Other news 2008
Screening BBC documentary 'Dead mum's don't cry'
On the 4th of November, DG Development and AIDCO organised a special screening at the AIDCO infopoint of the BBC’s Panorama Documentary ‘Dead mums don’t cry’. This documentary depicts the work of obstetrician Dr. Grace Kodindo in her fight to prevent maternal death in her home country of Chad. To see the shocking reality of the danger of childbirth in Sub-Saharan Africa so clearly in a documentary is very confrontational to the worlds’ failure to address MDG 5. In Chad, where women have a 1 of 11 chance of dying during pregnancy or childbirth, Dr. Grace Kondindo is one of the few obstetricians, her work is being made even more difficult by a continuous lack of basic reproductive health supplies and to add it all up, education on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies is nearly not available. .
The screening was a great success; more than 40 people were present. This event was animated through the participation of Irene Horesj, Head of Unit from DG Dev, Sietske Steneker, Head of UNFPA office in Brussels and Honourable Glenys Kinnock, MEP, who reiterated her commitment and support for the EP resolution on MDG 5 and to the importance of highlighting the plight of the women of sub-Saharan Africa.
USAID bans contraceptive supplies to MSI
London – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has instructed its staff to force governments in several African countries to discontinue the provision of US-funded contraceptive commodities to Marie Stopes International (MSI), one of the world’s leading family planning organisations.
The USAID instruction, issued by Assistant Administrator for Global Health Kent Hill, said the action was necessary because MSI works with the Chinese Government, whom the US State Department accuses of “coercive abortion and involuntary sterilisations”.
MSI chief executive Dana Hovig stated emphatically today that MSI does not support coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation in China or elsewhere. “To the contrary, MSI is one of the few organisations that has worked over the past decade to increase the availability of voluntary, client-centred family planning services in China,” said Hovig. He blasted the USAID decision as “purely political and dangerous to the lives of women.”
Hovig said the USAID instruction will “seriously disrupt” MSI’s family planning programmes in at least six African countries – Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe - including one where the organisation delivers 25% of all family planning services nationally. Women in these countries will be left with few options other than abortion, the majority of which will be unsafe and will likely result in their death or disability.
“At a time when world governments have pledged to increase their commitment to improving the health of women, only the Bush Administration could find logic in the idea that they can somehow reduce abortion and promote choice for women in China by causing more abortion and gutting choice for women in Africa,” said Hovig. “This senseless decision is likely to have only one clear consequence: the death of African women and girls. And the Bush Administration should answer for that.”
Hovig explained that, according to formulas developed by the Guttmacher Institute, MSI’s family planning services prevented 5-7 million unwanted pregnancies in 2007 alone, thus preventing 1-1.5 million abortions. Most of these abortions would have been unsafe, putting women’s lives at risk. “For every two intra-uterine devices (IUDs) the US government denies MSI, an unsafe abortion could result unless MSI is able to find alternative supplies,” Hovig explained.
In its instruction, USAID justifies its bullying of African governments under a little-known provision of US law called the Kemp-Kasten Amendment which prohibits US foreign aid to any organisation that, according to the President, "supports or participates in the management of a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation". Republican Administrations dating back to President Reagan have used the law to deny funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) because of its work with the Chinese government.
The current Bush Administration reviewed UNFPA’s activities in 2001, determined the agency was not in violation of Kemp-Kasten, and provided $21.5 million to UNFPA. In July 2002, however, President Bush reversed his position and invoked Kemp-Kasten to justify canceling the $34 million appropriated by Congress for UNFPA in fiscal year 2002, despite the fact that there had been no change in UNFPA's activities during this entire period. The Bush Administration has maintained its ban on UNFPA funding ever since.
“The Bush Administration’s position over the years with respect to the UNFPA programme in China has been purely political, and their harmful politics are now being extended to MSI and the women we serve,” said Hovig. “USAID needs to decide what its purpose is: playing politics or saving lives.”
MSI has worked in China since 1998, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) and the Ministry of Health, to implement UNFPA’s Country Programme. This programme aims to increase availability of quality, integrated, client-centred, and gender-sensitive reproductive health and family planning information and services, including those focusing on HIV/AIDS and client rights, for women, men, young people and migrants.
Globally, MSI manages sexual and reproductive health programmes in 43 countries. In 2007 alone, MSI programmes protected the equivalent of 12.5 million couples from unwanted pregnancy, a 30% increase over the previous year and the single largest year-on-year growth in the organisation’s 32 year history. A majority of MSI’s family planning impact is in rural, underserved areas where women are particularly vulnerable and lives are most at risk from unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion.
May 2008- UK Parliament votes to retain abortion limit
On the 19th and 20th of May, UK MPs voted on the ‘Embryology bill’. The bill is about embryological research and IVF and does not cover abortion legislation as such, but certain MPs have tabled amendments to include a proposal to lower the abortion limit from 24 to less weeks (ranging from 12 to 22).
The first serious attempt to limit abortion in the UK since 20 years failed after months of hard work of pro-choice MPs and organisations such as Marie Stopes International. Yesterday the most important votes took place on:
- Access to IVF for lesbian couples by removing the requirement for a ‘need for a father’ for children conceived by IVF. This was adopted.
- Whether to cut the upper time limit of 24 weeks on abortions. All suggestions, from 12 to 22 weeks were rejected.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/20/health.houseofcommons1
Statement Marie Stopes International
Following the outcome of the Parliamentary debate on the upper limit of abortion in the UK, Marie Stopes International issues the following statement:
STATEMENT BY MARIE STOPES INTERNATIONAL FOLLOWING TONIGHT’S HOUSE OF COMMONS VOTE TO RETAIN THE ABORTION TIME LIMIT
Tonight’s vote to retain the 24 week time limit spells relief for women across the country. It is reassuring that a majority of MPs were wise to the emotive and misleading campaign that sought to chip away at women’s reproductive rights, and disregarded it in exercising their votes.
The case for reducing the time limit on abortion derived from a minority religious lobby and had been deceptively based upon both the notion that there are ‘too many abortions’ in the UK and also to the issue of foetal viability. In fact the number of women who have abortions between 20 and 24 weeks amounts to less than 2% of the total, meaning a reduction in the time limit would have a negligible effect upon total numbers. Furthermore, the medical establishment has remained united in refuting the notion that foetuses are now ‘more viable’ below 24 weeks than before. Tonight MPs defeated a series of anti-choice amendments echoing medical consensus.
MPs’ views are also in line with the majority of British women of reproductive age – 61% of whom said there are circumstances in which they think a woman should have the right to access an abortion between 20 and 24 weeks. The survey, published ahead of the vote by Ipsos MORI on behalf of Marie Stopes International, showed that women were sympathetic to their peers accessing a later abortion.
The potential circumstances listed were:
- The foetus is diagnosed with severe abnormalities
- She was raped
- The pregnancy places her own health at risk
- She has an abusive partner
- She was delayed by her doctor
- She did not realise earlier that she was pregnant
- She is young and has been in denial of pregnancy signs
- Her partner has left her during the pregnancy
- Other
“Having secured this victory for common sense, compassion towards women’s needs and sound medical science, it’s now time to look forward to the next stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill,” said Marie Stopes International’s Head of Advocacy, Anne Quesney.
“We expect to see progressive amendments introduced that will improve current legislation, not least the removal of the archaic requirement for two doctors to give permission before any abortion may be performed.”
April 2008- Historic Report in Council of Europe
On 16 April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), called on all 47 member states to decriminalise abortion, within reasonable limits. A report entitled ‘Access to safe and legal abortion in Europe’ was adopted by 102 in favour, 69 against with 14 abstention, which means for the first time an official text agreed by a European Institution explicitly calls for a de-criminalisation of abortion across Europe. The report also called for school pupils to receive ‘compulsory age-appropriate, gender-sensitive education on sex and relationships’ in order to avoid unwanted pregnancies, and therefore abortions. The full report can be found here: http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc08/EDOC11537.pdf
