STATEMENT AGAINST UNSAFE ABORTION Introduction National Coalition Partners led by Generation Initiative for Women and Youth Network (GIWYN) established this Statement against unsafe abortion to welcome this opportunity to address the consequences of Unsafe Abortion. We acknowledge women’s groups and community health providers’ role in promoting access to reproductive health information on the ground. We passionately believe in women’s capacity to make their own decisions, and we want to be there for them when they do. In this light, we acknowledge that restricting legal access to abortion does not decrease the
need for abortion rather it leads to women and girls seeking unsafe procedures which are unsafe and harmful to their health and wellbeing. Unsafe abortion affects those most marginalized who face educational and income disparities which is the status quo for health inequalities, unjust and unethical differences in the health statuses of different population groupsi. Abortion access is therefore a social, gender, racial, and reproductive justice issue.
TAKE ACTION Policymakersii Policy can help prevent unnecessary harm to women’s health and lives, while also pushing for necessary legal and policy reforms by • Setting up a national network to advance reproductive rights, dignity, and bodily autonomy of women
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Create programs that expand and promote family planning programs, and
comprehensive sexuality education for all adolescents and young people. Health care providers can
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Ensure prompt and quality post abortion care to women and adolescent girls in need • Ensure that women’s rights to health care and confidentiality are respected by providing prompt, legal, and safe services upon her request, without requiring forensic evidence, police examination, and/or judicial authorization The Media The media can balance and truth, framing abortion and reproductive health messages as a legitimate choice and credit women’s decision-making as rational and based on what they believe is best for their own lives and those of their partners and families, and their reasons why the pregnancy is unwanted.
The non-governmental organizations and women groups • • •
Establishment media watch monitoring to ensure that women's reproductive health issues and concerns are accurately reflected Train women to make greater use of information technology for communication and the media, including at the international level Women should be empowered by enhancing their skills, knowledge, and access to information technology
i
World Health Organization. The prevention and management of unsafe abortion. Report of a Technical Working Group. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/1992/WHO_MSM_92.5.pdf (accessed Sept .26 2021) ii
Generation Initiative for Women and Youth Network:
Health Policies and Laws in the Nigerian National Health Policy
Policy Brief. Implementation of Reproductive