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September 17, 2004
Four Kenyan women
The historic "Action to Reduce Maternal Mortality in Africa" conference, featured in the April issue of the African Journal of Reproductive Health, mobilized leaders around the public-health crisis of unsafe abortion, which claims tens of thousands of African women's lives every year.
Photo courtesy of Sean Sprague/PANOS pictures.

Groundbreaking discussions at Africa’s first regional conference on unsafe abortion are the focus of the most recent issue of the African Journal of Reproductive Health, a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed scientific publication published bi-annually.

The conference, titled “Action to Reduce Maternal Mortality in Africa,” took place in March 2003 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It marked the first time that health ministers, parliamentarians, health-care professional, women’s advocates, lawyers, journalists and others met and openly discussed the public-health crisis of unsafe abortion, which claims the lives of some 34,000 African women each year, according to the World Health Organization.

“The Addis consultation really got the ball rolling,” said Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, Director of the Ipas Africa Alliance for Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights, which helped organize the conference. “Since then, African leaders have been increasingly outspoken about women’s reproductive health and rights, and in particular about the need to review our archaic laws on abortion, which are the last vestiges of colonialism.”

In 2003, the African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa to supplement the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Protocol includes a provision requiring states to “ensure that the right to health of women, including sexual and reproductive health, is respected and promoted” and calls on states to protect women’s reproductive rights by authorizing abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and foetal impairment and to save the life or health of the woman. In addition, during regional meetings in Africa to review progress implementing recommendations from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), participants reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the broad vision of the ICPD Programme of Action. Most recently, at the Countdown 2015 Global Roundtable in London, African participants strongly supported a consensus calling for universal access to safe, legal abortion.

The March 2003 conference in Addis Ababa was notable not only for the openness of the discussions on a wide range of related topics but also for participants’ strong call for action on the part of governments, donor agencies and civil society. For example, the conference communiqué demands that African governments uphold commitments under numerous international agreements to address unsafe abortion effectively, including making safe abortion available to the full extent of local and national laws.

The communiqué is reprinted in the April 2004 issue of the African Journal of Reproductive Health, along with articles derived from 14 presentations at the conference. Editorials by Dr. Friday E. Okonofua of Nigeria and Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, former Minister of Health of Ghana, underscore the urgent need to address abortion realistically in order to reduce unacceptably high levels of maternal mortality and morbidity throughout the African continent. Among other articles are:

The editorials and conference communiqué are available for free download to anyone. Other articles may be obtained free of charge by persons affiliated with developing-country nonprofit organizations, and for a small charge by others. A limited number of copies are available by contacting Ipas or the African Journal of Reproductive Health directly.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258