October 5, 2024
A mother’s journey across the globe to find answers for her ‘Duchenne Family’
On International Safe Abortion Day, the Médecins du Monde International Network reaffirms its commitment to ensuring unconditional access to safe abortion.
Introduction:
Sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially the right to safe abortion, are under attack. Every year, millions of women are denied access to safe abortion. More than 40% of women live in countries with restrictive abortion laws. This puts the lives and health of women and gender minorities at risk, as forbidding access does not reduce the number of abortions but rather forces individuals to seek unsafe methods that represent a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. WHO estimates that 39,000 women die each year from abortions performed under unsafe conditions.
As emphasised by the WHO, the lack of access to safe, timely, affordable and respectful abortion care is a critical public health and human rights issue.
Key Demands:
Through our programs, we witness daily the severe negative health consequences caused by the lack of access to safe abortion. Médecins du Monde calls on all decision-makers and healthcare providers to take immediate action and ensure unrestricted access to safe abortion services.
1. Abortion Must Be Recognized as a Human Right and an Essential Part of Healthcare.
Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) officially recognizing abortion as healthcare, many countries still do not mandate their healthcare systems to treat it accordingly. Abortion remains stigmatized, and providers face the risk of criminalization, even when following established clinical best practices. Unconditional access to abortion services is a fundamental component of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR); it is a public health issue, and a basic human right. SRHR encompasses the right to make decisions about sexuality and reproduction freely and without discrimination, coercion, or violence. This includes the right to access comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health services, supported by professionals who respect these rights.
We call on states to recognize abortion as a human right, make it an essential part of healthcare and ensure free and unconditional access to safe abortion services.
2. Abortion Must Be Fully Decriminalized.
Time limits and restrictive grounds on abortion remain legally enforced, despite the World Health Organization’s 2022 Abortion Care Guideline. Navigating hostile abortion laws and complex healthcare systems is challenging, especially for those unfamiliar with their country’s legal nuances. These barriers disproportionately affect individuals already facing obstacles like gender identity, poverty, domestic abuse, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and migration status.
We call for the full decriminalization of abortion globally, both to reduce parental mortality and morbidity, and to ensure that human rights, bodily autonomy, and voluntary motherhood are fully respected.
3. All Administrative Barriers to Abortion Must Be Removed.
Even in countries where abortion is formally legal, administrative barriers such as waiting periods and time limits often prevent women from accessing safe abortion services. There is no clinical justification for forcing anyone to undergo counselling or to wait before having an abortion. These practices cause unnecessary distress and deprive women of their right to make independent decisions about their lives. As pregnancy often isn’t detected until around eight weeks, the time limits and waiting periods in many countries make access difficult or even impossible.
We urge policymakers and health care providers to remove all administrative and legal barriers such as time limits and waiting periods, to ensure unhindered access to safe abortion services.
Our Involvement:
France – Advancing Safe Abortion
Along with partners, Médecins du Monde France contributed to the initiative to enshrine abortion into the constitution. Médecins du Monde France continues to fight not just for the right to abortion, but for actual access to abortion, which is far from being accessible in numerous areas. Our teams document barriers of access and strengthen partnerships with local stakeholders to ensure access to abortion for the people we serve in our projects. To foster its own engagement, Médecins du Monde’s French Board approved a comprehensive strategy in February to ensure access to safe abortion across all its programs within five years.
Tunisia
A Bootcamp for Abortion Rights for Médecins du Monde and Partners Since 2019, Médecins du Monde Belgium has collaborated with Tunisian civil society organizations on SRHR initiatives. In September 2023, these organizations participated in a multi-day bootcamp to exchange best practices and strategize on advocacy for improved access to SRHR for young people. Despite Tunisia’s pioneering stance in legalizing abortion in the 1960s and 70s, resistance persists. Médecins du Monde and its partners remain committed to their advocacy, underscoring that the right to abortion is integral to bodily autonomy and gender equality.
Italy – Reporting on access to abortion
Since 2023, Médecins du Monde Italy has been documenting barriers to access to abortion. It has published two reports: “Pharmacological abortion in Italy between delays, opposition and international guidelines” and in 2024 “Obstacle abortion: how deterrence policies threaten access to voluntary termination of pregnancy in Italy” which will be presented to Parliament. Médecins du Monde Italy is also engaged in organizing national public campaigns on access to abortion, such as the Impossible Pill in 2023 and The Unheard Voice, a public event in Rome to launch the 2024 report and an opportunity to support the European petition My Voice My Choice.