Ukraine, pregnant women after rapes: morning-after pills are missing

Since Ukraine was invaded by Russian forces, reports of rape have been on the rise: hospitals are trying to provide emergency contraception as quickly as possible to avoid raped women, already traumatized, at least the drama of a highly unwanted pregnancy.

Before the war, emergency contraception was widely available in Ukraine, but the conflict has destroyed supply chains in addition to reducing the number of health workers. Today, the demand for the morning-after pills comes mainly from him hospitals in the east of the country, such as those in Kharkiv and Mariupol.

Ukrainian commissioner for human rights Lyudmila Denisova said in early April that there were, officially, at least nine cases of women becoming pregnant after being raped by Russian soldiers. But she also explained that her office has recorded her cases 25 women kept in a basement and systematically raped in Bucha. The real number of victims could be much higher, as Jamie Nadal of the United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa) confirms, according to which, in crisis situations, reported cases of violence are probably “just the tip of the iceberg” . The Guardian reported just this week that autopsies on the bodies of women in mass graves north of Kiev revealed that some of them had been raped before being killedby Russian forces.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation sent about 2,880 packets of morning-after pills, and a network of volunteers across Europe organized donations of the drug and delivered them to hospitals.

The United Nations had already included emergency contraception in “post-rape kits” for hundreds of women and girls in armed conflict territories around the world. In addition to emergency contraception, survivors are typically given drugs to prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as hepatitis B and HIV. The distribution of drugs to women who have been raped is part of the policies of the United Nationswhich so far have sent 40 tons of reproductive health medicines to Ukraine and 33 clinical rape management kits to 19 hospitals in 10 regions of Ukraine.

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Source: Vanity Fair

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