28th September of 2017, International Safe Abortion Day

Speaker: Dr Manisha Kumar, Coordinator of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Task Force, Bukavu (DRC)

It’s not about promoting abortion, it’s about saving women’s lives

Women are coming to us every day asking for a medical service

As a medical humanitarian organisation, we have a duty to respond

Despite the fact that it’s been MSF’s policy to provide safe abortion care since 2004

Very few field teams are implementing this.

So, back in July at the International General Assembly, MSF’s highest governing body,

A motion was unanimously adopted that says that MSF will not deny termination of pregnancy to any woman or young girl who requests it

Ant it is important to know that women are already requesting this medical service

and when we deny them medical care, they often resort to unsafe ways to end their pregnancy

and as a medical organisation we know the complications and deaths that result.

So every safe abortion that we provide is an unsafe abortion prevented.

The taskforce in DRC conducts field support visits to really support the project team in implementing access to safe abortion care

We conduct workshops to open up a dialogue with staff, clinical trainings

We support the teams in conducting risk assessments, dialogues with local actors

And developing their own personalised implementation strategy

In January of 2017, in the 6 projects that have been visited so far by the taskforce, they had provided zero terminations of pregnancy

Between March and August of this year the same projects provided a total of 84 safe medical abortions

99% of those abortions were via the medication method

There were zero serious medical complications

And zero security incidents

I think that abortion is a sensitive issue

And that it’s an issue that people need help approaching and discussing in a productive and helpful way

A lot of our fears about speaking with national staff is really a reflection of our own discomfort and our own fears

What we need is for MSF associations around the world to now have an open and honest dialogue about this issue of abortion

Closing sentences: “How do YOU think we can move forward? How do YOU see the INTERNAL communication happening within MSF? »