Panel at Commission on the Status of Women calls on nations to fulfill Beijing promise to address unsafe abortion

Despite agreements made in Beijing, nearly 70,000 women die every year from unsafe abortion.

Photo courtesy of Caroline Penn, Panos Pictures.

On Monday in New York, a panel of internationally renowned experts on women’s health announced today that too little progress has been made to stop the deaths and injuries of women from unsafe abortion despite the agreements governments made as part of the landmark 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. The announcement came following efforts by the United States to ensure that the 10-year review of the Platform did not confer any “right to abortion.”

“Unless governments act to make abortion legal and accessible, women’s lives will continue to be endangered,” said Leila Hessini, Senior Policy Advisor for Ipas, the only group that works exclusively and comprehensively on the issue of unsafe abortion internationally. “The women of the world cannot wait ten more years for nations to address the real causes of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion.”

Hessini and four other experts from Nigeria, Mexico, Poland and the United States spoke at a press conference held during the second week of a meeting to review women’s progress since the Fourth Conference on Women was held in Beijing. Until last Friday, the meeting was mired in controversy, due to efforts by the U.S. delegation to stall international progress by insisting that it could not reaffirm the Platform for Action without specifying that there would be no right to abortion. Meeting strong resistance from the other country delegations attending the meeting, the U.S. dropped its controversial amendment.

The Beijing Platform for Action recognized unsafe abortion as a “major public health concern.” Nations agreed to make available “reliable information and compassionate counseling” to women facing unwanted pregnancies and, where abortion is legal, safe services. The Platform for Action further called on nations to “consider reviewing laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortions.”

According to Ms. Hessini, “A woman’s right to abortion is already implicit in international agreements, including their right to make reproductive decisions, to health and to non-discrimination.”

Despite the agreement in Beijing, over half a million women have died in the decade since, and millions more have been injured. Nearly 70,000 women die every year from unsafe abortion. An average of eight out of 10 women in developing countries will have an unsafe abortion.

“Governments must make policy that reflect the realities of women’s lives,” said Maria Conseulo Mejia, director of the Mexican Catholics for the Right to Decide. “Women’s lives are not political chits to be traded by the United States and the Catholic hierarchy.”

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258