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Decriminalisation of Abortion

The Socialist ruling party in conservative Portugal made the decision this week to legalise abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. This is a milestone and a victory for Portuguese women, and follows on the heels of victories (though very different) in Colombia and Nepal. What lessons can be learned from these very different experiences?

The decision in Portugal this week to legalise abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy is great news for women in Portugal, and follows on the heels of victories (though very different) in Colombia and Nepal. Colombia partially decriminalised abortion in May 2006 in the case where a woman's life is in danger, the foetus has malformations incompatible with life outside the womb or the pregnancy is the result of rape. In December, Nepal's interim constitution was agreed upon, recognising reproductive rights for women as fundamental.

Existing at extreme ends of a scale, these accomplishments illustrate the complexity of the challenge for reproductive rights. At one end, a result that would be considered the absolute minimum in other countries; and at the other end, the recognition of the fundamental rights of a woman to control her own body. The referendum held in Portugal on February 11, 2007 is another success story along the scale of decriminalisation. It may have been a technical failure due to low turnout, but it was a political triumph for the ruling Socialists, who promised the referendum when they were voted into power in early 2005 and a huge accomplishment for women. The successful campaign focused on the large numbers of illegal and unsafe abortions being performed in Portugal - between 20-40,000 women per year - however, in depth analysis of the decision is yet to come, and some are saying that Portugal was simply "put under pressure from the rest of Europe to get in line with general abortion policy". What lessons can others learn from these experiences?

Active campaigns

Restrictive reproductive rights laws are too numerous to list. In the ten year period after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995, many countries liberalised abortion law, whilst others such as El Salvador, Hungary, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the United States have enacted even more restrictive laws. Other examples of countries with restrictive laws include Ireland, Malta, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland and Iran to name only a few. The shades of grey around abortion legislation are many and varied, with laws allowing or prohibiting abortion on the grounds of rape, to save the life of the mother, physical health, mental health, disability, and socio-economic circumstances. In between the lines are conscience clauses that allow clinics to decide whether or not they will perform abortions, and various legislation such as that which stipulates that spousal authorisation is required. The barriers to reproductive rights for women are indeed many.

Where there are walls, however, passionate activists are targeting the cracks in between to see them crumble. Colombia is a case in point as is Portugal, but many other countries are relentlessly campaigning for reproductive rights along the scale - such as Poland. Polish law is at the same notch on the scale that Colombia had to fight to reach. The law allows abortion only when a pregnancy threatens the life or health of the mother, when the baby is likely to be permanently disabled or when pregnancy originates from a crime, for example rape or incest [4].

With the advent of a new political initiative to make abortion fully illegal, the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning (FWFP) have taken up the fight to move up on the scale rather than backwards. In December 2006 they released a petition with over 1400 international signatures calling for the defence of current rights and advocating for full rights. In Poland, however, women's organisations have a long road ahead. The FWFP note that "abortion is a highly tabooed issue and no women have stepped forward to provide a public face for abortion rights struggles. The majority of women also consider abortion a private matter and are reluctant, therefore, to act outside the private realm by participating in public debates about abortion and publicly sharing their experience of having abortion." These are problems that many countries face.

Religion, politics, tradition

Sharing experiences across borders is vital in the struggle for reproductive rights - particularly where the ideology and religious beliefs create significant barriers. Reflecting on the strategy in Colombia, Monica Roa, lawyer and activist who challenged the Constitutional Court, highlights the importance of a clear separation between the Church and the State:

"I believe that one of the strategy's key points, especially in such a Catholic country (as I believe is also true of the region), is that the whole project was always clear on the fact that this was not a confrontation with the Catholic Church, we weren't asking the church to change its position on abortion.

" Marianne Mollman's research on access to abortion found that a clear separation of Church and State was not apparent in Argentina, however, and that religion and ideology routinely interfere with politics. In a presentation to Mujeres Autoconvocadas Rosario, a network of over forty women's organisations, NGOs, government representatives and individuals in Argentina, Mollman asserted:

"Most surprising to me is that in Argentina there is a lack of recognition of the necessity of a secular state in order to really address these rights, which are international rights. In contrast in Mexico, also a Catholic country, in which the general population takes into account priests' opinions, there also exists indignation when it is felt that the church becomes too involved in politics; there is a consciousness that state and church should not be mixed."

In Poland the Roman-Catholic Church is also extremely influential and the climate for women's rights activism is complex. Debates about abortion are guarded amidst a population of women split between the Communist and Post-Communist eras. According to one writer, young women in Poland view abortion as a moral issue, whilst older women see it as a question of rights. This reflects the shift from Communism, where abortion was legal, to Post-Communism and the influence of the church.

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