🔗 Share this article The Targeting of Childbirth: The Making of Women and Babies into Targets in Global Conflicts. A group of thirty mothers were huddled for safety in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Several had recently given birth, while others were actively in labor. On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he states. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.” This brutal attack stands as a particularly egregious examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering 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 trapped in war-torn areas in multiple global hotspots. A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services Although world powers have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of violence targeting health services. Women undergoing childbirth are exceptionally vulnerable due to their dependence on locally available medical care. Research and compiled data show an shocking trend: nearly 300 violent acts against places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards. “These are not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They represent a pattern of reproductive violence.” The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of pregnant women are trapped. Deaths have occurred, denied medical attention, or made to have their babies in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been slain, 15 abducted, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes while assisting births. The Global Crisis in Maternal Health These figures likely represent a significant underestimate, as they are limited to incidents documented publicly. In many war-torn areas, information is scarce. Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a horrifying trend. Apart from fatalities, these attacks are wrecking critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, creating a grave danger to community survival. The Situation in Gaza In Gaza, the catastrophic impact 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 inadequate care, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach. “Direct shelling hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” explains the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or aiming to influence birthrates. Ukraine's Ordeal Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues. “Russia is targeting us deliberately,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians. “In fact, every facility faces the threat of assault,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris can strike a hospital.” Accountability Evaporates For the hundreds of millions of women living near active conflicts, there are few safeguards and rare trials for atrocities for those attacking childbirth services. This void of justice has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, may constitute acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.” Other Conflict Zones In El Fasher, the area had been cut off from humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition rising sharply, especially among children and pregnant women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is limited by a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, resulting in tragic loss of life. In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war. The End of Safe Deliveries Most maternal deaths are averted with basic healthcare, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births without skilled assistance. “When childbirth centers become intentional targets speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” 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 often been cited as an excuse.”