Stigma, violence, and discrimination are some of the personal and work-related challenges and obstacles that abortion providers and abortion escorts have faced in their lives during their commitment to serving those who require these services.
The social organizations safe2choose and IpasCAM (Central America and Mexico), specialized in sexual and reproductive rights -including accompaniment in safe abortion processes-, co-authored the “International Survey of Abortion Providers and Companions”, which integrates the experiences of 341 people who facilitate abortions in: Latin America and the Caribbean (56.3%), Europe (14.2%), Africa (9.4%), North America (9.1%), Asia (8.8%), and Oceania (2.1%).
This survey that we share with you shows that the social judgment surrounding abortion is not a situation exclusive to women who seek this procedure, but also reaches the people who have the procedure. providers and abortion escorts, who face stigmatizing attitudes in public. More than half of the respondents reported that they feel their work faces greater legal restrictions than other health professions and more than one-third feel their work is looked down upon by other health professionals because of their work.
In addition, those who participated in this survey and who provide abortion services in Latin America, Africa and Asia reported that they practice their profession in a context of gender-based violence, unequal access to health services, criminalization and social exclusion or judgment that has led to migration.
The survey also revealed the various challenges faced by the regions due to their legislation or culture. For example, the most important challenge for Oceania and Latin America is legal restrictions; while in Europe, Africa and North America, lack of financing is the main challenge, and in Asia they considered it to be the shortage of suppliers.
“We want to reduce the number of risky practices, giving our patients the opportunity to live their health fully, with safe procedures, making abortion a right, not a privilege,” said Francis Makiya, District Medical Officer (DMO) for Mwanza District, Malawi.
Therefore, safe2choose.org and IpasCAM collectively call on abortion providers, health-care providers, and the media to join the campaign to recognize and address the stigmatizing attitudes faced byabortion providers and abortion escorts .
At IpasCAM We work to ensure that women have access to safe and quality services, in accordance with international protocols and human rights, which implies constant work and accompaniment of health services. We advocate for health professionals to be able to practice their work with professionalism, free of prejudice or stigma, and for reproductive rights to be recognized as a priority with a social justice perspective for women.
“Breaking the stigma and violence towards those who accompany and provide safe abortions must be a priority so that women around the world who decide to terminate their pregnancies can do so with trained personnel who listen and attend to their needs and protect them from unsafe abortions,” says María Elena Collado Miranda, community access project advisor at Ipas CAM (Central America and Mexico).
Meanwhile, safe2choose maintains a global network of certified health care providers who can offer women comprehensive, non-judgmental abortion care.
“We are proud to continue to offer our providers inclusion in a global pro-choice network to share lessons learned as well as best practices. Our commitment as safe2choose.org remains to provide our global community with access to the best abortion providers and a wide range of safe abortion information,” says Pauline Diaz, program manager of safe2choose.
We invite you to consult the document with the report of the results of the “International Survey of Abortion Providers and Caregivers“ to learn how it affects their work and how they face this stigma from different regions of the world.
For more information, visit www.safe2choose.org and www.ipascam.org or email [email protected] or [email protected].
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