September 28: Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion

Today is the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, a day to promote universal access to safe, legal abortion as a women’s health and human rights issue.

Before 2011 this day has been a campaign for decriminalisation of abortion in Latin America and Caribbean for nearly twenty years before being taken on by SRHR activists all over the world.

Of course there are many countries, especially the developed countries, where abortion is legal and women have a save access to abortion. But let me tell you a few numbers, which show you the worldwide rate:

• 21.6 million women experience an unsafe abortion worldwide each year; 18.5 million of these occur in developing countries

• Each year, 6.9 million women in developing countries are treated for complications from unsafe abortion.

• Nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, and nearly all unsafe abortions (98%) occur in developing countries. In the developing world, 56% of all abortions are unsafe, compared with just 6% in the developed world.

• The proportion of abortions worldwide that take place in the developing world increased between 1995 and 2008 from 78% to 86%, in part because the proportion of all women who live in the developing world increased during this period.

• Since 2003, the number of abortions fell by 600,000 in the developed world but increased by 2.8 million in the developing world. In 2008, six million abortions were performed in developed countries and 38 million in developing countries, a disparity that largely reflects population distribution.

Source: Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization: Unsafe abortion: global and regional estimates of incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2008. à Karte UN Worldmap

• Highly restrictive abortion laws are not associated with lower abortion rates. For example, the abortion rate is 29 per 1,000 women of childbearing age in Africa and 32 per 1,000 in Latin America—regions in which abortion is illegal under most circumstances in the majority of countries. The rate is 12 per 1,000 in Western Europe, where abortion is generally permitted on broad grounds.

• Where abortion is permitted on broad legal grounds, it is generally safe, and where it is highly restricted, it is typically unsafe. In developing countries, relatively liberal abortion laws are associated with fewer negative health consequences from unsafe abortion than are highly restrictive laws.

• In 2008, more than 97% of abortions in Africa were unsafe. Southern Africa is the subregion with the lowest proportion of unsafe abortions (58%). Close to 90% of women in the subregion live in South Africa, where abortion was liberalized in 1997

• In Latin America, 95% of abortions were unsafe, a proportion that did not change between 1995 and 2008. Nearly all safe abortions occurred in the Caribbean, primarily in Cuba and several other countries where the law is liberal and safe abortions are accessible.

• The estimated annual number of deaths from unsafe abortion declined from 56,000 in 2003 to 47,000 in 2008. Complications from unsafe abortion accounted for an estimated 13% of all maternal deaths worldwide in both years

• Almost all abortion-related deaths occur in developing countries, with the highest number occurring in Africa.

• Unsafe abortion has significant negative consequences beyond its immediate effects on women’s health. For example, complications from unsafe abortion may reduce women’s productivity, increasing the economic burden on poor families; cause maternal deaths that leave children motherless; cause long-term health problems, such as infertility; and result in considerable costs to already struggling public health systems.

• Reducing unmet need for modern contraception is an effective way to prevent unintended pregnancies, abortions and unplanned births. 

(Sources:  WHO; Guttmacher (http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_IAW.html); Sedgh G et al., Induced abortion worldwide in 2008: levels and trends)

There are also many abortion myths, in developing and developed countries, which lead to wrong information and act and they have influence on public opinions, which also lead to stigmatization. For example: “it causes cancer”, “it is dangerous”, “it is traumatic and causes mental suffering”.

But the truth is:

• Abortion isn’t dangerous in safe and legal settings

• No evidence supports the existence of “Post-Abortions-Syndrome”.

• Recent studies on women seeking abortions showed that women who were able to obtain an abortion, 95% reported that they were relieved.

• Abortion is not immoral. Access to safe and legal abortion is a human right and a moral good.

• Criminalizing abortion doesn’t stop abortions: It only stops safe abortion

Those myths spread because of limited access to information or by people opposed to abortion and the myths are repeated often. Unfortunately they have a strong impact on women, society and politicians. People are forced to have unwanted pregnancies, there is no access to safe and legal abortions and abortion carries stigma and discrimination. So women won’t speak about it and fear the act. This is why such high numbers arise and the myths have an effect on women’s health, rights and lives.

So this day is a call for action to fight the myths, discrimination and stigmatization.

What can you do?

Inform your community, friends and family members, point it out to your environment in your country or just be there if a friend needs you in times before, during or after an abortion without stigmatizing her.

Spread your thoughts on the internet: Use #BustTheMyths or #AbortionStigma

Here you can find more information and materials: http://www.september28.org/

Without those myths, with sex education and awareness we can help women to gain access to safe and legal abortion.

I ♥ Being a Girl people, Alissa

Hey everyone,

my name is Alissa and I’m from Germany.

Since September 2015 I have joined I <3 being a Girl and I hope with our group we can inspire you and fascinate you about our themes.

For two years I have been studying social work. During my internship at pro familia, a non-governmental service and consumer organization for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Germany, I worked in the field of pregnancy counselling, which also includes counselling in conflict situations.

In this time I learned a lot about women/mother/family rights in Germany on the one hand and on the other hand I started thinking about the importance of sex education and the freedom of decision. Those topics were always important to me, especially in connection of the influence of media and religion in our society, but during my internship I had the chance to realise the reality of SRHR in Germany.

I got in contact with themes of SRHR and I started to reflect about the female role in society. This time strengthened my opinion that women and girls can decide how they want to live their life and that there still is a need of support.

So those are the reasons I’m writing here but now more about me :)

3 Things you enjoy doing?

mussels in Brussels

Traveling - I love to travel and getting around. Thereby you have the chance to get to know other cultures, other people, amazing landscapes and different food. Which leads me to my next thing I enjoy doing:

I like to try new dishes - Either I cook and try new recipes or I like to eat out at a restaurant.

Reading a good book or watching a good movie – For me “good” means that, afterwards, you start thinking about the story and meaning you saw/read. You are touched by the occurrence, the words and the people and it feels like it is real. Especially with a book you can understand a whole generation or historical facts if it is well written.

What makes you continue? Why are you still doing it?

Now, after half a year of internship, I noticed that I want to stay active in the fields of women rights. I had the chance to listen to many lectures and strong women and I could form my own opinion. I would like other women and girls to have the opportunity to form this too and thereby they can decide on their own, how they want to live.

The world would be a better place if everybody would:

 

Listen to the story of a person.

 

Watch “The Hours”: The movie is about three women, living in different generations, interconnected by the novel “Mrs Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf

Read “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. An amazing novel about childhood, racism and inequality.

Try regularly something new to broaden one’s horizon.

Future: before you're 80, you'd like to...

See all the countries of the world. Ok that’s a lot but there are quite a few places I’d like to visit. For example Corvo, an small island of the Azores archipelago.

Next to my travel plans I hope I can say that my work as a social worker had an impact on other people and decision makers. Maybe it was my little input to make the world a better place by helping people and by pointing out that special groups have a need for help and therefore they need other options in their lives. These options require to be enabled or we should support these groups to help themselves.