ghana: HIV/AIDS CRISIS DEMANDS REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE IN AFRICA

======================================
C * R * L * P
Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
http://www.crlp.org/press.html
======================================

For Immediate Release June 5, 2002
Contact: Suzanne Grossman (917) 637-3698, [email protected]
Susan Aryeetey, FIDA-Ghana (233-2) 122 5479

HIV/AIDS CRISIS DEMANDS REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE IN AFRICA
Seven Countries Send Advocates to Ghana Aiming to Improve Government
Policies

Accra, Ghana - The HIV/AIDS pandemic has spurred significant advances in
reproductive health policies across Africa, however, governments do not
allocate sufficient legal and financial resources to ensure that the
policies are effective, according to a report launched today by advocates
from seven African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania,
South Africa, and Zimbabwe, and the U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Law
and Policy (CRLP). The report is based on two years of collaborative
research and analysis of laws and policies related to women's reproductive
lives.

"Unlike the rest of the world, women in Sub-Saharan Africa are infected with
HIV/AIDS at double and triple the rates of men," said Katherine Hall
Martinez, acting director of CRLP's international program. "We have seen a
dramatic increase in policies that intend to improve women's reproductive
health and rights but governments must take the next step to safeguard these
policies with laws and programmatic funding in order to start saving lives."

The 175-page report: Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting Their
Reproductive Lives, Anglophone Africa Progess Report 2001, is an extensive
review of developments that occurred since CRLP's groundbreaking 1997 study,
which examined the laws and policies related to women's reproductive health
and rights in the same seven African countries.

Critical findings from the Progress Report include:

· Minimal contraceptive use and acceptance, especially of condoms. In
southern Africa, where HIV rates are highest, condom use is lowest.
Similarly, in Ghana, only 3% of women and 7% of men have ever used a condom
to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

· Female circumcision/female genital mutilation (FC/FGM), despite many
governments' official objections, remains largely legal. Nigeria's policy
aims to reduce by half the incidence of FC/FGM by 2005, but shies away from
making the practice a crime. Ethiopia, where 73% of women have undergone
some form of FC/FGM, has no explicit law or policy prohibiting the practice.

· Movement toward liberalizing abortion has gained momentum throughout the
region including in Kenya and Nigeria, which have the most restrictive bans.
Despite this, Kenyan adolescents make up 60% of cases involving unsafe
abortion complications. In Ethiopia, 54% of all obstetric deaths are
attributed to clandestine, unsafe abortions. High maternal mortality rates
in nearly all seven countries is attributed to unsafe abortion.

The June 5-7 meeting of advocates is being hosted in Ghana by the
International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA)-Ghana, an organization
which specializes in providing legal aid services to women and children.

To download or order copies of the report, see CRLP's website at
www.crlp.org.

###

The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) is a non-profit legal
advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and defending women's
reproductive rights worldwide.

Suzanne Grossman
Media/Website Associate
Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
120 Wall Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10005
ph: (917) 637-3698
fax: (212) 701-8765
http://www.reproductiverights.org