Al Houthis curb contraception over alleged cultural invasion
Ban imposed by pro-Iran militia puts thousands of Yemen women at risk
Cairo: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Al Houthi militia has recently curbed access to contraceptives, putting the lives of thousands of women in peril, medical sources in the rebel-controlled capital Sana’a have said.
Hospitals and health care centres in Sana’a have received orders from the militia banning the use of contraceptives for women wishing to delay pregnancies due to health problems, the sources told Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat.
Al Houthis have attributed the ban to abort what it called “foreign cultural and social invasion” of war-torn Yemen.
“The militias have recently issued unannounced decisions to departments and centres in charge of reproductive health and family planning in Sana’a,” the sources added.
Asharq Al Awsat quoted an unnamed father of six as saying that a Sana’a-based government health centre refused this week to provide his wife with any contraception method to delay pregnancy for two years.
Around 520,000 pregnant women in Yemen suffer from different health problems, according to a non-governmental reproductive health group.
Al Houthis have plunged Yemen into a devastating war when they toppled the internationally recognised government and overran Sana’a in late 2014.
The war has pushed the impoverished country to the verge of famine and wreaked havoc on health facilities.