New Boko Haram Video Reignites International Concern over Reproductive Health of Rape Victims

[niyad]

New Boko Haram Video Reignites International Concern over Reproductive Health of Rape Victims


On Sunday, Boko Haram released a video reporting the alleged status of hundreds of girls held hostage by the militant group, including the over 250 schoolgirls that were abducted in 2014. The video, which pans across a group of girls, at least one of whom is holding a young child, has renewed concerns over the sexual violence being inflicted on these young women. Boko Haram has killed thousands of civilians in Northern Nigeria and is known for abducting women and girls, many of whom then suffer rape and sexual violence. After over 200 allegedly visibly pregnant girls were rescued from Boko Haram last year by the Nigerian army, the need to offer these survivors access to abortion services was evident.

“During their captivity, lasting in many cases for months or even years, women and girls have been sexually enslaved, raped and forced into so-called ‘marriages,’” explained a UN representative during a special session on Boko Haram in July. “Many survivors of these horrific experiences are now pregnant by their rapists…and several reportedly wish to terminate these unwanted pregnancies.”

Despite Nigerian legal barriers, global women’s advocates say that the framework for providing rape victims access to abortion is there. In particular, the Geneva Conventions—a series of treaties concerning the rights and protections of noncombatants, prisoners, and those injured during armed conflict—require that all civilians who are “wounded and sick” be able to access health care on a non-discriminatory basis. But because the United States, the single largest donor to global women’s health programs, interprets the notorious Helms Amendment as barring all funding for any kind of abortion assistance or information, these survivors go without full access to medical care, a violation of human dignity and international humanitarian law that puts the lives of survivors at risk.

According to a report by Laura Bassett for the Huffington Post, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) distributed emergency supplies for the women and girls rescued from Boko Haram, including treatments for sexually transmitted infections and items for birth attendants. “But it couldn’t offer any of the rape survivors the option to end their pregnancies. Some of the girls reportedly sought out illegal, unsafe abortions. Others were too afraid to take the risk and were shunned by their communities for giving birth to the children of killers.” “What the U.S. government does is allow the extreme politicization of abortion in the United States to dictate how they’re responding in this kind of crisis, which to me is unconscionable,” said Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity.

. . .


http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2016/08/16/new-boko-haram-video-reignites-international-concern-over-reproductive-health-of-rape-victims/

[BlancheSplanchnik]

1. Politicized reproductive slavery in the US, enslavement and sexualized torture by a terrorist group

in Nigeria.

Women are targets of gender terrorism everywhere. US policy helps amplify the terror.


Look how much we care. Only feminist news outlets report as if it mattered.

[niyad]

2. well, it is, after all, only women and girls. where did you ever get the idea they matter?

and even here, we are told that they are not important (not in those words, but we understand the rhetoric)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. Yep. It's... well... It leaves me speechless, actually.

I mean, I know I usually point it out when I see it, but sometimes you just don't know what to say.

I don't like seeing so-called Women's Issues stuck in last place over and over again. Especially given that it's endemic. The numbers continue to rise (assaults against women, I mean), but on the list of high priority crisis level human rights issues, it usually seems like folks here, (and the public generally) aren't too interested.

[niyad]

7. sadly, you are quite correct. women's issues are at the bottom of the list of concerns pretty

much everywhere, even amoung so-called progressives. and then there is the denial of that fact, the denial of the misogyny, the sexism, the sheer hatred for women (like the headline of the russian calling for genital mutilation of women)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. :(

Tired of this shit.

[Blue_Tires]

9. So women in conflict zones wouldn't get raped if we would only fund abortions?

okay...

[Behind the Aegis]

4. It took a video to "reignite international concern"?

How fucking disgusting. The "concern" should already be there and it should actually be anger!

[niyad]

5. you are absolutely correct.

[niyad]

6. . . .

[Blue_Tires]

8. Since nobody answered me in the previous threads, I'll ask again:

*WHY* is it U.S. responsibility to provide safe abortions abroad when we can barely do it within our own goddamned borders?

Why don't some other countries or NGOs step in?