News Center —Pregnant women in global conflict zones are experiencing unprecedented levels of violence and suffering, with maternity hospitals increasingly targeted, heightening the vulnerability of women and children and threatening their lives, as reports reveal the collapse of essential healthcare systems.

A joint investigation by The Guardian and data collected by the NGO Security Insight exposed unprecedented violence against pregnant women and newborns amid ongoing global conflicts. The report highlights reproductive violence as a modern form of warfare, showing its direct impact on pregnant women, medical staff, and states’ ability to ensure safe childbirth.

Data indicate approximately 300 attacks and disruptions targeting maternity and maternal healthcare facilities over the past three years, including at least 119 incidents with direct strikes on hospitals and delivery rooms. Numerous women were killed, denied care, or forced to give birth under unsafe conditions. The report notes at least 68 midwives and obstetricians killed, 15 abducted, and 101 detained, with actual numbers likely higher due to underreporting in conflict regions.

In Gaza, even after the October ceasefire, women and children continue to die due to deteriorating healthcare, shortages of medicines, and damaged facilities, with reports of women giving birth amid rubble and on roadsides after hospitals were struck by shells and missiles.

In Ukraine, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been destroyed since early 2022. In Kherson, the maternity hospital was hit five times, increasing birth complications due to extreme stress. In Myanmar, medical facilities were bombed, and dozens of midwives and patients were detained.

In Sudan, on October 28, thirty women sheltering in the Saudi Maternity Hospital in Al-Fashir were attacked by the Rapid Support Forces, resulting in the deaths of over 460 patients and companions, marking one of the worst incidents in the country’s civil war.

No Protections or Accountability

Currently, 676 million women live within 50 kilometers of lethal conflict zones, the highest level since the 1990s, amid a lack of protections or accountability for war crimes targeting maternal healthcare.

Human rights lawyer Bayal Shah of Physicians for Human Rights noted that the absence of accountability has fostered a “culture of impunity,” and attacks on reproductive health may amount to acts of genocide, preventing childbirth or destroying the survival of entire communities.

Medical experts emphasize that most maternal deaths are preventable through routine measures, but health systems often collapse during war, destroying the conditions necessary for safe childbirth