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Thirty women were seeking shelter in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Several had recently given birth, while others were in the midst of labor.

Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he explains. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”

This horrifying event stands as a particularly egregious examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.

Rights organizations have labeled it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a prime example of the vanishing safeguards for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in multiple global hotspots.

A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care

Despite every significant nation have signed the Geneva conventions, which obligate them to protect civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of assaults against medical infrastructure. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their need for locally available medical care.

Research and compiled data show an unprecedented scale of attacks: 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 standard wartime hazards. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.”

The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of pregnant women are trapped.

Women have been killed, denied medical attention, or made to have their babies in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been slain, 15 taken hostage, and 101 arrested—sometimes during medical procedures.

A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health

These figures likely represent a substantial underreporting, as they are limited to incidents reported in news outlets. In many war-torn areas, communications are sparse.

Last year, findings indicated that half of all women who perished while pregnant or giving birth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a horrifying trend.

Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating hospitals and wards, creating a grave danger to societal repopulation and recovery.

The Situation in Gaza

In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in declaring certain actions a genocide.

Following truces, doctors report that women and children succumb from inadequate care, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were inaccessible.

“Direct shelling hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has denied deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect birthrates.

Ukraine's Ordeal

Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications.

“The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.

“In fact, every facility can be under attack now,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the hundreds of millions of women living within range of fighting, there are minimal protections and rare trials for atrocities for those assaulting reproductive health.

This lack of accountability has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Violence targeting childbirth, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, may constitute acts of genocide by preventing births.”

Other Conflict Zones

In El Fasher, the area was isolated 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 scarce because of a lack of access 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 faced detention, death, or harm over the past two years of civil war.

The End of Safe Deliveries

The majority of childbirth fatalities are avoidable with standard medicine, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births devoid of emergency care.

“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a means of intimidation and to tear apart the social fabric,” observes a legal researcher.

“There is no absolute protection for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities can lose their protected status if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has now become a standard defence.”