Providing Choice During A Humanitarian Crisis

Aug 1, 2023
By Amanda Seller, President, MSI United States

In the Northern Central region of Burkina Faso, Yvette Yoda is part of a team of mobile midwives working to provide life-saving reproductive healthcare services to women and girls who have been forced from their homes by violence.

More than two million people are internally displaced in Burkina Faso, with many living in camps. Yvette makes the difficult journey to reach them because she knows how important it is for women facing a crisis to be able to control their own futures.

Why is reproductive choice important in emergency settings?

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeseq/2023/08/01/providing-choice-during-a-humanitarian-crisis/?sh=209d75cb1591


Refugees return to Ukraine due to reproductive, sexual challenges

By Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl
May 16, 2023

Ukrainian refugees are temporarily returning home to receive sexual and reproductive healthcare after finding their options limited in Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, while others seek illegal solutions, according to a study published by the Centre for Reproductive Rights.

A study published on Tuesday, the work of nine international human rights organisations documents the alarming impact that restrictive national laws have on refugees seeking essential care and support.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/refugees-return-to-ukraine-due-to-reproductive-sexual-challenges/


Women and girls escaping Ukraine and trapped there ‘must be provided’ with abortions and contraception

‘It is imperative that European governments ensure that their humanitarian assistance prioritises the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of women and girls,’ says campaigner

Maya Oppenheim, Women’s Correspondent
Friday 18 March 2022

Abortions and contraception must be provided to women escaping Ukraine and their reproductive health must be safeguarded, campaigners on the ground have warned.

More than 60 organisations, including Amnesty International and local groups in the region, voiced “grave concern” over the situation unfolding for women in Ukraine but also displaced women forced to flee to Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, and Romania.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-abortions-contraception-b2039245.html?r=78159


Safe Abortion Care in Humanitarian Settings

Safe Abortion Care in Humanitarian Settings

Posted on October, 1 2018
by Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights

More than 60 million people—that’s almost the population of the entire UK, of France or of Thailand—are living in crisis settings or are displaced due to conflict, natural disaster, or other human rights abuses.

Action Canada collaborated with Ipas to draft that policy brief on safe abortion care in humanitarian settings.

Download the PDF.

Continued: https://www.actioncanadashr.org/safe-abortion-care-in-humanitarian-settings/


USA – Do Migrant Teenagers Have Abortion Rights? Two Volatile Issues Collide in Court

Do Migrant Teenagers Have Abortion Rights? Two Volatile Issues Collide in Court

By Robert Pear
Sept. 29, 2018

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is claiming broad new authority to block access to abortions sought by undocumented immigrants under age 18 who are in its custody.

In a case that brings together two of the most volatile issues in American society, immigration and abortion, the Justice Department argued this past week before a federal appeals court that the government “has a strong, legitimate and profound interest in the life of the child in the womb.”

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/us/politics/court-abortion-immigrants.html


Displaced Rohingya women need access to abortion, not just food and shelter

Displaced Rohingya women need access to abortion, not just food and shelter
Thousands of Rohingya women and girls have been systematically raped by Myanmar's military

Anu Kumar and Sandeep Prasad
for CBC News
Posted: Sep 29, 2018

Rape is still being used as an instrument of war. Right now. Before our very eyes.

We know that since August 2017, thousands of Rohingya women and girls have been systematically raped by Myanmar military as a way to humiliate, terrify and dominate the Rohingya communities. In fact, Canadian parliamentarians recently unanimously voted to declare the systemic rape and killing of Rohingya an act of genocide.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/rohingya-women-1.4843335


IRELAND – Justice for Ms Y – finally

IRELAND – Justice for Ms Y – finally

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
June 14, 2018

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) of Ireland has acknowledged liability and said it is willing to compensate a young woman known as Ms Y for failing to ensure she was provided with an abortion when she first sought one as a teenager in 2014.

Ms Y sought refugee status in Ireland after she was kidnapped, beaten, and repeatedly raped by the head of a paramilitary organisation in her home country. She discovered she was pregnant shortly after she arrived in Ireland in March 2014, at which time she was at only eight weeks pregnant. The story of how she was mistreated, how her rights and needs were ignored and violated by everyone in the health system who saw her, adding up to a substantial number of people over a period of almost three months, is a shameful tale.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/ireland-justice-for-ms-y-finally/


Opinion: Rohingya women have suffered enough. They don’t deserve discriminatory health care.

Opinion: Rohingya women have suffered enough. They don't deserve discriminatory health care.
By Anu Kumar, Sayed Rubayet
14 December 2017

Rape has been used as a weapon of war in conflicts all over the world. And has been used against women and girls caught up in the massive humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya refugees.

In the past few months, nearly 600,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh, and more continue to seek refuge every day. The camps are overcrowded. The smell of waste and small fires for cooking and sweat hangs in the humid, thick air. Tents fashioned out of reeds and tarps perch precariously in the mud. Throngs of people crowd the latrines and newly dug wells. And these conditions are better than those in the makeshift camps, where thousands of unregistered refugees are living.

Continued at source: https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-rohingya-women-have-suffered-enough-they-don-t-deserve-discriminatory-health-care-91751