Call to Action!

English / Español / Français / Português / اللغة العربية

We unite in #AbortionSolidarity!

This September 28 – International Safe Abortion Day, we highlight the collective efforts of our diverse, intergenerational, and cross-border community in advancing the right to access safe abortion and reproductive justice. As we face persistent and emerging threats to abortion rights and reproductive justice, we unite in #AbortionSolidarity to uphold and advance these fundamental freedoms.

Join us in mobilizing for reproductive justice and ensuring that everyone has the support, information, services, and resources they need to make autonomous decisions about their own bodies and lives.

This September 28 – International Safe Abortion Day – we pay tribute to the collective efforts of all those who make abortions safe and accessible. While abortions are an individual’s decision, it is often overlooked that safe abortion is made possible through the collective efforts of a supportive community. This includes healthcare providers offering compassionate and skilled care, activists tirelessly advocating for reproductive rights, legal advocates working on policy and strategic litigation, support networks, family and friends providing emotional and logistical support. These collective efforts ensure that abortions are both a legal right and a safe, accessible, and stigma-free reality for everyone who needs abortion care, regardless of their circumstances.

Abortion rights are under attack and demand urgent consolidated actions, solidarity, and mutual support. The criminalization and prosecution of those who seek and provide safe abortions continue in many parts of the world. Some governments threaten to roll back safe abortion provision, promote anti-abortion sentiments, and adopt public health budget cuts – reducing access even further. As an example, in Indonesia, where abortion is already criminalized, a new law was passed that gives the police the sole authority to grant abortion to victims of rape, increasing barriers for survivors.

Moreover, anti-rights groups have built well-coordinated and well-funded transnational networks, with evolving tactics and global reach. In response, we need innovative strategies and global solidarity across movements.

When we look back at history, we see that we have survived and thrived, in spite of attacks and threats, and tireless mobilizing and organizing in every world region has made us an unstoppable force. Amid challenges, our movement continues to thrive, securing victories from Mexico to France to Armenia.
Among these gains is the movement’s ability to continuously nurture young activists and cultivate new generations. We have also watched the symbol of the green wave in Latin America reach Africa, Asia, and the US. Women, trans, and non-binary people of all races and ages, ethnicities, socio-economic statuses, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, and immigration statuses have the right to access safe abortions. Those experiencing intersecting oppressions face additional barriers to access, so it is crucial for our movement to harness intersectionality as a tool for analysis, advocacy, and policy development to ensure abortion access is available to all. All oppressions impact our reproductive lives. We struggle against a common enemy and fight for shared goals—health, rights, justice, and freedoms for all. Sex workers, transgender persons, non-binary persons, immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, and youths, amongst others, are often overlooked. False and misleading information and stigma that exacerbates and fuels barriers must be exposed and rejected.

We call on our allies in the broader social justice movement to join us in taking action for the right to access safe abortion. As a collective movement, we have the power to advance reproductive justice and bodily autonomy and secure freedom for all, especially the most vulnerable.

We call on all our governments to:

• Decriminalize abortion!
• Expand access to safe abortion by removing all policy barriers, expanding legal grounds, increasing upper time limits, and removing third-party approval.
• Ensure freedom and justice for all unjustly criminalized for accessing abortion and for all service providers and human rights defenders criminalized for providing access to safe abortion.
• Establish accessible and inclusive abortion care systems for all.

We call on global institutions and funding bodies to:

• Mobilize resources to support and protect all those who provide and support safe abortion access.
• Offer core and flexible funding so that organizations, abortion care facilities, legal aid groups, and accompaniment systems can sustain their work in helping keep abortions safe and accessible.

Lastly, we call on all those working for universal access to health care, for reproductive justice and broader social justice, and for human rights to join us, organize events and activities, publish information about the situation in our countries and regions, and mobilize together for 28 September.

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