🔗 Share this article Childbirth Under Attack: The Making of Women and Babies into Targets in Global Conflicts. A group of thirty mothers were seeking shelter in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Among them were new mothers, while others were in the midst of labor. Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.” This brutal attack stands as one of the most shocking examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 patients and their companions. Rights organizations have called it “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a clear case of the deteriorating protection for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots. An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services Despite every significant nation have agreed to the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has seen a record number of violence targeting health services. Women undergoing childbirth are highly exposed due to their reliance on locally available medical care. Data analysis and investigations reveal an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards. “These are not natural consequences of war. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.” The majority of these assaults have occurred in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of women bearing children are confined. Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or made to have their babies in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been murdered, 15 taken hostage, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes while assisting births. A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health The numbers are probably a significant underestimate, as they capture solely incidents reported in news outlets. In many war-torn areas, information is scarce. Last year, analysis showed that half of all women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a catastrophic reality. In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, jeopardizing the future to demographic stability. The Situation in Gaza In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in genocide allegations. Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children continue to die from medical shortages, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were inaccessible. “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 contested deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates. The Crisis in Ukraine Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications. “Russia is targeting us deliberately,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians. “In fact, every facility is now a potential target,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris may hit a hospital.” A Culture of Impunity For the hundreds of millions of women living near active conflicts, there are minimal protections and a stark lack of legal accountability for those assaulting reproductive health. This lack of accountability has fostered a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Violence targeting childbirth, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.” Additional Hotspots In El Fasher, the area was isolated from 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 lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, causing fatalities among patients and staff. In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have been arrested, killed, or injured over the past two years of civil war. The Collapse of Safe Childbirth Most maternal deaths are avoidable with standard medicine, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births devoid of emergency care. “When childbirth centers become intentional targets points toward a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation and to destroy community bonds,” notes a legal researcher. “Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities may forfeit their immunity if used for acts deemed ‘militarily advantageous’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”