Ipas > A year in review: 2006 in reproductive health news

A year in review: 2006 in reproductive health news

January 8, 2007

Despite some setbacks, 2006 yielded significant advancements in reproductive health and rights.

Photo courtesy of Trygve Bolstad, Panos Pictures.

The year 2006 brought many important legal and policy changes that affect women’s ability to make reproductive decisions. Some countries moved to liberalize their abortion laws and safeguard women’s health, while one moved to eliminate all access to legal, safe abortion.

Here’s some of what happened around the world in 2006:

In a landmark ruling on May 10, Colombia’s constitutional court decided to permit abortion in certain circumstances, easing the country’s previous ban on the procedure.

According to the ruling, abortions will now be permitted in cases of rape, fetal malformation, or when the life or health of the mother or fetus is in danger. Under Colombia’s previous penal code provision, the procedure had been outlawed in all circumstances, and both the woman and provider could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health released guidelines for safe abortion services, making major progress toward implementing the 2005 revision of the country’s abortion law.

The guidelines were released on July 10 at an event to commemorate World Population Day. Ethiopian President Girma Wolde Giorgis opened the symposium organized by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the United Nations Population Fund and nongovernmental organizations.

Under the updated code, abortion is permitted under a wider array of circumstances than before, when abortion was only allowed to save the woman’s life or health. Today, abortions can be performed when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest; when the woman’s or fetus’ lives are in jeopardy; when the fetus has severe abnormalities; when the woman has physical or mental disabilities; and when a minor is physically or psychologically unprepared to raise a child.

On Sept. 22, ministers of health from African Union (AU) countries launched an ambitious action plan to achieve universal access to comprehensive reproductive and sexual health across the continent by the year 2015.

At the special session in Mozambique, delegates from 48 participating nations agreed that the AU member states cannot ignore the issue of maternal deaths from unsafe abortion. Addressing unsafe abortion was part of a larger call for increased investment in reproductive health to combat the widespread disease and poor health slowing Africa’s human and economic development.

Members of the Nicaraguan National Assembly voted to outlaw abortion under any circumstance by repealing Article 165 of the Penal Code. Article 165 allowed for “therapeutic abortions” if a woman’s life was in danger. Nicaragua joined only a handful of nations to outlaw abortion entirely.

The new law includes prison terms of up to 20 or 30 years for women and for doctors who terminate a pregnancy, but legislators delayed a vote on the penalties, whereby the current maximum sentence of six years for illegal abortions will stand. Health and human rights organizations, led by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, are challenging the constitutionality of the law in Nicaragua’s Supreme Court of Justice.

In November, South Dakota voters rejected a ban on abortion that would have forbidden abortions even in the event of rape or incest and challenged the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. Fifty-five percent voted to overturn the ban; 45 percent voted for it. Voters turned out in record numbers; one precinct reported an 81 percent voter turnout.
The leader of the world’s largest gathering of obstetricians-gynecologists called for new action to address the continuing toll unsafe abortion takes on women’s lives and health. Dr. Dorothy Shaw, president of the International Federation of Gynecology & Obstetrics (FIGO), said in her Nov. 10 inaugural address at the organization’s triennial meeting in Malaysia that maternal mortality is a “shameful reality,” with “an estimated 500,000 women dying during pregnancy or childbirth every year, most in the poorest countries.” Urging ob-gyn societies to break the silence and inaction on unsafe abortion, she also said: “The evidence is clear. Restrictive laws on abortion have clearly been shown to increase maternal mortality.”
On Dec. 28, Togo became the latest country to legalize abortion in certain circumstances. The newly reformed law permits abortions “in cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape or of an incestuous relationship.” It also allows abortion “if there is a strong risk that the unborn child will be affected by a particularly serious medical condition.” Involvement in an illegal abortion would be punishable by fines and up to five years in prison, it said.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
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