Women and Gender Issues
Foreword
This year’s Arab Human Development Report marks the fourth in a four-part series that has made a significant contribution to the debate on the development challenges facing the Arab world.
Foreword
For the first time the global community knows the cost and the new investments that must be made to achieve three world-changing transformative results: (a) ending preventable maternal deaths; (b) ending the unmet need for family planning; and (c) ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.
Abortion laws and policies
Every year at least 22800 women die from complications related to abortion (Singh and others 2018). Most of these deaths are due to unsafe abortions. Complications from unsafe abortion are believed to account for the largest proportion of hospital admissions for gynaecological services in developing countries (Singh 2006). Almost all deaths and morbidity from unsafe abortion occur in countries where abortion is severely restricted in law or in practice (Grimes and others 2006; Haddad and Nour 2009). Maternal mortality ratios (number of maternal deaths per 100000 live births) due to complications of unsafe abortion for instance are higher in regions with restrictive abortion laws than in regions with no or few restrictions on access to safe and legal abortion (United Nations 2014; Shah and Ahman 2009). According to the World Health Organization (2012) restricting legal access to abortion does not decrease the need for abortion but it is likely to increase the number of women seeking illegal and unsafe abortions.
Introduction
This toolkit is designed to support UNFPA regional and country offi ces to develop country investment cases in support of one or more of the transformative results. It provides a concise and practical guide on how to develop a national investment case including a step-by-step guide on:
When decisions are made by others: The denial of bodily autonomy and integrity takes many forms
The feminist slogan “the personal is political” has been rallying women around the cause of bodily autonomy since the 1960s. Activists before and since have argued that if women and girls lack the power—or agency—to realize their rights to self-determination and autonomy they are also unable to control other aspects of their lives.