A/CONF.171/13 English Page 62 need for abortion. Women who have unwanted pregnancies should have ready access to reliable information and compassionate counselling. Any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process. In circumstances where abortion is not against the law, such abortion should be safe. In all cases, women should have access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion. Post-abortion counselling, education and family-planning services should be offered promptly, which will also help to avoid repeat abortions. 8.26. Programmes to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality should include information and reproductive health services, including family-planning services. In order to reduce high-risk pregnancies, maternal health and safe motherhood programmes should include counselling and family-planning information. 8.27. All countries, as a matter of some urgency, need to seek changes in highrisk sexual behaviour and devise strategies to ensure that men share responsibility for sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, and for preventing and controlling sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infection and AIDS. D. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) Basis for action 8.28. The AIDS pandemic is a major concern in both developed and developing countries. WHO estimates that the cumulative number of AIDS cases in the world amounted to 2.5 million persons by mid-1993 and that more than 14 million people had been infected with HIV since the pandemic began, a number that is projected to rise to between 30 million and 40 million by the end of the decade if effective prevention strategies are not pursued. As of mid-1993, about four fifths of all persons ever infected with HIV lived in developing countries where the infection was being transmitted mainly through heterosexual intercourse and the number of new cases was rising most rapidly among women. As a consequence, a growing number of children are becoming orphans, themselves at high risk of illness and death. In many countries, the pandemic is now spreading from urban to rural areas and between rural areas and is affecting economic and agricultural production. Objectives 8.29. The objectives are: (a) To prevent, reduce the spread of and minimize the impact of HIV infection; to increase awareness of the disastrous consequences of HIV infection and AIDS and associated fatal diseases, at the individual, community and national levels, and of the ways of preventing it; to address the social, economic, gender and racial inequities that increase vulnerability to the disease; /...