🔗 Share this article The Targeting of Childbirth: How Women and Babies Became Targets in Global Conflicts. Dozens of women were seeking shelter in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Among them were new mothers, while others were in the midst of labor. Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “There were cries of women and children,” he states. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.” This brutal attack stands as among the worst examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, leaving dead more than 460 patients and their companions. Rights organizations have labeled it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a stark illustration of the deteriorating protection for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots. A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services Despite every significant nation are signatories to the international laws of war, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of attacks on healthcare systems. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their reliance on locally available medical care. An investigation of records uncover 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. “These are not standard wartime hazards. They form a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.” The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of pregnant women are trapped. Women have been killed, blocked from reaching help, or made to have their babies in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been slain, 15 abducted, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes during medical procedures. The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns These figures likely represent a grave undercount, as they are limited to incidents covered by the media. In many areas of fighting, reporting is limited. Last year, findings indicated that half of all women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a horrifying trend. Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating hospitals and wards, creating a grave danger to demographic stability. Conditions within Gaza In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for accusations of genocidal acts. Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach. “We’ve had rockets targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has contested deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates. Ukraine's Ordeal Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births forced underground and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues. “The attacks on us are intentional,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians. “In fact, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris can strike a hospital.” A Culture of Impunity For the more than 676 million women living near active conflicts, there are minimal protections and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those targeting maternity care. This void of justice has fostered a “environment where anything goes,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, are potentially acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.” Additional Hotspots 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 restricted due to a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, resulting in tragic loss of life. 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 The majority of childbirth fatalities are averted with basic healthcare, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births without skilled assistance. “The deliberate attack on maternity wards indicates a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear and to break societal cohesion,” 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 ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has now become a standard defence.”