Skip to content
Marche mondiale des femmes   Marche mondiale des femmes
Portal Languages

World March of Women

http://www.worldmarchofwomen.org/
Personal tools
You are here: Home » Publications » Women on the March, 2002 » April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women
Navigation
<<< Changing the World Step by Step, 2000 ECONOMICS IN QUESTION: A WOMEN’S PERSPECTIVE G8 AND WOMEN: WORLDS APART Information about demand V-6 concerning sex trafficking of women and girls Information Document on Lesbian Rights (1999) Letter to Kofi Annan, UN General Secretary, October 17, 2000 Letter to the IMF and the World Bank, October 16, 2000 Supporting Document 1 to the Charter Supporting Document 2 to the Charter The World March of Women 1998-2008: A Decade of International Feminist Struggle The World March of Women 2010 - Third International Action WMW at the Global Forum on Financing the Right to Sustainable and Equitable Development Women on the March, 2002 April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World April 2002 - Actions to Revolutionize the World >>>
Log in
 

April 2002 - Action at All Levels to Combat Violence Against Women

■ ■ ■
Eliminating violence against women

Contents
By way of introduction
Marching On for Bread and Roses
Demands
Actions to Revolutionize the World
How We Said It: Building Solidarity
Snapshots of Home and Elsewhere
2001: A March-to Be Continued?
Sources

Español

Violence against women is a crime

Abortion: the right to choose

Many women demand the over-the-counter sale of the "morning after pill."
(Photo Joane Mc Dermott)

"States must recognize women's right to determine their own destiny and control their bodies and reproductive function (right to abortion, contraception, against forced sterilization and for the right to bear children)."

The words in parenthesis were added to the March's second international demand concerning violence against women during the international meeting held in October 2001.

European women initiated the debate. This was a region where the struggle for abortion and the right to contraception was a driving force behind the construction of the women's movement in the '70s and '80s.

Abortion is practiced the world over. In countries where abortion is illegal, it is practiced clandestinely, often with grave consequences for women. "Studies from South America and the Caribbean have shown that it is the major cause of maternal mortality," said a Haitian delegate during the October meeting.

It is a political issue. It takes a lot of courage to raise this question in countries where performing or having an abortion can lead to imprisonment. "Forces of the right and extreme right are on the attack, even in countries where abortion is legal," confirmed the Italian delegate.

In January 2002, 17 women were prosecuted in Portugal for performing or undergoing an abortion. Portuguese women, along with Basque and Galician women drafted a "Platform for the Right to Choose."

In certain platforms, the demand was explicitly set out, particularly "when a woman's life is endangered, in cases of rape or a deformed fetus," (Honduras), or for "therapeutic reasons" (Peru). In Chile, women are mainly fighting for access to the morning-after pill, following a decision-influenced by anti-choice groups-prohibiting its sale.

"Clandestine abortions must be prevented by strengthening NGOs' role of providing support and follow-up services to women who have abortions, single women and abandoned children," stated Moroccan women. This demand was also taken up by women in Nicaragua and Brazil.

Women in Benin fought against forced abortions. Indian women denounced the selective abortion of female fetuses.

Reproductive health also means the ability to choose whether or not to be sterilized. Honduran women demanded "that hospitals cease to require husbands' consent to sterilization, especially when women themselves have made this decision."

Haitian women called for the inclusion of family planning services in all health clinics and improved access to contraception and sex education in the schools. Brazilians demanded that abortion be legalized and provided by the public health network.

Other groups, particularly in Africa, focussed their demands on the creation of health clinics to assure safe conditions for giving birth (Angola, Chad, Congo Brazzavile, Mali).


Previous page Next page
 

Women on the March
April 2002

 
Copyrights : CC by-nc-sa 2.0
Last modified 2006-03-23 03:09 PM
This item is available in
Français, English, Español