Transcript MVA Plus ™ Ipas EasyGrip

Mosotho Gabriel: Program Director
Ipas Africa Alliance for Women’s Reproductive Health and Right
ICMA Meeting: 11 March 2008, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Overview
 Unsafe abortion and women in Africa
 Why the problem persist
 Africa Abortion Laws
 International, Regional and National responses
 Policies and Practice
 Regional agenda for action
 Conclusion
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Unsafe abortion and women in Africa
According to WHO estimates, 4.2 million unsafe abortions
occur annually in Africa
 Of the 70,000 unsafe abortion deaths globally, 44% are due
to unsafe abortion in Africa
 90 African women die every day
 20 to 50% of all maternal deaths in African countries are
abortion-related
 Tens of millions of African women will experience an
unsafe abortion
Why the problem persist?
 Lack of access to contraception; Africa has the
lowest contraceptive prevalence rates
 Gender issues- Violence / Poverty / Youth
 Africa has the world’s most restrictive abortion
laws
 Religious dogma and ignorance
 Health system issues—lack of policies and
services
 Lack of Political Will to save women's lives
 Social attitudes and stigma attached to abortion
 Organized opposition to safe abortion
Africa Abortion Policies and Laws
 Only 5 out 53 African countries allow abortion to
be performed on request
 Majority of laws are limited to saving the life of
pregnant women
 During the last decade a number of countries;
Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali,
Swaziland, and Togo, have reviewed their laws
The majority of African countries have retained colonial laws on abortion.
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Abortion Laws in Africa 2005
Global response
 1980: The safe motherhood initiative
 1994: ICPD called for safe abortion, with preventive focus
on family planning and post abortion care
 1999: ICPD+5 called for training and equipping providers
to make safe abortion accessible
 2003: WHO guidance to
health ministries on
safe abortion
Millennium Developments Goals
Goal 5 Calls for:
• Reduction of the maternal mortality ratio by 75% by 2015
• Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
In some settings reducing unsafe abortion may be technically the easiest way to
reduce maternal deaths as mandated by MDG 5
Unsafe abortion can be reduced through comprehensive sexual and reproductive
health education, quality contraceptive services, and safe abortion services
The Millennium Development Goals were approved by UN member states
following the Millennium Assembly, held in 2000.
The regional response
 2005: African Union Protocol defining abortion as a
human right
 2006: Maputo Plan of Action strategy to increase
access to safe abortion
Protocol on the Rights of
Women in Africa
Adopted July 2003 by the African Union in Maputo
Governments undertook to take appropriate measures to:
“authorize … medical abortions in cases of sexual
assault, rape, incest, and where the continued
pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health
of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus.”
Progress in national policies
 Liberal abortions laws in: Tunisia, South Africa,
Cape Verde, Zambia and Ethiopia ;
 Countries with at least 3 indications include: in
Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali,
Swaziland, and Togo; under consideration in
Mozambique
 Majority of countries still have 1 indication i.e. to
safe a woman’s live includes: Senegal, Uganda,
Malawi, Niger, Nigeria; to name a few
INCIDENCE OF UNSAFE ABORTION
POLICY
 Compile and disseminate
data e.g. magnitude and
consequences of unsafe
abortion
Practice
 Enact policies and legal
 Create a favorable societal
frameworks to reduce
incidence of unsafe abortion
 Implement regional
instruments to reduce
unsafe abortions
 Advocate for provision of safe
abortions services to the fullest
extend of the law
context though education on
SRH & Rs and use of values
clarification
 Train health care providers in
prevention and management
of unsafe abortion
A regional agenda for action
 Support additional legal and policy reforms
 Train and equip providers and strengthen the role of
midlevel providers in abortion care
 Strengthen health systems capacity; in particular PHC
 Increase options for women who seek services by increase
the availability of technologies (MVA & MA)
A regional agenda for action
 Reduce stigma associated with abortion
 Monitor & counter the opposition
 Educate women, including young women
about their SRH & Rs
 Advocate for use of Misoprostol
as it is available in all African
countries; registered in some
 Established and strengthen existing
regional networks
Definition of Medical Abortion
Early pregnancy termination, generally before 9
weeks’ gestation, resulting from abortion-inducing
medications and without primary surgical
intervention
Why Women Choose Medical Abortion
 Avoids surgery, noninvasive
 Perceived by some women as:
 “Better” or “easier” than surgical abortion
 More natural, like a miscarriage
Conclusion
 Maternal Mortality from unsafe abortion is a social
injustice
 Denying women control of their bodies, denies
them their full citizenship and limits their selfdetermination
 We shall have won the fight against unsafe
abortion when no deaths occur; and when no
woman suffer the negative circumstances of unsafe
abortion
There is an urgent need to advocate for protection of women’s health and rights to choose
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Thank you