🔗 Share this article The Targeting of Childbirth: How Women and Babies Became Targets in Global Conflicts. Dozens of women were seeking shelter in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Among them were new mothers, while others were in the midst of labor. On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he states. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.” This appalling incident stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 patients and their companions. Rights organizations have described it as “a crime beyond words,” and a clear case of the vanishing safeguards for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots. A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services Despite every significant nation have signed the international laws of war, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of attacks on healthcare systems. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their need for locally available medical care. Data analysis and investigations reveal an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards. “This is not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They form a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.” The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of women bearing children are confined. Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or forced to give birth in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been murdered, 15 taken hostage, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births. A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health The numbers are probably a substantial underreporting, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many areas of fighting, information is scarce. Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a catastrophic reality. Apart from fatalities, these attacks are wrecking maternal and neonatal care facilities, creating a grave danger to community survival. Conditions within Gaza In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in accusations of genocidal acts. Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from medical shortages, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women giving birth in rubble because hospitals could not be reached. “Direct shelling fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect birthrates. Ukraine's Ordeal Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births occurring in shelters and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications. “We are being singled out,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians. “In fact, every facility can be under attack now,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris could impact a hospital.” A Culture of Impunity For the over half a billion females living near active conflicts, there are scarce guarantees and a stark lack of legal accountability for those assaulting reproductive health. This void of justice has led to a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Violence targeting childbirth, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially acts of genocide by preventing births.” Other Conflict Zones In El Fasher, the area lacked access to humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition rising sharply, especially among children and pregnant women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, causing fatalities among patients and staff. In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war. The Collapse of Safe Childbirth The majority of childbirth fatalities are averted with basic healthcare, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births devoid of emergency care. “If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a weapon to spread fear and to break societal cohesion,” observes a legal researcher. “Hospitals are not completely safe for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities may forfeit their immunity if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”