International Safe Abortion Day gives us a great opportunity to reflect on the need for a globally connected movement for reproductive justice.
After all, the forces seeking to restrict our bodily autonomy are globally connected. Our resistance also needs to reach across geographical and political borders.
Global actors are working hard to diminish our reproductive freedoms.
- US-backed ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ with an anti-abortion agenda have been found to provide misinformation across Europe, Africa and Latin America. Ohio based organisation ‘Heartbeat’ claims to have affiliates in over 971 locations outside of the U.S, “on every inhabited continent”.
- The Spanish group Citizen Go, has links to far-right actors in the U.S. and Russia, and has been advocating against the right to safe abortion, contraception, sex education and LGBT+ rights in several African countries.
- U.S. based tech companies like Meta and Tik Tok have been found to be censoring online content about safe abortion following the overturning of Roe Vs Wade.
- Authoritarian governments are shutting down NGOs, and limiting civil society organisations working on social issues. This year alone, three SAAF grantee partners have been forced to de-register as organisations. A handful of others face a similar threat to their work.
But we won’t let them win.
The global abortion rights movement is unstoppable. As we wrote last year, “abortions continue to happen, even in the most difficult contexts, because enough brave and committed people decide to take action for what’s right.” Our struggles are linked, but so is our power and ability to claim space.
Many global activists are connecting online and highlighting social issues not being covered effectively by mainstream media. The radical potential of young people sharing content in support of Palestine, anti-racist campaigns and safe abortion, has featured in the discussion about banning TikTok in the U.S.
Abortion is a stigmatised topic, and working on reproductive justice can therefore be isolating. Creating trusted spaces where activists can meet (on and offline) is therefore vital for our work and morale.
When we join together as an international movement, we are stronger.
The history of abortion rights activism is one of transnational collaboration and organising. In fact, ‘International Safe Abortion Day’ was launched by a global group of feminists in 1990:
“It was cathartic. There was consensus. There were lots of Latin American leaders, women from many places. It filled us with energy.”
More than 3000 people attended, and 28th September was proposed by Brazilian women as a significant date:
“On that day in 1871, Brazil had adopted the so-called ‘free womb law’ granting freedom to children born from slaves. “For us, freedom of wombs was free abortion.”
Attendees of the meeting also learnt about the use of Misoprostol, originally developed as a stomach ulcer treatment, to terminate pregnancies. This ‘discovery’ by Brazilian feminists is now commonly used around the world. The drug was eventually included on the WHO’s list of essential medicines in 2005.
Feminists are inspiring each other and sharing successful tactics.
Globally, there is an overwhelming trend towards the liberalisation of abortion laws.
In 2020, the world looked on as Argentina legalised abortion on request up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. This was a huge win for feminists, and the change was led by the ‘Marea Verde/Green Wave’ movement. The techniques used by this movement have since been adopted by other activists around the world, who were filled with hope to see a majority Catholic country introduce legal abortion.
For example, the ‘pañuelo verde’ scarves first adopted by Argentinian feminists in 2003 are now a globally recognised symbol for reproductive rights activism:
“The transnational dimension of the scarf gives it greater symbolic weight and allows activists to draw strength from movements in other countries.”
Polish and Argentinian feminists worked together to organise an international women’s strike, inspired by the Polish women’s strike against abortion restrictions in 2016:
“There are always different conditions, political, historical, culture, but there is always something that can be copied”.
SAAF is creating spaces for collaboration and connection.
We are honoured to be able to provide financial and logistical support to a thriving global abortion rights movement. SAAF provides grants, but we also believe that we have a duty to encourage ongoing relationships between activists in this field.
To that end, we have a closed online discussion group where all our grantee partners, past and present, can share information and successes. We also organise online and in-person meetings with language interpretation so that people from different regions can interact and learn from one another.
From these interactions we’ve seen many inspiring trans-global initiatives. For example, after seeing a research document on abortion decriminalisation in Brazil at a SAAF Global Gathering, an organisation from Malawi created their own similar advocacy resource. Organisations in Indonesia and Kenya recently started discussions to improve outreach on abortion support to people with disabilities.
We’re excited to see the global abortion movement grow in strength and number, and proud to play a small part in helping build connections.
By Laura Hurley, Communications Lead at the Safe Abortion Action Fund (SAAF)