|
| Doctors will come from all over the world to attend the FIGO World Congress in Cape Town, where abortion will be a major theme throughout the meeting. |
|
Addressing unsafe abortion and increasing access to safe abortion care will be prominent themes at next week’s conference of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (FIGO), October 4-9, in Cape Town, South Africa. This is the first time in its 55-year history that FIGO will meet in Africa, where abortion is a particularly pressing issue for women’s health.
Ipas will host a delegation of reproductive health experts from around the world to attend FIGO, as well as sponsor two scientific panels, “Expanding Women’s Access to Safe Abortion Care” on Monday, and “Reaching Women with Medical Abortion Services” on Tuesday. In addition, other sessions throughout the conference will address abortion-related clinical and policy issues.
Ipas experts attending the conference will include:
• President and CEO Elizabeth Maguire, who was director of the USAID Office of Population prior to joining Ipas in 1999;
• Ghanaian obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, Ipas Vice President for Africa, and former Minister of Health of Ghana;
• Mosotho Gabriel, Ipas Africa Alliance Director based in Kenya, a nurse-midwife who previously helped implement legal abortion in South Africa
Other Ipas country directors and clinical experts from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Nepal, Mexico, Argentina, and the United States will also attend the conference, as well as a number of partners from governments and ob-gyn societies around the world.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 5.5 million unsafe abortions occur every year in Africa. However, while abortion is not an uncommon experience for African women, it may be a deadly one: more than half of the world’s deaths from unsafe abortion occur in Africa.
Physicians see the impact of unsafe abortion in their hospitals and health centers on a daily basis, yet restrictive laws tie their hands from providing appropriate medical care to women in need. The meeting will strengthen networks of clinicians providing safe abortion care, and support others working in countries where restrictive laws often make them lonely champions for women's health and rights.
For more information, contact media@ipas.org