🔗 Share this article The Targeting of Childbirth: How Women and Babies Became Targets in Global Conflicts. Thirty women were huddled for safety in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were in the midst of labor. Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he recounts. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.” This appalling incident stands as one of the most shocking examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, reportedly killing more than 460 innocent people inside. Rights organizations have described it as “a crime beyond words,” and a clear case of the deteriorating protection for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots. A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care Although world powers are signatories to the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of attacks on healthcare systems. Women undergoing childbirth are exceptionally vulnerable due to their reliance on locally available medical care. Data analysis and investigations show an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards. “This is not standard wartime hazards. They constitute a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.” The majority of these incidents have happened in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of pregnant women are trapped. Deaths have occurred, denied medical attention, or compelled to deliver in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been killed, 15 taken hostage, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births. A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they are limited to incidents covered by the media. In many conflict zones, reporting is limited. Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who perished while pregnant or giving birth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a catastrophic reality. Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are wrecking maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to community survival. Conditions within Gaza In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for genocide allegations. Following truces, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from medical shortages, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were out of reach. “We’ve had rockets targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” says the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect birthrates. The Crisis in Ukraine Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births occurring in shelters and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications. “The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians. “The truth of the matter is, every facility is now a potential target,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris can strike a hospital.” A Culture of Impunity For the over half a billion females living close to deadly warfare, there are few safeguards and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those assaulting reproductive health. This void of justice has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” says a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.” Other Conflict Zones In El Fasher, the area lacked access to humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition spiking dangerously, especially among children and pregnant women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is scarce because of a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, causing fatalities among patients and staff. In Myanmar, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war. The Collapse of Safe Childbirth Most maternal deaths are preventable with routine care, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births without skilled assistance. “If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted speaks to a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation and to tear apart the social fabric,” notes a legal researcher. “Hospitals are not completely safe for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘militarily advantageous’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”