[ycnews] Uniting For Safe Legal Abortion

From: Youth Coalition <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ycnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:15:30 -0400
**Apologies for cross-posting!**



[image:
https://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/352133/5fd9c7f87e70a6c620d89b3757f4078a/image/jpeg]<https://asoft7116.accrisoft.com/causda/index.php?src=forms&id=IPAS_Registration_DC>

[image: signing of the declaration]On Wednesday, March 26, political,
health and human rights leaders from more than 30 countries issued a
declaration, "The Airlie Declaration for Safe Legal
Abortion<http://www.ipas.org/en/Safe-abortion-post-2015/The-Airlie-Declaration-on-Safe-Legal-Abortion.aspx>,"
calling for the repeal of all criminal abortion laws and universal access
to safe legal abortion.

The Declaration was the culmination of a two-day meeting, World Leaders
Consultation on Safe Legal
Abortion<http://www.ipas.org/en/Safe-abortion-post-2015.aspx>,
at Airlie Center, Virginia, March 24-25, set against the backdrop of the
20-year review by the United Nations of the Program of Action of the 1994
International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and global
debates about the post-2015 development agenda.

The Airlie Declaration focuses on the slow progress on improving access to
safe abortion since the Cairo conference, drawing attention to estimates
that more than 1 million women have died and more than 100 million have
suffered injuries - many of them lifelong - due to complications from
unsafe abortion. The Declaration calls on governments to *"make safe legal
abortion universally available and accessible to all women regardless of
age, income, or where they live."*

"To have leaders from such diverse countries and cultures united in support
of this goal is a hopeful sign that we can move beyond the polarizing
politics of abortion and transform women's rights into reality," said
*Elizabeth
Maguire, President and CEO of Ipas, an international reproductive health
organization.*

[image: video interview with Nafis
Sadik]<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GecWs_O538>Maguire
co-convened the meeting with *Dr. Nafis Sadik, former Executive Director of
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Secretary General of the
Cairo conference, who said the time is now for renewed global commitment to
safe and legal abortion.*

In her keynote 
address<http://www.ipas.org/en/Safe-abortion-post-2015/Keynote-Address-by-Dr-Nafis-Sadik.aspx>,
Dr. Sadik said, "Abortion is not the recourse of unfaithful wives, loose
women or careless girls...mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and ordinary
women from all states and stages of life are forced to choose between a
pregnancy they cannot continue and an abortion they cannot avoid. The law
should make it easier, not harder, for women to make that choice."

[image: video interview with Ivens Reis
Reyner]<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7s8sSht1Io>Other
co-conveners included *Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro*, President and CEO of the Global
Fund for Women <http://www.globalfundforwomen.org>, and * Ivens Reis
Reyner*of the Youth
Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Health<http://www.youthcoalition.org/>.
In his closing 
remarks<http://www.ipas.org/en/Safe-abortion-post-2015/Closing-Remarks-by-Ivens-Reis-Reyner.aspx>Reyner
said, "I expect that in 20 years safe and legal abortion won't be a
discussion, but a consensus. That men--instead of creating barriers to
women's access to legal and safe abortion--will understand and support
gender equality and above all they will respect women's autonomy over their
bodies and lives and support their decisions."

[image: Liz Maguire]The Airlie meeting was followed by a press briefing and
a briefing on Capitol Hill. At both events, speakers criticized U.S.
foreign policy for failing to support open dialogue on abortion issues
overseas and pointed to harms resulting from the Helms Amendment on U.S.
foreign aid. "Helms and related provisions have long been implemented as a
complete ban on U.S. funding for abortion, although it is legally
permissible in cases of rape, incest and danger to the life of the woman,"
said Maguire.

Ipas co-sponsored the meeting with the Center for Reproductive
Rights<http://reproductiverights.org/>and the International
Planned Parenthood Federation <http://www.ippf.org/>.


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[ycnews] Uniting For Safe Legal Abortion

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