WHO Tweeted That Safe Abortion Protects The Health And Promotes The Human Rights

To make health for all a reality and advance toward the progressive realization of human rights, all people must have access to high-quality health care, which includes complete abortion care services such as information, abortion management, and post-abortion care. Women and girls’ physical, emotional, and social well-being are threatened by a lack of access to safe, timely, inexpensive, and respectful abortion treatment.

According to the World Health Organisation, abortion is a simple health care intervention that can be effectively managed by a wide range of health workers using medication or a surgical procedure. In the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a medical abortion can also be safely self-managed by the pregnant person outside of a health care facility, in whole or in part. This requires that the woman has access to accurate information, quality medicines, and support from a trained health worker. Induced abortion is a simple and common healthcare procedure. Each year, almost half of all pregnancies, 121 million, are unintended; 6 out of 10 unintended pregnancies and 3 out of 10 of all pregnancies end in induced abortion. Abortion is safe when carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to the pregnancy duration, and by someone with the necessary skills. However, when women with unwanted pregnancies face barriers to obtaining a quality abortion, they often resort to unsafe abortion.

Comprehensive abortion care includes the provision of information, abortion management, and post-abortion care. It encompasses care related to miscarriage, induced abortion, incomplete abortion as well as fetal death. Abortion can be safely and effectively performed in a range of settings and by a variety of people, including different types of health workers, and in early pregnancy by the woman herself.

Ensuring that safe and dignified abortion care is attainable in practice by all who need it implies, among other things, that

• enough health workers, of different types, provide abortion care within reach;
• access to abortion care is enabled through a variety of delivery approaches, including self-management of abortion;
• abortion care does not cause financial hardship to women;
• laws and policies that cause barriers to quality abortion care (including criminalization of abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and third-party authorization requirements) are removed;
• health workers are trained to provide safe and respectful care, and to interpret laws and policies in a human rights-compliant way;
• access to abortion is not negatively impacted by health workers refusing to provide care based on personal beliefs; and
• people have access to accurate and non-biased information to prevent unintended pregnancies and make autonomous decisions about abortion.

Over To You:
Person-centered, equitable, and accessible abortion care supports the efficient use of resources and enables women to attain care in line with their values, preferences, and circumstances.