Women's access to safe abortion as a global maternal health priority: Overcoming the Global Gag Rule and other barriers

Unsafe abortion is the cause of nearly 70,000 maternal deaths per year worldwide. The majority of women who die or risk their lives trying to obtain an abortion are women who lack power and live in poverty. Over the past two decades, however, governments around the world have taken significant steps at the international and national levels to reduce these deaths through changes in laws and policies. Governments and non-governmental organizations have worked together to make health care services available for women seeking abortion and post-abortion care. Significant challenges remain to ending maternal deaths from unsafe abortion. The Global Gag Rule, issued in 2001 by President GW Bush as his first act in office, restricts U.S. foreign family planning funding for organizations outside of the US that work on abortion issues, even with their own funding. A few governments have rolled back abortion laws, making them more restrictive. Services continue to be unavailable in countries where conservative governments refuse to take action. These are the barriers that we are working to dismantle in order that all women—not only women with resources—can access abortion services without risking their lives. This presentation examines the incidence and phenomenon of maternal deaths from unsafe abortion, looks at the progress made toward reducing abortion-related fatalities and makes recommendations for further steps to address the root causes of women dying when such deaths can be prevented.