Pro-choice supporters link
By Kamala Emanuel
COOLUM, Queensland — Two hundred people participated in four days of plenaries, workshops and informal discussion at the international Abortion in Focus conference here on November 12-15. The conference was organised by the Abortion Providers' Federation of Australasia in conjunction with the International Society of Abortion Doctors and Planned Parenthood of Australia.
Among the highlights were the stories of women's and abortion providers' victories. Dr Helen de Pinho outlined the reform process in South Africa, where the post-apartheid constitution guarantees women the right to reproductive choice.
Previously, white women were discouraged from having abortions for white supremacist pro-natal reasons, while black women were encouraged to replace the men lost in the struggle. Criminalisation of abortion meant that in the 1960s a woman died every week in Johannesburg from complications from a botched abortion.
De Pinho described the strategy used to change the law. A women's health project canvassed the views of women from groups and organisations across South Africa, then held a conference to finalise the policy. Support was built in the medical, health worker, religious, youth and legal sectors. "Starting with a blank page", De Pinho said, new legislation was introduced which legalised abortion on request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with restrictions thereafter.
Since the enactment of the 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, there have been only two deaths from abortion-related infection, and a dramatic decline in serious complications. Although the law does impose restrictions on second and third trimester abortion, De Pinho argued that the real challenge for women's access will be to ensure that the ANC government funds the services sufficiently that women's right to reproductive choice is actual, not just formal.
There are only four nations — Canada, China (excluding Hong Kong), North Korea and Vietnam — in which abortion is legal with no restrictions. Altogether, 50 nations, containing 40.8% of the world's population, allow abortion without restrictions on the reason for at least part of the pregnancy.
Sixty-seven nations (33.2% of the world's population) allow restricted abortion to preserve the woman's physical health and/or mental health, or on socioeconomic grounds.
In 74 nations (26% of the world's population), abortion is prohibited altogether or permitted only to save the woman's life. Representatives from four of these countries (Nepal, Indonesia, Mauritius and the Philippines) addressed the conference.
Dr Zarfield Tafal from the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association described the alternatives to safe abortion, which are used mainly by rural and poor urban women. Complications such as bleeding, uterine rupture and infection contribute to Indonesia's substantial maternal mortality rate, she said.
The increased cost of contraception following the economic crisis has increased the need for abortion services in Indonesia. Tafal said she was optimistic that the new president, Abdurrahman Wahid, who has worked in a family planning clinic, would support abortion law reform.
Alexandrina Marcelo and Sylvia Estrada Claudio from the Reproductive Rights Resource Group (RRRG) of the Philippines said that the 1987 constitution, while containing a range of liberal-democratic reforms, contains anti-women provisions, including the state's mandate to "protect the life of the unborn, from conception".
Criminal sanctions for women who abort and providers who assist range up to 20 years' imprisonment. There are bills pending which would increase these penalties, including one that would make abortion a "heinous" crime, thereby circumventing the constitutional prohibition on capital punishment. Unsafe abortion leads to about 80000 Philippi no women treated each year for complications. The RRRG is seeking to build a political movement.
While there was a strong medical flavour to the conference, there were discussions and debates, including around language. Are we "pro-choice" or "pro-abortion"? Are clinic doctors abortionists or abortion providers? Should we refer to "late term" or "late pregnancy" abortion? The significance of the "when does life begin?" debate was also discussed, as was the question of focusing on rights or morality.
There was much cross-fertilisation of ideas, especially about what had and hadn't worked to improve women's access to safe, legal abortion. There was debate about whether or not the 1998 WA abortion legislation was a victory, although no-one doubted that the 1999 ACT legislation was a defeat.
The Abortion Rights Network of Australia met during the conference and reaffirmed its commitment to campaigning for abortion law reform on a state-by-state and a national level. An activist e-mail list will be established to facilitate national coordination and ARNA plans to establish a fund to assist women seeking abortion.