Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-03-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made in providing safe abortion for women who are raped in conflict situations.
Baroness Verma
Women and girls raped in conflict situations need access to a comprehensive range of sexual and reproductive health services. The UK funds partners to deliver such services. For example, we are working with agencies such as UNFPA to provide essential sexual and reproductive health care within our humanitarian responses, including in Ukraine and Syria. We encourage other donors and partner agencies to increase provision of sexual and reproductive health services including full implementation of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP). These may include access to safe abortion services as set out in our policy paper on safe and unsafe abortion.
The Secretary of State made a commitment at the UN General Assembly in 2015 that in humanitarian crises, DFID calls for proposals will require the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls to be considered. We are working with our partners to operationalise this commitment.
