“If one of our RINJ Foundation birthing clinics needs to extricate an infant from its mother at 22 weeks, we cannot keep the child alive most of the time. There is about a 5% chance, that’s five babies out of a hundred, can be saved, but most of that 5% will suffer irregularities, some will even have early deaths,” explains RINJ Medical Director Dr. Nassima al Amouri.
“Incubate, intubate? These are urgent calls depending on the baby’s health, weight, available resources, environment (war zone? climate emergency? electricity?) and complications. That’s what happens when an abortion procedure was unavailable weeks ago for a patient whose outlook contraindicated pregnancy,” she added.
Legislative limiting of abortions creates predictable harsh crises
“The women of the RINJ Foundation have made their position clear for two decades. Women’s reproductive health care is a private matter between her and her health care advisors and care givers. To satisfy the concerns of religious advisors, RINJ Women undertake not to abuse abortion procedures as a method of birth control and to that end urge all women to avail of the many types of contraceptives and also disease prevention and seek health care counsel whenever desired,” adds Geraldine Frisque, spokesperson for RINJ Women.
“Above all, this is the most important thing to be said about induced abortion,” nurse practitioner Monique Deslauriers suggested based on her years of experience in women’s clinics:
“If there are indications to contraindicate pregnancy, the pregnancy must be terminated as soon as safely possible,” she said.
Fighting for the safety of women and children includes making certain complete health care is available to all women and girls. Abortion care must be safe, timely, affordable, non-discriminatory and respectful. Care must be effective, efficient, accessible, acceptable, patient-centered, equitable and above all, safe. Photo Credit: The RINJ Foundation.
“If the pregnancy is unwanted due to health complications, pregnancy contraindication, rape, incest or any reason, there must be a reasonable consideration of early induced abortion. The patient who has an unwanted pregnancy has a reduced chance of a good outcome and greater risk of complications including death. It’s that simple. The practitioner must weigh the risk; evaluate how much time is available to make the decision; then set up a routine for patient monitoring and follow-up. For example, ‘Think it over and see me for an examination Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.’,” Dr. al Amouri suggests.
Botched back-alley abortions occur where Male Legislative Interference in the womb has taken place.
Men have a long history of controlling women and the consequences are often a bloody catastrophe.
“Intake of a woman who endured a botched back-alley abortion, is bloody hell. The loss of this mother would also mean the loss of all the healthy children she would ever deliver. Every botched back-alley abortion is a heartbreaking case. Around the world, they happen half the time in 3 out of 10 pregnancies according to the World Health Organization,” explained Dr. al Amouri.
“Safe, dignified, affordable, induced abortion availability is a crucial part of health care. Without safe, dignified induced abortion procedure, health care is incomplete,” Ms. Frisque explains.
“This problem of patient walk-ins following botched unsafe abortions occurs in the communities of medical operating units of the RINJ Foundation more often than the opportunity to save a preterm infant. In fact 45% of all abortions are unsafe, according to the World Health Organization,” Dr. Nassima al Amouri. added to the discussion.
- “Unsafe abortion is a leading – but preventable – cause of maternal deaths and morbidities. It can lead to physical and mental health complications and social and financial burdens for women, communities and health systems.
- “Lack of access to safe, timely, affordable and respectful abortion care is a critical public health and human rights issue.”
Safe and dignified abortion care is the way to prevent many emergencies. But too often, surgeons are faced with complications in a pregnancy that should have been terminated weeks earlier.
If critical care would likely keep the mother safe and healthy for another 4 weeks, still an extreme preterm infant, that would be a hopeful outcome and opens the chance of an unimpaired outcome percentile of more than 75% according to current data. The preterm baby at 26 to 28 weeks at the top of the ‘extreme preterm range‘ has a better chance of living, around 85% with a fraction at risk of impairment, say the women with much experience in war zones.
“We must to be prepared for any emergency, to be relevant,” emphasizes nurse Alona Adamovich, articulating her experiences in Ukraine. She is a director of the RINJ Foundation in charge of a number of women’s shelters and a growing number of various women’s clinics in Ukraine.
“This is my experience running women’s clinics in war zones”
“Making these calls on preterm management and fetal viability at the clinic level can be an emotional experience. Once the decision is made, the practitioner and team must live with the outcome, no matter what any male jerks with guns and decrees have to say about the case,” said Dr. Nassima al Amouri.
“RINJ does indeed inventory enteral feeding sets and incubators and have saved many premature babies, but not as early as a low-end gestational extreme preterm,” she added.
“The point is that the mother is now at risk too—as is the pregnancy failing—and this could have been prevented with a timely induced abortion procedure which was unavailable because of male intervention,” explained the woman doctor from Syria.
Defining Preterm Gestational Age Ranges
| Extreme preterm |
Gestational age at or below 28 weeks |
| Very preterm |
Gestational age at or below 32 weeks |
| Moderate preterm |
Gestational age between 32 weeks and 33 weeks & 6 days |
| Late preterm |
Gestational age between 34 weeks and 36 weeks & 6 days |
What does this have to do with abortion? Fetal Viability.
“Babies I have delivered or helped deliver have a special place in my heart. It is for some reason, a forever thing I cannot explain. I have heard others say the same thing, ‘I can’t explain the feeling’,” said Dr. Nassima al Amouri
“I guess it is about life being that precious. I look at a little boy or girl I helped into this world and I am in awe of the miracle of birth. But I look at a troubled fetus at a time before 23 weeks and I have nightmares on the spot. Induction or cesarean section due to a medical event or emerging condition, such as placental abruption or whatever, is a roll of the dice,” she said.
“This is my wake-up call on the subject of abortion and this is the case for early abortion without hesitation in the event of a probability of the mother facing a likely medical event that precludes safe delivery or preterm safe delivery.”
“So men, for these reasons, there must be no impediment to any common medical procedure needed for complete health care, like abortion,” says RINJ spokeswoman.
“Men have an understandable fascination with women’s bodies but some have a sick inclination to interfere with women’s bodies. For this reason, men make bad leaders,” notes Ms. Frisque.
“The men in the USA Supreme Court who opened the door to actually criminalizing abortions, deserve admonishment from all around the world, and they are getting it. The six men who quashed Roe V Wade are misogynistic political scoundrels undeserving of the salutation, “your honour” because they have disgraced themselves,” is Dr. Nassima al Amouri’s conclusion.
Below are some additional informational reading material from the WHO.
- Key international human rights standards on abortion
- Abortion care guideline