The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday criticized the decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn Rowe against Wade. calling the decision to end the recognition of the constitutional right to abortion a “failure” that would ultimately cost lives.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adanom Gebreyesus told a media briefing that decades of scientific evidence have shown that access to safe and legal abortion saves lives.
“The evidence is irrefutable,” Tedros said. “Restricting (abortion) leads women and girls to dangerous abortions, leading to complications, even death.” He said safe abortion should be understood as health care and warned that restricting access to it would disproportionately affect the poorest women. and marginalized communities.
“We really didn’t expect that from the United States,” Tedros said, adding that he was concerned that the Supreme Court’s decision was a step backwards. .
“We really hoped the United States would lead the way,” Tedros said.
The chief scientist of the WHO, Dr. Sumya Swaminathan, said that the position of the UN Health Agency on abortion is based on data from decades in many countries.
“I know from my own experience working in India that access to safe abortion is a life-saving measure,” Swaminathan said. She said denying a woman access to an abortion was “like denying someone a life-saving medicine.”
She said banning abortions would do little to reduce the number of procedures, while people undergoing unsafe abortions are at risk of developing fatal blood infections.
“What these bans do … is that it puts women in the hands of people who are there to take advantage of the situation, performing dangerous abortions and very often causing enormous damage to their health and sometimes death,” he said. Swaminathan.
In recent years, the trend among countries has been to increase access to abortion, including in regions where there has been strong opposition, such as Latin America, she said.
“It is unfortunate to see some countries go backwards,” Swaminathan was quoted as saying.
WHO chief Tedros said he feared many other countries might not understand the implications of the US Supreme Court ruling and could take similar measures to curb abortion.
“Global impact is also a problem,” he said. “It’s about the mother’s life,” he said. “If a safe abortion is illegal, then women will definitely resort to dangerous ways to do it. And that means it could cost them their lives. “
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