Carolina Gomez Mena
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, December 14, 2025, p. 4
In the Americas, one in three women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their partner throughout their lives, states the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which also highlights that, unfortunately in the region, many women “begin their active sexual life with a forced or unwanted act.”
In the document Rapid Assessment Tool to Improve Care for Women Survivors of Sexual Violence, it warns that those who have experienced physical or sexual abuse are 1.5 times more likely to contract the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Likewise, 16 percent are more likely to have a low birth weight baby, as well as more than twice as likely to suffer from depression compared to women who have not suffered these attacks.
In the Americas, “where rates of sexual and physical violence remain high, post-rape care, provided in a timely and compassionate manner, is essential to prevent unwanted pregnancies, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as to protect the safety and well-being of survivors,” the document states.
Improve health services care, key
The analysis, which seeks to improve the way in which health services respond to these emergencies and the subsequent care provided to women victims of rape, highlights that sexual assaults affect the sexual, physical, mental and reproductive health of the victims, and therefore, survivors use these services more frequently.
“The health system plays an important role in both responding to and preventing gender-based violence. Staff can help identify abuse early, provide quality care to survivors, and refer women to other essential support services.”
She details that because health services are usually the first point of professional contact for them and act as a gateway to others, “it is essential that this interaction is positive and includes first-line, empathetic, non-judgmental support that does not revictimize, in addition to providing good quality clinical care.
The tool offers the region’s public health sector a “practical, evidence-based instrument to evaluate services in emergency rooms and clinics, identify critical gaps in post-rape care, and strengthen the response of health personnel to one of the most pervasive public health and human rights challenges in the region.”
Likewise, PAHO asserts that it will allow countries to translate regional commitments on violence against women into concrete improvements in health facilities, measuring how services respond to the needs of survivors and guiding next steps to strengthen care.
