Governments challenged to pay attention on the issue of unsafe abortion

By Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
In Bangkok

23.01.2010 All developed and developing countries should work hands in hands, in technique or funding to reduce the number of unsafe abortion worldwide to levels in countries where abortion is legal.

This was contained in the Bangkok Declaration 2010 on Women's Reproductive Health and Unsafe Abortion drafted by the Board of Directors of the First International Congress on Women's Health and Unsafe Abortion held from 20th - 23rd January 2010 at the Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand on Saturday.

The Congress which attracted a wide range of professionals of more than 62 nations across the globe at the First IWAC 2010, declared the following key issues.

That Unsafe abortion is a public health and a woman's right issue. That a woman should have a free choice whether to continue her pregnancy or to terminate it. That an appropriate and safest method of termination of the pregnancy should be provided to a woman requesting to end her pregnancy. And that a new approach be initiated in countries where the 'abortion law' is rigid and sometimes ignore the fundamental needs of women.

The declaration continues thus: We ubderstand that: 'Teens and adolescents need to recieve proper information and knowledge about basic reproduction and reproductive health issues'. That ' 'Unsafe abortion' is completely preventable provided societies decide to do so' Adding that this has been documented in those countries where abortion was legalised.

The participants therefore called on: 'All developed and developing countries to work hands in hands, in technique or funding to reduce the number of unsafe abortion worldwide to levels we see in countries where abortion is legal'.

'Women's groups and NGO's working for women's health to empower women with with issues on gender wquality in society'.

'Governments of each country to pay more attention to the issue of unsafe abortion and that funding for this aspect of health prevention be significantly elevated and allocated'.

They continued by encouraging all countries experiencing unsafe abortion to work together and learn from each other's model of tackling the issue and that those countries which have been successful in reducing unsafe abortion should share and/or disseminate their experience to others.

Earlier in the course of the Congress Dr. Mahmoud F. Fathalla, M.D., Ph.D, Profesor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the Assiut University, Egypt had recieved a standing ovation when he said that: ' No society, primitive or advanced, no religion and no legal code have been neutral about sexual and reproductive life. A woman can claim as her own, her head, her hair, her hands, her arms, her upper body, her legs and her feet. She cannot claim the same right to the remaining area of her body, which appears to belong mpre to certain males of the species, moralists, lawyers, men of religion and others, all of whom claim the right to decide how this part of a woman's body can best be utilized'.

Fathala further said that: ' All women should have access to family planning services as a reproductive right and as a means to significantly reduce maternal mortality'

He concluded that: ' This is the reproductive right. The reproductive wrong is when fertility control by women is changed into fertility control of women.

In Uganda abortion is illegal. It is only acceptable when the life of a mother is in danger.