International Safe Abortion Day 28th September 2018 (Global Day of Action) Normalizing abortion:

International Safe Abortion Day 28th September 2018 (Global Day of Action) Normalizing abortion: It’s part of our lives!

Nigeria is the largest country in Africa, with a population of about 190,886,311 million as at 2017, and women make up almost half of this population with 94.2 million. More than half of these women live in the rural communities, 50% of them are illiterates and are ignorant of their reproductive rights, as a result they have their health at a very high risk due to inaccessibility of reproductive health information and services. The government has promised under international laws to implement the 2030 global Sustainable Development Goals agreed by the world’s governments at the United Nations in September

2015, which include a target of universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights and The Maputo Protocol which demands total abortion legalization in article 14, “Health and Reproductive Rights,” call for the legalization of what would be in effect abortion-on-demand in Africa.

States Parties shall ensure that the right to health of women, including sexual and reproductive health is respected and promoted. ( DATA SOURCE—United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division-UNDESAPD)S

Any restriction on this, is a violation on women’s right to their health. Yet, Nigeria accounts for high Maternal Mortality rate of 14 % of the world’s maternal deaths (UNPFA, 2015) especially among poor women, rural women, and those without easy access to information. Over 12 to 15 % of the whole population are teenagers which means there are almost 27 million teenagers girls in Nigeria. According to International Safe Abortion 2018, Concept Note), too often, rights to abortion are defended through reference to various tragic circumstances of pregnancy: life endangerment, rape, incest, and congenital malformation. But this silences and stigmatizes the great majority of women whose reasons for obtaining an abortion do not fall into these categories.

This includes: a) the right to control their fertility; b) the right to decide whether to have children, the number of children and the spacing of children; c) the right to choose any method of contraception; d) the right to self-protection and to be protected against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS; e) the right to be informed on one’s health status and on the health status of one’s partner, particularly if affected with sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, in accordance with internationally recognized standards and best practices; f) The right to have family planning education.

To this reason, women of childbearing age live in Nigeria with highly restrictive abortion laws and most unwanted pregnancies end in unsafe abortion. For many women seeking to end an unwanted pregnancy, the decision still often equals death, daily close to 137 women suffer complications or die for the reasons of unsafe abortion, also almost 100 teenage girls die from unsafe abortion every day, for the reason of lack of information on appropriate or effective methods of contraception and safe abortion options. Poverty is also a factor, as many families living on less than a dollar per day cannot afford to treat unsafe abortion complications. We must stop this unknown killer (unsafe abortion), the leading cause of maternal mortality from killing women. Yes the deaths are preventable Generation Initiative for women and Youth Network (GIWYN) and Allies on this occasion of “International Safe Abortion Day” are up with practical community interventions to prevent unsafe abortion. The intervention empowers women to make decisions that can save their lives, Generation Initiative invented an interactive platform which is made as a hotline technology and has reproductive health messages in accordance with World Health Organization’s standard. It is public but not a medical service. Ms Rosy Hotline can assist the poor and less privileged women with reliable information on options when faced with unwanted pregnancy, modern contraceptives, missed miscarriage, safe birth and prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage with Misoprostol.

Women can access the free health information platform now to save their lives. Women have the power to decide about their bodies. Women can Call Ms Rosy Hotline: +18555531550

Women can call Ms Rosy hotline today to safe their women’s lives.

#LETSTALKABORTION. IT IS PART OF WOMEN’S LIVES