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RIGHTS: London Conference Backs Abortion

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Sep 2 2004 (IPS) - The London conference on reproductive health concluded Thursday with a resolution backing the right to abortion.

The agreement on the right to abortion marked a significant step forward from the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994.

Countdown 2015, the London conference of non-governmental organisations working in the area of reproductive health marked the half-way point between the Cairo conference and the target date of 2015 for providing universal access to reproductive health.

A declaration at the end of Countdown 2015 affirmed its faith in a world ”where women and girls do not die in childbirth and pregnancy; where they have access to safe and legal abortion; and where women and men can decide freely and responsibly whether and when to have children.”

The Cairo declaration had stopped well short of a right to abortion. It had spoken of ”the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant.” It supported abortion only under certain conditions.

The essential difference between the Cairo document and the London declaration is that the Cairo agreement was reached among overnments, and that in London among non-governmental organisations. The Countdown 2015 declaration is a statement of belief, and lacks executive backing. But it is nevertheless a strong statement in an area where NGOs are the principal providers of services.

”The abortion provisions of the ICPD did not go far enough in calling for universal access to safe legal abortion,” Steven Sinding, director-general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the leading NGO in the field said at the end of the conference.

”While we strongly believe in eliminating unintended pregnancies, we recognise that they cannot be eliminated altogether,” Sinding said. ”We believe that the time has come to press ahead, to reinforce a global movement to ensure that every woman in every country has access to safe abortion services when she needs them.”

The agreement among NGOs looks to set them on a stronger collision course against the present administration of the United States and the Vatican which strongly oppose support for abortion in developing countries. The United States allows abortion for its own citizens under the Constitution. But the Bush administration has withheld funding for NGOs that provide information on abortion, let alone provide abortion services.

But the NGOs went ahead with their declaration ”because it is hard to see how the United States administration and the Vatican can be any more resistant than they already are,” Sinding told IPS. ”What we are hoping is that this declaration will strengthen global advocacy efforts for the right to abortion.”

The NGOs agreement on the right to abortion will be a particularly potent issue in Africa where reproductive health services are most needed. Only three countries on the African continent – South Africa and the little island Cape Verde – legally allow abortion. In several other countries it is permissible under certain medical conditions, and women often have to work around those requirements to secure a right to abortion.

The declaration in London is likely to arm women’s and reproductive health NGOs across Africa with new arguments for legal access to safe abortion. ”It will strengthen the argument, but the stress across Africa will remain on preventive steps,” Florence Manguyu, policy advisor on reproductive health in Nairobi, Kenya, told IPS.

”The agreement reached at the global level will have to be looked at again at the country level,” she said. ”There will be people who want abortion as a right, but it can also lead to a backlash because some people will say this will mean not doing enough towards prevention.”

For NGOs at Countdown 2015, the right to safe and legal abortion is integral to reproductive health rights, and those in turn are integral to the Millennium Development Goals.

”Implementing the Cairo programme of action is an essential condition for achieving the millennium development goals,” the declaration says. ”We cannot end poverty without equitable access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.”