Pro-Choice Groups Petition UN to Declare ‘International Safe Abortion Day’

A coalition of more than 400 pro-abortion groups is petitioning the United Nations to declare Sept. 28 “International Safe Abortion Day.”

The organization recently sent their demand via a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of U.N. agencies.

“The date 28 September was declared an international day of action for the decriminalization of abortion in 1990 by the women's health movement and has been celebrated annually ever since,” the letter states.

The signatories — who include NARAL and Planned Parenthood affiliates — add that the date is celebrated as a “day of action” in several countries, including Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal and France. They also wrote that the date was marked by “a global tweetathon” last year.

“Women and/or abortion providers are being prosecuted for abortion in: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Dubai, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Nepal, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and USA,” they wrote. “Yet, as many as one in three women globally has an abortion in her lifetime. We are not criminals. None of us should be prosecuted for something that is a central fact of being a woman.”

Marge Berer, who coordinated the petition for the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, said in a statement that "safe abortion is an essential health service for women.”

“Would anyone today deliberately withhold effective HIV treatment or safe contraception from people who need them?” Berer said. “Why, then, is it still acceptable that safe abortion is being withheld from so many women and girls with unwanted pregnancies?"

Jeanne Mancini, the president of the March for Life, told TheBlaze, “In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision on Whole Women’s Health — which abortion proponents hailed as a huge victory — abortion clinics have lower regulatory standards than nail salons and public pools in the U.S.”

“If abortion advocates truly supported ‘women’s health’ as they claim, they would not stand for such a low bar for these facilities,” Mancini said. “Abortion is not health care, plain and simple. It is a deeply invasive, violent surgery that snuffs one life and wounds another. We invite the signatories of the petition, and all people worldwide, to join the tens of thousands of Americans who will participate in the next March for Life in January 2017. We hope all people listen to the testimonies of the women who regret abortion, who have suffered profound physiological and psychological ramifications after having made such a heartbreaking choice.”

(H/T: CNS News)

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