More than 250 health care providers, advocates, Parliamentarians, women’s groups, community members and allied agencies from across Africa are meeting in Accra, to share best practices and lessons and initiate an agenda for action.
The four-day conference would focus on unsafe abortion as a critical issue for reproductive health and rights in Africa, and for achieving the Millennium Development Goal Five, to reduce maternal mortality.
Opening the conference in Accra, Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, Deputy Minister of Health, said no woman should die of unsafe abortion when there were legal abortion services available.
He said women needed to be given a voice and choices if really Africa needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo said women needed to be respected and the meeting was an opportunity to take stock of the progress made in addressing unsafe abortion.
IPAS, an International non-governmental organisation, the main sponsor of the conference, is collaboration with the Ministry of Health, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Women’s Development and Communication Network (better known as FEMNET), International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Regional Office and Marie Stopes International to organise the event.
It is under the theme “Keeping Our Promise: Addressing Unsafe Abortion in Africa”.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo noted that there were laws regarding abortion that needed to be enforced and said women should also be educated on the provision of safe abortion in certain instances.
He called for intensified training to ensure that doctors undertake quality abortion and expressed concern for the inadequate supply of contraceptives.
The Deputy Minister of Health condemned the stigmatisation of women who undertake abortion and said there should be more education on the matter.
He said “no woman wants abortion and if it requires that she does it, there is a law that backs that decision”.
More than half of the 67,500 global deaths related to unsafe abortion, occur in Africa and more than half of the women who die from unsafe abortion in Africa are younger than 25 years.
Of the five million women globally who are hospitalised with complications from unsafe abortion every year, more than one million are from Africa.
Dr Eunice Brookman-Amissah, IPAS Vice President for Africa, said “We have made great achievements towards saving women’s lives in the past several years and we must strive to reform archaic laws. We must trust women to make their own reproductive choices for themselves, their families and their communities.”
She explained that while celebrating new data indicating that globally maternal mortality was at last falling, little progress had occurred on the African continent.
Dr Brookman-Amissah said: “Obtaining real political commitment to address unsafe abortion remains very hard but this needs to happen if we are to eliminate this totally preventable cause of maternal deaths in our countries.
“When leaders fail to implement known, affordable solutions to this entirely preventable problem, we can only conclude that they do not sufficiently value the women and girls whose lives are at stake”.
The IPAS Vice President said for the achievement of MDG5 and to protect African women and girls, it was essential that “we take the next step in effectively addressing unsafe abortion, including improving women’s access to safe abortion. And the time for that is NOW --before many more women die”.
Dr Brookman-Amissah called for strategies to overcome the iniquities and inequities that were restrictive to abortion laws and take the moral decision to no longer deny women access to services that we had the knowledge and the technologies to provide.
Dr Richard Turkson, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Canada, noted that the stigma surrounding abortion was still very strong but no longer absolute and there was the need now to say the word “abortion” in many settings where it previously was unthinkable.
Women’s right to sexual and reproductive health, including the right to safe legally-permitted abortion, he said was a basic human right that should be enjoyed by all women and like every human right, this should translate into the necessary social, economic and cultural conditions and facilities under which their legitimate aspirations and dignity might be fully realized.
The agenda of the conference would include; a review of regional and national progress in addressing unsafe abortion, lessons from research and experience that could improve safe abortion care, post abortion care and related reproductive health care, such as preventing unwanted pregnancy, discussion of an agenda for action for the African region and ways to improve collaboration among governments, NGOs and other stakeholders.
Showing posts with label MDGs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MDGs. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Embrace safe abortion to eliminate maternal deaths – WHO
By Chris Kiwawulo in Accra
AFRICAN countries need to embrace safe abortion if they are to eliminate maternal deaths and injuries that arise from unsafe abortions, a World Health Organization (WHO) official has advised.
Dr. Charles Fleischer Djoleto, the WHO office focal point officer for Ghana, noted that 13% of the global maternal were due to unsafe abortion, meaning that about 130 women die every day from unsafe abortion of which 99% (129) live in developing countries like Uganda. He said WHO supports the move to legalise abortion in Africa, noting that unsafe abortions mostly take place where the practice is illegal.
Speaking at the opening of the regional conference on eliminating abortion in Africa on Monday (November 8), Djoleto said a critical component of eliminating unsafe abortion is preventing unintended pregnancies, using contraceptives. The one-week conference themed; ‘Keeping our promise: Addressing unsafe abortion in Africa’, is taking place at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
“If contraceptive needs were fully met globally, unsafe abortions would decline by 73% from 20 million to 5.5 million per year and the number of women requiring treatment for abortion complications would decline from 8.5 million to 2 million annually. Can you imagine the impact that would have on African women’s lives and the lives of their families?” Djoleto wondered.
Ipas, a global women’s rights advocacy NGO, in collaboration with African Network on Medical Abortion, African Women’s Development and Communication Network, Maries topes International, the International Planned parenthood Federation, Ghana’s health ministry and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa organised the conference.
Much as use of contraceptives reduces unsafe abortions and thus deaths, Djoleto revealed that legalising safe abortion is paramount. Quoting a 2009 WHO report dubbed ‘Women Health: Today’s evidence, tomorrow’s agenda’, Djoleto said women who seek an abortion will do so regardless of legal restrictions and that where restrictions are few, deaths and illnesses dramatically reduce.
“Even if contraceptive needs are fully met, an estimated 33 million women are expected to experience accidental pregnancy while using contraception and thus the need for safe abortion,” he pointed out. Djoleto said WHO does not tell countries what to do regarding their national laws and policies, but it provides evidence that they can use to make their own decisions about health.
Ipas president and chief executive officer, Elizabeth Maguire, noted that efforts to address women’s unmet need for contraception and to prevent unsafe abortion were still implemented separately in many African health systems. “Yet we know from experience that an integrated approach to contraception and safe abortion is critical to solving the global public health crisis caused by unwanted pregnancies…and to meeting both the International Conference on Population and Development agreed action and Millennium Development Goals.”
Maguire added that access to basic health services is essential in ensuring each woman’s basic human right to decide whether and when to have children. In Uganda, statistics show, the unmet need for family planning is still high at 41%. In Ghana, one in every three women have an unmet need for family planning. On the entire African continent, the average contraceptive intake is still low at 15% compared to countries like Thailand where it is at over 70%.
Maguire called for active participation of the civil society and public sector in order to extend the availability of comprehensive abortion and contraception to surface the voices and needs of women, inform them and mobilize action.
The Ghanaian President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, pledged that his country will support the elimination of unsafe abortion and urged other African leaders to follow suit. In a speech read for him by Rojo Mettle Nunoo, Ghana’s health deputy minister, Mills said; “Nobody like abortion, certainly not the victims! But we all have a common ground of preventing hardship, illness and deaths.”
Mills noted that whereas abortion has been legal in Ghana since 1985, religious and moral inclinations against abortion result into some uneasiness among service providers who face a dilemma between preserving these values and saving women’s lives.
“There is a wide spectrum of interventions which can involve everyone – from religious leaders, civil society, traditional leaders, legal system and law enforcement agencies, health system, education system, youth, men, women, individuals and groups from all walks of life can play key roles in addressing these issues from various angles.”
The conference brought together over 200 participants from over 20 African countries who converged to develop strategies for the future of women in ensuring their access to safe abortion. All participants agreed that unsafe abortion was largely responsible for the high number of maternal deaths in their countries and called upon their leaders to legalise the practice.
AFRICAN countries need to embrace safe abortion if they are to eliminate maternal deaths and injuries that arise from unsafe abortions, a World Health Organization (WHO) official has advised.
Dr. Charles Fleischer Djoleto, the WHO office focal point officer for Ghana, noted that 13% of the global maternal were due to unsafe abortion, meaning that about 130 women die every day from unsafe abortion of which 99% (129) live in developing countries like Uganda. He said WHO supports the move to legalise abortion in Africa, noting that unsafe abortions mostly take place where the practice is illegal.
Speaking at the opening of the regional conference on eliminating abortion in Africa on Monday (November 8), Djoleto said a critical component of eliminating unsafe abortion is preventing unintended pregnancies, using contraceptives. The one-week conference themed; ‘Keeping our promise: Addressing unsafe abortion in Africa’, is taking place at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
“If contraceptive needs were fully met globally, unsafe abortions would decline by 73% from 20 million to 5.5 million per year and the number of women requiring treatment for abortion complications would decline from 8.5 million to 2 million annually. Can you imagine the impact that would have on African women’s lives and the lives of their families?” Djoleto wondered.
Ipas, a global women’s rights advocacy NGO, in collaboration with African Network on Medical Abortion, African Women’s Development and Communication Network, Maries topes International, the International Planned parenthood Federation, Ghana’s health ministry and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa organised the conference.
Much as use of contraceptives reduces unsafe abortions and thus deaths, Djoleto revealed that legalising safe abortion is paramount. Quoting a 2009 WHO report dubbed ‘Women Health: Today’s evidence, tomorrow’s agenda’, Djoleto said women who seek an abortion will do so regardless of legal restrictions and that where restrictions are few, deaths and illnesses dramatically reduce.
“Even if contraceptive needs are fully met, an estimated 33 million women are expected to experience accidental pregnancy while using contraception and thus the need for safe abortion,” he pointed out. Djoleto said WHO does not tell countries what to do regarding their national laws and policies, but it provides evidence that they can use to make their own decisions about health.
Ipas president and chief executive officer, Elizabeth Maguire, noted that efforts to address women’s unmet need for contraception and to prevent unsafe abortion were still implemented separately in many African health systems. “Yet we know from experience that an integrated approach to contraception and safe abortion is critical to solving the global public health crisis caused by unwanted pregnancies…and to meeting both the International Conference on Population and Development agreed action and Millennium Development Goals.”
Maguire added that access to basic health services is essential in ensuring each woman’s basic human right to decide whether and when to have children. In Uganda, statistics show, the unmet need for family planning is still high at 41%. In Ghana, one in every three women have an unmet need for family planning. On the entire African continent, the average contraceptive intake is still low at 15% compared to countries like Thailand where it is at over 70%.
Maguire called for active participation of the civil society and public sector in order to extend the availability of comprehensive abortion and contraception to surface the voices and needs of women, inform them and mobilize action.
The Ghanaian President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, pledged that his country will support the elimination of unsafe abortion and urged other African leaders to follow suit. In a speech read for him by Rojo Mettle Nunoo, Ghana’s health deputy minister, Mills said; “Nobody like abortion, certainly not the victims! But we all have a common ground of preventing hardship, illness and deaths.”
Mills noted that whereas abortion has been legal in Ghana since 1985, religious and moral inclinations against abortion result into some uneasiness among service providers who face a dilemma between preserving these values and saving women’s lives.
“There is a wide spectrum of interventions which can involve everyone – from religious leaders, civil society, traditional leaders, legal system and law enforcement agencies, health system, education system, youth, men, women, individuals and groups from all walks of life can play key roles in addressing these issues from various angles.”
The conference brought together over 200 participants from over 20 African countries who converged to develop strategies for the future of women in ensuring their access to safe abortion. All participants agreed that unsafe abortion was largely responsible for the high number of maternal deaths in their countries and called upon their leaders to legalise the practice.
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