The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday launched an appeal in favor of the right to abortion, at a time when the supreme court of the United States seems ready to question it.
“Restricting access to abortion does not reduce the number of procedures – it leads women and girls to resort to dangerous procedures”, says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on his Twitter account, without directly mentioning the case which shakes the United States since Monday.
A draft judgment dated February 2022 from the Supreme Court
In the United States, the Politico site caused a political explosion on Monday evening by revealing, on the basis of an unprecedented leak of an internal document, that a majority of the judges of the Supreme Court were ready to bury the judgment ” Roe v. Wade” of 1973, which protects the right of American women to terminate their pregnancies.
The Supreme Court confirmed the authenticity of the text – a draft judgment dated February – while stressing that it did not represent a “final” decision, eagerly awaited. Dr. Tedros stressed on Wednesday for his part that “women should always have the right to choose when it comes to their bodies and their health”.
WHO released new guidelines on abortion care in early March, with the aim of protecting the health of women and girls and helping to prevent the more than 25 million unsafe abortions currently occurring. every year around the world.
These guidelines bring together more than 50 recommendations relating to clinical practice, health service delivery, and legal and policy interventions to support the provision of quality abortion care.
39,000 deaths worldwide caused by unsafe abortions
According to the WHO, unsafe abortions cause around 39,000 deaths every year worldwide and result in the hospitalization of millions more women due to complications. Most of these deaths are concentrated in low-income countries – more than 60% in Africa and 30% in Asia – and among the most vulnerable people.
Data show that restrictions on access to abortion do not reduce the number of abortions, according to the WHO, which also states on its site that in countries with the most severe restrictions, only one in four abortions is safe, compared to nearly nine in ten in countries where the procedure is widely legalized.
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