WHO Director-General of the Tetros Antanom Gebregesous said during a media briefing that decades of scientific data prove that access to safe and legal abortion saves lives. “The evidence is incontrovertible,” Tentros said. “Restriction (miscarriage) leads women and girls to unsafe abortions resulting in complications and even death.” He said safe abortion should be understood as healthcare and warned that restricting its access would disproportionately affect women from the poorest and most marginalized communities. “We did not really expect that from the United States,” Tetros said, adding that he was concerned that the Supreme Court ruling was a “backward” move. access to reproductive health care. “We really hoped the United States would take the lead on this issue,” Tentros said. The leading scientist of the WHO, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said the UN Health Service’s position on abortion was based on decades of data from many countries. “I know from my own experience working in India that access to safe abortion is a life-saving measure,” Swaminathan said. He said denying a woman access to an abortion was “like denying someone a life-saving drug”. He said banning abortions would greatly reduce the number of procedures, while people undergoing unsafe abortions risk developing fatal blood infections. “What these bans are doing is putting women in the hands of people who are there to take advantage of the situation, making unsafe abortions and very often resulting in huge damage to their health and sometimes death,” Swaminathan said. In recent years, the trend among countries has been to increase access to abortions, including in areas of fierce opposition, such as Latin America, he said. “It is unfortunate to see some countries retreat,” Swaminathan said, referring to the US decision. The head of the WHO Tentros said he feared that many other countries might not understand the consequences of the US Supreme Court ruling and that they could take similar measures to curb abortions. “The global impact is also worrying,” he said. “This is for the mother’s life,” he said. “If safe abortion is illegal, then women will definitely resort to unsafe ways to do it. And that means it could cost them their lives. “
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