WHO issues new guidelines on abortion¶
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 (01:13)
I received two very different news about abortion.
WHO issues new guidelines on abortion to help countries deliver lifesaving care
“Only around half of all abortions take place under safe conditions, with unsafe abortions causing around 39 000 deaths every year and resulting in millions more women hospitalized with complications. Most of these deaths are concentrated in lower-income countries – with over 60% in Africa and 30% in Asia – and among those living in the most vulnerable situations.”
C-Fam seminar The History of Pro-life Negotiations at the UN
“Jeanne Head, Peter Smith, and John Klink were among the founding generation of the international pro-life movement centered on negotiations at the United Nations. Each of them played a central role in blocking a global right to abortion starting at the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development onward.”
The guideline is a 172 pages document available for free. There is also a 17 pages executive summary. Its aim is
to enable “evidence-based decision-making with respect to quality abortion care”
to help countries deliver “lifesaving care” and “access to safe abortion critical for health of women and girls”
The document recommends among others “removing medically unnecessary policy barriers to safe abortion, such as criminalization, mandatory waiting times, the requirement that approval must be given by other people (e.g., partners or family members) or institutions, and limits on when during pregnancy an abortion can take place. Such barriers can lead to critical delays in accessing treatment and put women and girls at greater risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatization, and health complications, while increasing disruptions to education and their ability to work.”