Ground-breaking Conference Takes on Abortion

Ground-breaking Conference Takes on Abortion

October 23, 2007

Organisers Highlight the Global Pandemic of Unsafe Abortion
and Call for Universal Access to Safe Abortion Care


    LONDON, Oct. 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Expanding access
to safe abortion around the world is on the agenda at the
groundbreaking Global Safe Abortion Conference beginning
today in London. In an unprecedented show of global
concern, nearly 800 public health experts, government
representatives and women's health advocates from around
the world convened to build momentum around reducing the
appalling toll on women's health and lives caused by unsafe
abortion. 

    Organisers of the Global Safe Abortion Conference,
Marie Stopes International (MSI), Ipas and Abortion Rights
- NGOs working to promote women's reproductive health and
rights - called for increased access to safe abortion
services, recognised women's right to self-determination in
exercising their reproductive choices, and encouraged
efforts to secure legal reform.

    "At least 66,000 women annually die directly as a
result of unsafe abortion," said Mark Lowcock,
Director General of Policy and the International Division
at the UK Department for International Development,
speaking at the opening plenary. "I have been asked to
speak for 15 minutes; in that time two women, probably in
the developing world, probably young, will die.

    "The tragedy is still greater given that we have
the technology to prevent almost all of these deaths. We
cannot sweep it under the carpet."

    The medical journal The Lancet has called unsafe
abortion one of the most neglected health issues of our
time. The two-day conference highlights the global scale of
this divisive issue. Representatives of nearly 60 countries
are attending the meeting, which is the first-ever global
conference of its kind.

    MSI Chief Executive, Dana Hovig, called attention to
the need for governments and donors to significantly
increase their investment in making comprehensive sex
education, contraception and safe abortion more widely
accessible. 

    "All around the world, and especially in the
poorest countries, unsafe abortion kills women and girls
solely because they lack access to safe abortion care. Of
all causes of maternal mortality, unsafe abortion is the
easiest to prevent. It is time for governments and donors
to step up and make resources available."

    Ipas President, Elizabeth Maguire, called the
continuing toll of death and injury from unsafe abortion
"a moral outrage and a gross violation of women's
basic human rights. How many more poor women and girls must
suffer or die before we start taking action?" 

    "New data show that the number of deaths from
unsafe abortion is virtually unchanged in the past
decade," she said. "Now is the time for us to
speak out loudly and to take bold action on this important
issue. Unsafe abortion is a reality; the choice we have is
whether to help women or let them die."

    The conference addresses topics such as global evidence
on the impact of unsafe abortion, abortion as a human right,
and trends in the law, policy and practice. Key speakers
include Bert Koenders, the Minister for Development
Cooperation in the Netherlands; Dr. Paul Van Look, Director
of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health
Organization; 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; and Jon
O'Brien, President of Catholics for a Free Choice. 

    Organisers plan to issue a Call to Action that will
serve as the basis of a new global movement to reduce
unsafe abortion.


    For more information, please contact:

     Diana Thomas
     MSI
     Tel:   [phone]

     Tony Kerridge
     MSI
     Tel:   [phone]

     Kirsten Sherk
     Ipas
     Tel:   [phone]