Sexual and reproductive health care is not a luxury.
Contraception and safe abortion care are always essential.
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During these extraordinary times, it's even more critical that women and girls have access to the health services that they need.

In MSF, our teams treat the complications from unsafe abortion on a daily basis.
Every day in maternity wards and emergency rooms around the world, we see women coming in with complications like bleeding and infection, injuries.
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Unsafe abortion is one of the main causes of maternal death and the only one that is almost entirely preventable,

I've seen firsthand, and so have so many of my MSF colleagues, the suffering that happens when women undergo these unsafe abortions in the community.
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In some of the places where we work, we’re already seeing an increase in maternal deaths because of COVID-19.

These deaths are mainly due to the fact that women and girls don't have access to the routine services that they need, including contraception and safe abortion care.
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Our teams on the ground are working so hard to overcome the challenges of this pandemic and ensure that our populations receive the care that they need.

So in some places, this means giving women longer refills of their birth control pills to avoid unnecessary visits to the clinic.
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And in other places, this means working with community health workers and local women's groups to provide abortion medications in the community.

Many people don't know this, but an abortion with pills is so safe and so effective that most women can safely manage the process themselves at home.
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Safe abortion care is health care. It's every health provider's responsibility to ensure that women and girls everywhere have access to the care they need.
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TEXT: Contraception and safe abortion care are always essential health care.