A multi-sector platform has been set up for sensitization and advocacy in favor of sexual and reproductive health rights and safe abortion at the end of a values ​​clarification workshop and Attitudes Transformation Regarding Unsafe Abortions (VCAT), held June 14-16, 2021, in Soubré for opinion leaders and civil society.

The workshop, whose objective is to reduce the high rate of unsafe abortions, was held in the presence of the secretary general of the prefecture of Soubré, Okou Paulin and the regional advisor in advocacy and partnership at IPAS Côte d ‘Ivory, Aboudou Soro Nabiehoua .

To achieve this, the participants, for three days, were treated to modules through which they improved their perception of sexual and reproductive health rights with a focus on comprehensive abortion care, as well as strengthened their knowledge of the provisions. legal requirements and the actions needed to advance the domestication of the Maputo Protocol.

This protocol broadens the conditions of access to abortion services in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest and when pregnancy endangers the health of the mother, explained Mr. Soro Nabiehoua.

It was ratified by the Ivorian government and published in the official journal in 2012. However, “the regulatory framework remains insufficiently strengthened in accordance with the commitments made by the country with an absence of laws on reproductive health”, he said. .

The issue of maternal mortality remains a major concern in Côte d’Ivoire, where the maternal mortality rate which was 614 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2012, according to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) has risen to 645 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015. 18% of maternal mortality is linked to abortions and is strongly correlated with high-risk pregnancies, according to the PMA 2020 survey.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse