Organizations involved
Gender Links
A Southern African NGO committed to the promotion of gender equality in and through the media.
The Africa Women and Child Feature Service (AWCFS)
An organization active in policy debates on gender and the media in East Africa.
Ipas
A US-based organization that aims to increase women's ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights and to reduce deaths and injuries of women from unsafe abortion. |
More than 100 African leaders from 15 countries who attended the continent’s first regional conference on unsafe abortion on March 7 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, concluded their deliberations with a strong call for action to address this global public-health problem. Unsafe abortion results in the deaths of about 30,000 African women every year, according to the World Health Organization.
The multidisciplinary group of experts attending the “Action to Reduce Maternal Mortality in Africa” conference included health ministers, parliamentarians, health-care professionals, women’s advocates, lawyers and others. They called on African governments to uphold commitments under numerous international agreements to address unsafe abortion effectively, including by increasing the availability of information and services to help prevent unwanted pregnancy and by making safe abortion available to the full extent permitted by local and national laws.
Participants committed themselves to educating the full spectrum of stakeholders affected by unsafe abortion about its tragic, preventable impact, and to working more effectively within existing legislation and health systems to make high-quality, comprehensive reproductive-health care universally available.
Participants also called on African governments and the global community to be accountable to citizens and other stakeholders by opposing the Global Gag Rule imposed in January 2001 by the administration of US President George W Bush. This policy disqualifies non-governmental organizations outside the United States from receiving US family planning funding if they provide counseling on abortion, provide legal abortion services except in very narrow circumstances, or participate in political debate surrounding abortion.
The conference was organized by Ipas.
>>See full report
Source: Ipas
>>The conference
Turning a blind eye
For too long, persons in positions to save women’s lives from unsafe abortion - government leaders, parliamentarians, health policymakers, international donor organisations and others -have turned a blind eye to the reality of this enormous problem, which takes its biggest toll in Africa.
Action GEM
The African Gender and Media Initiative (GEM), comprising Gender Links and the Africa Women and Child Feature Service (AWCFS) published a daily newspaper covering issues arising out of the conference.
>>The Global Gag Rule
Bush administration policy shifts on international family planning
Conservatives in the White House and Congress are trying to undermine the health services millions of women need for basic care worldwide. In executive orders and proposed laws, they are trying to roll back years of global and U.S. consensus at international conferences.
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