Syria is facing a reproductive health care crisis that is putting women and their babies at risk of serious issues, including death, a new report has found.
The report, released on Tuesday, documents the human cost of the 12-year conflict in the country and the consequences it has had for women. It was co-authored by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Syria Relief & Development (SRD) and Syrian American Medical Society.
The country’s health care infrastructure was already crippled by years of civil war. The strain on facilities only worsened after a series of earthquakes that hit Syria and Turkey last month. As a result, women’s mental and physical health took a hit, aid workers and physicians were operating beyond capacity, and life-saving resources remained scarce.
Access to reproductive care, in particular, has been hindered, and without immediate intervention, advocates and experts inside Syria told HuffPost that women’s lives are at stake.
“It’s important to recognize that behind these numbers, behind these pages of the report, we have horrifying stories about people and their bad experiences. Stories of losses of their children and their babies because of lack of services,” said Houssam Al-Nahhas, a Middle East North Africa researcher with PHR and lead author of the report.
Hospitals and health care facilities are nearly decimated, many targeted by airstrikes.
Since 2011, PHR has documented 601 attacks on medical facilities throughout Syria. Only 64% of hospitals and 52% of primary health care centers are functioning, while an estimated 70% of the health workforce has fled the country, according to a 2021 report by the IRC.
As a result, vulnerable populations continue to face life-threatening consequences. For example, half a million children are chronically malnourished, and roughly one-third of the population needs reproductive, maternal or neonatal health care.
This new report, which examined the impact of…
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