World Health Organization’s first global reproductive-health strategy aims to eliminate unsafe abortion

The global effort to address the public-health crisis of unsafe abortion gained new momentum recently with approval of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first global reproductive-health strategy, which identifies eliminating unsafe abortion as one of five “core aspects of reproductive and sexual health.”

The World Health Assembly – WHO’s governing body, representing health ministers from around the world – endorsed the new plan on May 22 in Geneva. The new strategy document identifies unsafe abortion as a preventable cause of maternal deaths and injuries which “must be dealt with as part of the Millennium Development Goal on improving maternal health and other international development goals and targets.”

“WHO’s adoption of a strategy that explicitly addresses unsafe abortion paves the way for more effective action in numerous areas,” said Charlotte Hord Smith, Ipas’s Director of Policy.

“It underscores the international community’s commitment to ensure women’s access to safe abortion where allowed by law and is consistent with WHO’s previous leadership in research, technical cooperation and standard-setting on this critical issue.”

The new strategy identifies several actions urgently needed to prevent deaths and injuries of women from unsafe abortion, which accounts for a global average of 13 percent of maternal deaths. These steps include:

• Strengthening family planning services to prevent unintended pregnancies;
• Training health-service providers in modern techniques and equipping them with appropriate drugs and supplies for gynecological and obstetric care;
• Providing social and other support to women with unintended pregnancies; and
• To the extent allowed by law, providing abortion services at the primary health-care level.

Other core aspects of reproductive and sexual health targeted in the strategy are: antenatal, perinatal, postpartum and newborn care; family planning and infertility services; combating sexually transmitted infections including HIV, reproductive tract infections, cervical cancer, and other gynecological morbidities; and sexual health.

The strategy calls among other things for strengthening health systems capacity; improving information for priority-setting; and mobilizing political will to sustain good programs and create supportive policies. WHO plans to strengthen partnerships with other UN organizations, NGOs, and governments to ensure collaboration and coordinated actions.

The resolution endorsing the strategy was adopted with strong statements of support from governments from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, including Ireland on behalf of the European Union, as well as several international and nongovernmental organizations. Consistent with previous stances adopted by the administration of President George W. Bush, the United States disassociated itself from the strategy, but the U.S. delegation did not block adoption of the resolution supporting it.

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