Operationalizing Safe Abortion Care in Acute and Protracted Settings

Safe abortion care (SAC) is a proven and life-saving intervention to prevent maternal death and morbidity and to manage the consequences of sexual violence in emergencies. Yet despite a culmination of factors that place vulnerable women and girls at increased risk of unintended and unwanted pregnancy, refugees and internally displaced people are systematically denied access to safe abortion care, often even when it is legally allowed, due to a variety of reasons and myths including incorrect assumptions about women’s beliefs, deprioritizing SAC in service delivery, and misunderstanding of the law. This panel will report findings of community perceptions around safe abortion in South Sudan, MISP implementation gaps and challenges in Colombia, and innovative use of “legal risk” as a lens to assess the legal context for abortion work.