September 28 International Safe Abortion Day
Global Doctors for Choice (GDC) strongly supports the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion proposal to make September 28 International Safe Abortion Day, an official international UN Day in 2016.
September 28th has been celebrated since 1990, when the women’s movement declared September 28th as an international day of action to decriminalize abortion.
Support for safe abortion and activities on September 28th are increasing, as noted by the number of countries participating, the reach of these celebratory activities, and the number of international UN human rights organizations calling for abortion to be made safe, including CEDAW, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee Against Torture, the Committee on Civil and Political Rights, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice, and the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
Further several international inter-governmental entities recognize that unsafe abortion is a significant public health problem and commit to making abortions safe, including the ICPD Programme of Action in 1994, Beijing Women’s Conference Platform for Action in 1995, Convención de Belém do Pará in 1996, and the Maputo Protocol of 2005.
GDC Executive Director Dick van der Tak urges global action towards reproductive health rights and access including making abortion safe, citing that “globally, unsafe abortion accounts for 13% of maternal deaths, 99% of which occur in the developing world. Making pregnancy safer includes the provision of or referral for safe abortion services for all women. The International Safe Abortion Day would be a great opportunity to highlight the need for access to comprehensive abortion care, and contribute to reductions in maternal mortality.”
If you would like to take action and support this movement to make abortion safe globally, we encourage you to visit this website: http://www.september28.org/take-action/
