IDPs Camp isn’t a Safe Haven: Exploring Violence against Displaced Women and Abortion Liberation in Abuja Nigeria

Abstract

Displaced women faced a lot of reproductive health challenges, with no choice but to seek available skeletal sexual and reproductive health services from local midwives and patent medicine vendors, among numerous sexual and reproductive health needs. This study examined the prevalence of self-reported sexual violence and the reproductive health challenges faced after being abused. The data was sourced from 300 displaced women randomly selected from four internally displaced Persons' Camps in Abuja, Nigeria. Chi-square and binary logistic regression were done using IBM-SPSS-version-22.0. The findings show that 40% of the displaced women had experienced at least one sexual violence, and 61.2% had a pregnancy lost through unsafe-abortion. Education, religion, pregnancy complications, and access to abortion care are significantly associated with sexual violence at 5% level of significance. This study reveals high rates of unwanted-pregnancies, complications, and sexual violence among displaced women, emphasizing the need for comprehensive reproductive health services in camps and policy reviews. The study established the need to review the legislation against safe abortions, especially among the displaced women and girls. Thus, the inaction and neglect of stakeholders in meeting reproductive health-needs placed displaced women in danger haven.