Running Head: ABORTION CARE IN HUMANITARIAN CONFLICTS Abortion Care in Humanitarian Conflict-Affected Settings: A Scoping Review

Abstract

This major research paper seeks to examine the literature on safe abortion care within humanitarian conflict settings. In the last decade, there has been a growing discussion within the humanitarian community recognizing the importance of providing safe abortion care. Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality, a risk that is particularly heightened for pregnant women in humanitarian conflict settings. In such challenging contexts, access to reproductive health services is often limited. This, in addition to the increasingly protracted nature of humanitarian conflicts, means that many girls often reach reproductive age without key reproductive health services, such as contraception, during a situation of conflict and/or displacement. With the systematic use of rape and sexual violence as weapons of war, girls in humanitarian conflicts are more exposed to unintended pregnancy outcomes, which increases the risk of self-aborting through unsafe methods. Through a scoping review methodology, this major research paper seeks to provide a preliminary mapping of the key issues identified in the literature on abortion care within humanitarian conflicts. This paper examines the global discussions to make safe abortion care a priority within humanitarian settings; outlines the numerous challenges – legal, operational, cultural, and political – that humanitarian organizations face in providing this health service; and ultimately provides a way forward for future studies that seek to delve deeper into this topic.