London – MSI is gathering signatures globally to demand that women be treated with respect and compassion and have full
access to legal, voluntary, safe, and affordable abortions as part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. Millions of women continue to suffer severe injuries and trauma, and more than
66,000 die needlessly each year from abortions that are procured unsafely from unskilled providers or self-induced, almost all in developing countries. Still others are criminalised or imprisoned. You can support these women by signing the online
Global Call to Action for Women’s Access to Safe Abortion, and getting your friends and colleagues to do the same.
The Call to Action was launched at the ground-breaking Marie Stopes International Global Safe Abortion Conference, in association with Ipas and Abortion Rights, in October 2007, which was attended by more than 700 delegates from 66 countries. The conference provided new impetus and renewed commitment to achieving the fundamental right to access safe abortion services for women all over the world.
MSI will present the collected signatures to world leaders on various occasions – local, regional and international – during 2008, culminating with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2008.
The Call to Action is now available online for all to sign at
www.globalsafeabortion.org MSI is currently developing the Global Safe Abortion website as a key resource for those who are working to expand choice and services for women. The revamped site will provide a space for those who attended the conference, and others, to continue celebrating shared achievements and confronting our common challenges in ending the death and injury of women due to unsafe abortion. The site will include video and audio downloads of keynote speeches from the conference and copies of speaker presentations, and will in time offer a range of new features and resources to serve a growing global community of professionals working in reproductive health.
Support women and make a difference today by signing the
Call to Action.