Webinar | Activist Dialogue on Abortion in Eastern and Southern Africa

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) recognises that reproductive health comprises the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so. While many countries have signed the protocol, there are those who still continue to criminalise the provision of abortion services. This threatens the rights of women to bodily autonomy, it threatens their freedom to pursue their development goals and in some cases threatens their lives.

In the Abortion in Eastern and Southern Africa publication, we enumerate the various barriers to safe abortion services across 10 countries in the Eastern and Southern African region and outline the issues that activists have identified as key to remove those barriers. In doing so, we aim to provide an advocacy tool to assist in bringing down the barriers to enable women to exercise their rights to access sexual and reproductive health services. Contributors to the publication will discuss what they are doing to unlock these services in their respective countries and what we as activists can do to advance access to abortion services in the region.