Global Safe Abortion Conference Attracts Top Level Speakers

Global Safe Abortion Conference Attracts Top Level Speakers

September 17, 2007

    LONDON, Sept. 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The Marie
Stopes International Global Conference on Safe Abortion:
Whose Right? Whose Choice? Who Cares? which takes place in
London in October has attracted some extremely high-profile
speakers, including DfID's new Under Secretary of State for
International Development, Baroness Shriti Vadera, and Bert
Koenders, the Minister for Development Cooperation in the
Netherlands.

    "This is the first-ever global conference
dedicated specifically to this critical issue in women's
reproductive health and rights, and is therefore
significant for both political and programmatic
reasons," says Dana Hovig, Chief Executive of Marie
Stopes International.  "For the conference to be a
success, it is essential to have strong participation from
speakers and delegates who are prepared to carry the
information and messages home and can provide leadership to
expand women's access to safe abortion in their own
countries.  We are fortunate enough to have attracted
exactly that sort of representation."

    Other key plenary speakers include Christine McCafferty
MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on
Population; Prof. Fred Sai of Ghana; Gill Greer,
Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood
Federation; Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, Former Minister of
Health of Ghana and Ipas Vice-President for Africa; Jon
O'Brien, President of Catholics for a Free Choice; and Dr.
Akinrinola Bankole of the Guttmacher Institute.

    The 40th anniversary of the British 1967 Abortion Act
takes place just a few days after the conference. 
Organisers have also lined up an impressive range of
domestic speakers, including Lord David Steel, who as a
young British MP introduced the private member's bill which
became the 1967 Act; Marie O'Riordan, Editor of the
influential Marie Claire magazine and Barbara Hewson QC, a
top barrister who has represented clients in a number of
important abortion-related court cases.

    The Conference, in association with Ipas and Abortion
Rights, will be at the QEII Conference Centre in London on
23-24 October.  For more information and registration,
please visit http://www.globalsafeabortion.org .


    For more information, please contact:

     Tony Kerridge 
     Marie Stopes International
     Tel:    [phone] 
     Mobile: [phone]
     Web:    http://www.globalsafeabortion.org