of place.

Continued: https://tribuneonlineng.com/between-law-and-s3xual-rights-in-nigeria/


Since “Dobbs” Ruling, Native People Face a Web of Obstacles to Reproductive Care

In addition to external constraints, many tribal governments appear reluctant to actively fight for abortion access.

By Jen Deerinwater , TRUTHOUT
July 17, 2023

Abortion access was already a near impossibility for people receiving services through the Indian Health Service (IHS), even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The ruling is likely to increase already high rates of pregnancy-related mortality for Native pregnancy-capable people (NPCP) in the U.S., creating “the perfect environment for Native women to die,” Abigail Echo-Hawk, citizen of Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board, told Truthout.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/since-dobbs-ruling-native-people-face-a-web-of-obstacles-to-reproductive-care/


One year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, abortion care has become a patchwork of confusing state laws that deepen existing inequalities

June 21, 2023
Heidi Fantasia

In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling struck down the constitutional right to abortion, society has been seeing the results of a post-Roe world.

While there is no law in the U.S. that regulates what a man can do with his body, the reproductive health of women is now more regulated than it has been in 50 years. And the scope of reproductive health care that women can receive is highly dependent on where they live.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/one-year-after-the-fall-of-roe-v-wade-abortion-care-has-become-a-patchwork-of-confusing-state-laws-that-deepen-existing-inequalities-207390