Efforts are being made to obtain emergency contraception in Ukrainian hospitals as soon as possible, as reports of rape continue after the Russian invasion.
About 2,880 packets of the drug, also known as the morning-after pill, were sent by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to Ukraine, while a network of volunteers across Europe collected donations of the drug from abroad and delivered it to hospitals.
“The time frame for the treatment of victims of sexual violence is really important,” said Julie Taft of the IPPF. “If a woman is seen within five days of an event, then this medicine should be given to her automatically.
Taft said the IPPF also sends medical abortion pills that can be used within 24 weeks of pregnancy.
While emergency contraception was widely available in Ukraine, the war destroyed local supply chains, displaced patients and health care providers, and increased the rate of sexual assault.
“There is a demand for emergency contraception, but very rarely from hospitals in the west. These are mostly hospitals in the east, in Kharkiv, Mariupol, these regions, “said Joel Mitchell of Paracrew, a humanitarian aid organization that supplies food and medical equipment to Ukraine. “As soon as we contacted hospitals in these regions, we had standing orders for this medicine.”
It is unclear how many of the recipients of the drug are victims of sexual violence, but a Paracrew volunteer told the Guardian that he delivered emergency contraception directly to a hospital in a city north of Kyiv, where he said hospital staff had treated a number of victims. rape.
Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova said in early April that there were nine official cases of women who were pregnant after being raped by Russian soldiers. Reports of rape victims raise concerns about areas in the east that remain under Russian occupation.
Jamie Nadal of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said that in a crisis situation, reported cases of violence, including rape, were probably “just the tip of the iceberg”.
The UN has previously included emergency contraception in “post-rape kits” for hundreds of women and girls in armed conflicts around the world, including the war in Bosnia. In addition to emergency contraception, survivors are usually given drugs to prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as hepatitis B and HIV. The distribution of drugs to rape survivors in post-conflict areas remains a UN policy. To date, the UN has shipped 40 metric tons (40,000 kg) of reproductive health supplies to Ukraine and 33 clinical rape management (CMR) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) kits to 19 hospitals in 10 regions of Ukraine.
Christopher Rolf Deinoff, co-founder of the humanitarian organization Paracrew. Photo: Anna Liminovic / Guardian
Denisova said her office has officially documented the cases of 25 women who were held in a basement and systematically raped in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv that is now synonymous with Russian war crimes, but the true number of victims could be many. bigger.
A volunteer who evacuated residents of cities north of Kyiv in early April told the Guardian: “It usually happens that rape survivors initially want to tell their story, but then leave and only months later they return. let’s talk.” She said she met three women in the region who came out of houses and basements naked. One, immediately taken away by ambulance, was severely beaten and with broken bones.
The Guardian reported this week that autopsies of bodies in mass graves north of Kyiv have revealed evidence that some women were raped before being killed by Russian forces.
“There are a lot of psychological, emotional and physical health problems that the survivor is dealing with, and the anxiety about a possible pregnancy is really huge for many women,” Taft said. “This can lead to stress and post-traumatic stress disorder, so the ability to prevent it in the first place is crucial.
However, the supply of pills in Ukraine was severely damaged by the invasion, and volunteers who spoke to the Guardian described a number of logistical problems delaying attempts to deliver much-needed medicine to the country.
“Many pharmaceutical products have previously been produced in Ukraine, but much of that production has stopped or has stopped in big cities because transport is not safe,” Taft said. “In addition, the current capacity of healthcare providers and goods [is insecure]especially because we see a lot of destruction of health facilities.
Alexandra Veder Savitska, a Polish activist based in Oslo who works with Paracrew, is coordinating a collection of 500 pills from Norway, but has attracted the attention of the Norwegian Health Directorate, which has not approved an unofficial donation of the drug. A large pharmacy chain in Norway also refused to supply the medicine for this reason. She had to stop further donations while trying to reach an agreement with the Norwegian authorities to allow her to continue working.
Taft said strict drug controls in some countries bordering Ukraine, such as Romania, Hungary and Poland, have made delivering the pills more expensive, challenging and time-consuming. “You can’t buy bulk emergency medicines in these countries,” she said, “so we had to get them from suppliers in Denmark and the Netherlands.”
Christina Katzpura, director of Federa, a Polish organization that advocates for women’s rights and reproductive health, said: Ukraine through the Czech Republic, as we could not be seen handling controlled substances.
This article was amended on April 28, 2022. IPPF provided about 2,880 packs of pills to Ukraine, instead of about 25,000 packs, as stated in an earlier version.
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