Empowering Women,Saving Lives:Safe Abortion now

By Hamu Madzedze, Online Health Editor,Zimbabwe

A call has been made to allow access to safe abortions for women and girls with the aim of reducing maternal mortality rates .

Speaking during the launch of the Sexual Health with Equity and Rights Media Initiative (SHE and Rights) Coordinator Shobha Shukla said women and girls should have a right to their bodily autonomy to allow them to make free and informed decisions about their body without coercion or violence.

"We see violations of bodily autonomy when lack of choice and decision-making leads to pregnancy or unsafe abortion that has become a leading yet preventable cause of maternal mortality and morbidity"said Shukla.

Meanwhile Global lead for abortion at the International Planned Parenthood Federation(IPPF) Melissa Cockroft said it is estimated that every year 29 000 pregnant people ,women and girls die from unsafe abortion and 7 million are injured or disabled due to unsafe abortion worldwide.

"Unsafe abortion also leads to social and financial burdens for women , communities and heath systems" said Cockroft.

Cockroft added that more than half of all unsafe abortions occur in Asia ,most of them in South and Central Asia and in Latin America and Africa.

"What is devastating is that deaths due to unsafe abortion are entirely preventable it is only lack of access to safe, timely , affordable and respectable abortion care that leads to preventable maternal deaths.

She added that restricting abortion does not prevent or reduce abortion but keeps them unsafe and abortion rates are high in countries where abortion is legally restricted as compared to those countries where abortion is available upon request .

"When people with unintended pregnancies face barriers to attaining safe,timely , affordable ,geographically reachable,respectable and non-discriminatory abortion care they often resort to unsafe abortion" pointed out Cockroft

She highlighted that laws and policies imposing gestational limits and other barriers such as waiting periods or the need for permission by two doctors only act as barriers to safe abortion care.

"No woman should be forced to continue with a pregnancy against her will, or face health or legal risks as result of having an abortion"she added.

UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) advocate for removal of barriers to unsafe abortion as key objectives for achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health reducing maternal mortality and promotion of gender equality.