'Access To Safe Abortions Saves Lives': WHO Chief After Leaked US Supreme Court Draft

As reported by news agency AFP, without explicitly referencing the US case, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that "restricting access to abortion does not reduce the number of procedures."

World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (File photo: AFP)

New Delhi: After the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision ruling legalising abortion, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday said that safe abortions save lives. In the Roe v Wade verdict, the US Supreme Court had held that access to abortion was a woman's constitutional right. As reported by news agency AFP, without explicitly referencing the US case, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that "restricting access to abortion does not reduce the number of procedures."

"It drives women and girls towards unsafe ones," he said in a tweet.

"Access to safe abortion saves lives."

His remarks came in the midst of a firestorm in the United States, started by an unprecedented leak of a Supreme Court draft administering, which proposed the court was ready to topple the cross country right to an abortion.

Assuming the draft administering is affirmed by the court, it would topple the 1973 Roe v. Swim decision, which revered early abortion rights across the nation.

The Abortion laws would then be surrendered to individual state legislatures, with as many as half expected to establish bans or new limitations.

For some women, the expected loss of abortion rights across a significant part of the United States raises the possibility of being compelled to travel many miles for the procedure or conceiving an offspring in awful conditions.

"Women should always have the right to choose when it comes to their bodies and their health," Tedros said.

The UN well-being organisation gave new rules on abortion care in March, in a bid to assist with safeguarding the health of women and girls and prevent unsafe abortions.

As per the WHO, around 25 million dangerous unsafe abortions are directed all over the planet every year, for certain 39,000 women and girls dying, therefore, every year, and millions more hospitalised because of complications.

A large portion of the deaths occurs in lower-pay nations, with Africa representing an entire 60 percent and Asia for 30%, the information shows.