D.42 - Safe and quality abortion services in legal or decriminalized abortion settings

D.42 - Safe and quality abortion services in legal or decriminalized abortion settings
Ensure, in those cases where abortion is legal or decriminalized under the relevant national legislation, the availability of safe, good-quality abortion services for women with unwanted and unaccepted pregnancies, and urge all other States to consider amending their laws, regulations, strategies and public policies relating to the voluntary termination of pregnancy in order to protect the lives and health of women and adolescent girls, improve their quality of life, and reduce the number of abortions.
Priority measure number
42

Comments

This measure complements priority measure 37 on access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, priority measure 40 on maternal mortality, and priority measure 14 which addresses, among other things, unsafe abortion in the reference group of chapter B (children, adolescents and young people).

Possible lines of action

1. Establish the necessary mechanisms to provide timely, safe, accessible and readily available abortion services for all women who need them (in cases where abortion is legal or decriminalized). 2. Ensure the necessary conditions for applying the different legal provisions in each context, including the tools needed for interpreting them in accordance with international human rights frameworks. 3. Ensure that services for the voluntary termination of pregnancy are available at the primary care level and have referral systems when necessary. 4. Encourage abortion to be performed with medications and using the manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) method. 5. Ensure that information on legal abortion and the prevention of unsafe abortion is available to all women. 6. Establish protocols for health service providers to develop the skills needed to detect and respond to situations involving the coercion or oppression of women so as to avoid abortion against their will (for example, based on their health status, such as living with HIV). 7. Eliminate all regulatory, policy, programme, administrative and cultural barriers that impede access to timely and risk-free abortion care. 8. Ensure that the legal framework eliminates the adverse impact of conscientious objection on the provision of sexual and reproductive health services, and abortion in particular. 9. Promote counselling on contraception and provide contraception methods in the context of abortion care. 10. Encourage the prevention of unwanted pregnancy, including emergency contraception, and the prevention of unsafe abortion. 11. Guarantee, regardless of the legal context, that women subjected to unsafe abortions receive timely and good-quality care to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with complications. 12. Strengthen health institutions and ensure that there are sufficient providers of these services so as to end unsafe abortion.

Related instruments, forums and mechanisms

Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 3 (“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”), target 3.1 (“By 2030 reduce the global maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 100,000 live births”) and target 3.7 (“By 2030 ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes”).

Santo Domingo Consensus, agreement 78 (“Ensure, in cases where abortion is legal or decriminalized in national legislation, the existence of safe, good-quality abortion services for women with unwanted and unaccepted pregnancies”).

 Brasilia Consensus, agreement 6.f (“Review laws that punish women who have undergone abortions, as recommended by the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, including the further initiatives and actions identified for the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the general observations of the Committee against Torture of the United Nations, and ensure that abortions are performed safely where authorized by the law”).

Topic
D. Sexual and reproductive health