As Boko Haram Kidnapping Victims Are Rescued, Many of Them Are Pregnant. Why Isn't Anyone Talking Ab

[Novara]

As Boko Haram Kidnapping Victims Are Rescued, Many of Them Are Pregnant. Why Isn't Anyone Talking About Their Right to Abortion?

<snip>

The Lagos-based newspaperVanguard reported that of the 234 women and girls rescued earlier this month by the Nigerian Army, at least 214 are pregnant, and media outlets across the world picked up that claim. According to Ratidzai Ndhlovu, an in-country representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), that figure is incorrect — the 234 girls are in a camp in the eastern city of Yola and are still being evaluated by health workers, who have not yet released figures on the number of pregnancies. There are 214 other girls and women, some recovered Boko Haram kidnap victims and others not, who are pregnant in an IDP camp in Borno. Confusion about location and numbers aside, all parties agree that of the hundreds of women and girls rescued from Boko Haram, and the hundreds more the Nigerian government hopes to recover, many will be pregnant and will need extensive medical and psychological care.

Governments and international organizations are stepping up to help, offering antenatal care, family planning services, and treatment for malnourishment. Media stories about the rescued women and girls abound. But despite the fact that a story about pregnant rape survivors — potentially hundreds of them — is making headlines across the globe, almost no one in media, in government, or on the NGO circuit is talking about the need for abortion.

A small handful of advocates for global women's rights say that's an unconscionable omission. There are legal obstacles, but they say there's an established framework for providing abortions to rape victims in Nigeria. The problem is lack of political will.

"There's enough international work and policy that has gone into addressing the exact issue we are faced with right now that it should be a no-brainer for international donors like the U.S. government, like UNFPA, to be going into Nigeria and helping these girls access safe abortions, for the ones who want and choose that," Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), an organization that advocates for a human-rights-based foreign policy that centers on the rights of women and girls, told Cosmopolitan.com. "There are resources, there's policy in place, it's just a matter of being compassionate and providing these services. I'm beside myself that nobody's talking about this."

According to mental health experts, rape survivors are best served when they are able to make their own decisions about their bodies and their care. Particularly important, experts say, is survivors' ability to regain control over their bodies, their lives, and their choices — and that includes the right to exercise a full range of reproductive choice.

"If there's any sort of return to normalcy, there needs to be engagement with the woman about what she can do to reclaim her life," Bea Arthur, a therapist who often works with victims of violence, told Cosmopolitan.com. "Telling someone they can't have a choice extends that trauma and denies them their own humanity, integrity, and basic human self-respect."

Read more: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a40182/nigerian-rape-victims-abortion/

[Demeter]

1. Because women are less than human, no matter their age, status, health, whatever

It's a lesson every girl is taught from birth, unless and until her mother fights for her soul.

[brer cat]

2. From reading the entire article

it is going to take a lot of pressure on Nigeria to give the girls and women a choice. "They [United States and NGOs] could, she says, put pressure on the Nigerian government to bring its laws into accord with the Maputo Protocol and offer resources for rape survivors to obtain a full range of reproductive health care services.

But instead, '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,' Sippel said."

"Unconscionable" indeed.

[marym625]

3. They're not talking about the girls being used as suicide bombers either

Because most people don't really care. There's no money in it. They're not blonde, blue eyed girls

Just so disheartening