A campaign launched in Ile-de-France to protect a right gained 33 years earlier

Since January 18, 2008 in the French underground and in some train stations, about 600 posters entitled “ Sexuality, contraception, abortion, a right, my choice, our freedom” have been placarded to draw the public’s attention on the difficulties still faced by many women who want to abort in the capital and its suburbs.

The slogan is part of a new campaign launched by the Family Planning in coordination with the region of Ile-de-France (Paris area).

According to the campaigners, Ile-de-France (which is the most populated region of France) is also a “region where the obstacles are becoming more and more numerous when it comes to assert ones rights in terms of abortion. A region where access to abortion remains an hassle”.

The Family Planning claims that the lack of financial and moral care, the important delays or the reduction of the number of medical centres dedicated to abortion often plunge women in a situation of time trial since abortion cannot be performed beyond 12 weeks of pregnancy according to the French law.

For all these reasons, it is said that 3 000 to 5 000 women are forced every year in France to terminate their pregnancy abroad. Women who live in Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Cotes d’Azur and Outre-Mer regions are said to be the most exposed to difficulties during the tiring process of abortion (Source French Movement for Family Planning).

More than a matter of law, the question of intolerance seems to be the main ongoing obstacle to abortion in France, 33 years after its legalisation, pushed forward by the famous French lawyer and politician Simone Veil in 1975.

For the pro-life movement, the campaign is obviously an “advertising in favour of abortion”. People opposed to interruption of pregnancy are still numerous in France, and that despite some recent declarations from the government defending the right of women to abort. On Saturday 19, 2008, an handful of anti-abortion militants organised a “march for life”.

After many years of struggle, the legalisation of pregnancy termination is in effect in Portugal

The new legislation on abortion is finally effective since last July 15 in Portugal. The new law, which has been approved by very large majority in Parliament on 8th March 2007, legitimates VTOP for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Women who want to have recourse to abortion during this period of time will have first to be advised and fully informed by a doctor and after a time for reflection of 3 days, the surgical operation will have to be done in an hospital or an accredited clinic.

However, the enforcement of the law is meeting some difficulties, since a large number of medical practitioners still refuse to go in for abortion.

The Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Left Bloc and 21 deputees from the Social Democratic Party represented in the Assembly of the Republic approved the Bill. The CDS-PP (Democratic Social Center/People’s Party – Right) voted against the proposed legislation and tried for a while to convince the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva to veto it.

The previous legislation, from 1984, was one of the most restrictive in the European Union. Women found guilty of having aborted faced sentences up to 3 years in prison, except in case of rape, malformed fetus or if the woman’s life was in danger.

According to a study published by the Association for the family planning in December 2007, 18.000 Portuguese women aborted illegally in 2006.

Read more about the Portuguese Catholics’ position regarding the country’s referendum on abortion before the law was passed.

In Nicaragua, women don’t have their say

On October 27th, 2006, a new law was passed in Nicaragua. This law bans voluntary termination of pregnancy (V.T.O.P) in ANY circumstances, and that even if the woman gets pregnant after having been raped. Before the reinforcement of the legislation, the clinical operation was authorised for medical reasons or when the pregnancy was harmful for the woman’s life.   

 

Following an intense pressure from the Church as well as from the pro-life movement,  a total interdiction is from that time in force in the country. The ban has also received support from the President and almost all the political parties in Nicaragua.

The consequences of such a law are easy to guess: millions of women might die in labour, innumerable teenagers might deliver babies whom they will not be able to take care, and more and more women might have to resort to illegal pregnancy termination.

We should not neglect that in Nicaragua, one out of three girls is victim of sexual abuse during her lifetime (Source: Oxfam).

This law is clearly an infringement to women and children’s rights.

 

Source: http://www.uni.edu/palczews/alta01.htm

Here is a documentary from the Channel 4 programme “Unreported World” on the issue (in 3 parts):

Amnesty International’s pro-abortion policy provokes Roman Catholic leaders’s discontentment

In May in Mexico, leaders of Amnesty International have reaffirmed during a meeting the pro-abortion policy adopted by its executive board one month earlier.

A decision that Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, disapproves; he said that Catholics worldwide would boycott the international organisation if it didn’t reverse the position at their biennial meeting.

As a response to the Cardinal’s statement, Amnesty’s Deputy General Secretary, Kate Gilmore told The Independent newspaper that,

“Amnesty International’s position is not for abortion as a right but for women’s human rights to be free of fear, threat and coercion as they manage all consequences of rape and other grave human rights violations.”

Following the vote of Amnesty International to endorse abortion, the Rt. Rev. Michael Evans, Bishop of East Anglia, has resigned, having been actively involved with the organisation for 31 years.

“There are undoubtedly many Catholics who will now sadly have to withdraw membership,” he said. “Bishops, priests and lay people will have to make a very serious decision about their memberships, and I would expect them to make the same decision.”

“Among all human rights, the right to life is fundamental and this decision will almost certainly divide Amnesty’s membership and thereby undermine its vital work,” he said.

The bishop added that the Catholic Church shared Amnesty’s strong commitment to opposing violence against women. “Appalling violence must not be answered by violence against the most vulnerable and defenceless form of human life in a woman’s womb,”

Besides, Julia Millington, Political Director of the ProLife Alliance commented Amnesty’s current campaign posters which carry the slogan “Protect the Human,”’. She said abour these posters and the recent decision of the organisation as regard to abortion, “It is incomprehensible that they would exclude an entire class of human beings from protection.”

Global Review of Abortion Policies

Around the world, the number of interruptions of pregnancy is estimated to 42 millions per year, which is equivalent to an average rate of 29 per 1000 women aged from 15 to 44 years. About 20 millions of these interventions are done illegally in countries where abortion is either totally forbidden or subject to very constraining laws.

Women are in this kind of situation often confronted to lamentable conditions which can lead to grave consequences for their health. About 70 000 women die every year of complications of botched clandestine abortions.

According to World Health Organization (WHO):

• 19 million women experience an unsafe abortion worldwide each year; 18.5 million of these occur in developing countries: Africa (4.2 million), Asia (10.5 million), Latin America & the Caribbean (3.8 million)

• 59 % of all unsafe abortions in Africa are among young women aged 15-24 years

• 68 000 women die from complications of unsafe abortion each year – all in developing countries: Africa (30 000), Asia (34 000), Latin America & the Caribbean (4000)

 

Abortion Laws Around the World – Source: Wikipedia

For more details about abortion policies around the world, have a look at the United Nations’ Global Review.