Law 18.987, commonly known as “la ley de la interrupciónvoluntaria del embarazo” (“Law of Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy”), permits abortion in the first trimester (albeit with certain limitations and restrictions), and during the first 14 weeks in the case of rape and with no restrictions when a woman’s life is at risk or there are severe fetal anomalies. With the passage of this law, Uruguay became one of the few places in the region, along with Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guyana and Mexico City, permitting abortion in the first trimester.

It was not long, however, until anti-choice groups began to mobilize. Now that the required number of signatures has been submitted, the Electoral Court has a deadline of 45 days in which to call a vote, likely to take place on June 23. This vote, which is non-obligatory, asks the electorate if they are in favor of holding a referendum to repeal the law. If 25 percent of the ballots (roughly 640,000 votes) are cast in favor of the referendum, the referendum will be held in October.

Uruguay is often described as a progressive country. Marriage equality legislation passed in April, and public opinion polls reveal a majority of Uruguayans support fewer restrictions on abortion. These factors should contribute to an environment with greater reproductive rights, yet it has still been difficult for advocates of safe, legal abortion, such as IWHC’s partner organization, MYSU (Mujer y Salud en Uruguay, or “Women and Health in Uruguay”), to overcome political, cultural and religious opposition to attain safe, legal abortion for women. The passage of this law, the culmination of a 12-year struggle, reflects this.

IWHC will continue to stand by MYSU and other advocates of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights in Latin America. Despite this repeal movement, the past year’s events in Uruguay demonstrate evolving public opinion and the emerging realization that reproductive rights are fundamental human rights.

Such shifts in opinion have already produced positive developments in the region. In Argentina last September, government officials in Buenos Aires passed a law that removed restrictions on abortion in the case of rape or when a woman’s life is endangered (unfortunately, the mayor vetoed the legislation). And in Brazil, the Federal Council on Medicine called for the legalization of abortion in the first 12 weeks.

But we have also seen how these accomplishments have been threatened. Central American countries (namely Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala) are further restricting already rigid anti-choice legislation and, in some cases, restricting the availability of contraceptives.

So while recent events have been encouraging, the process to achieve greater sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America remains fragile, vulnerable to underlying conservative tendencies. Yet in a region where unsafe, clandestine abortions account for 12 percent of maternal deaths and nearly one million hospitalizations due to complications, it is becoming evident that women in Latin America deserve safer options to address their reproductive needs and are increasingly mobilizing to fight for them.

Young people all over the world face a range of unique challenges to exercising their rights.  Barriers to age-appropriate health services, meaningful education, and viable livelihoods opportunities are among the most pressing impediments to youth empowerment.

The International Women’s Health Coalition is centrally concerned with the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people.  We believe that working with both young men and women is critical to ensuring that the rights of all young people, particularly girls, are universally protected and realized. The following contribution focuses specifically on the challenges facing girls, who continue to experience systematic social, economic and political marginalization in every part of the world.

Given the global persistence of gender inequality, many of the issues disproportionately affecting young people also tend to disproportionately affect girls. In 1997, UNAIDS reported that 60% of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa were among young people (aged 15-24), with a 2:1 ratio of infected girls to infected boys.  This ratio continues to grow increasingly lopsided, with girls representing 74% of new infections among young people in 2009.

Additionally, girls face extraordinarily high rates of violence.  The experience of violence, the perceived threat of violence, or the stigma associated with being a victim of violence hinder access to entitlements, opportunities for social participation, and employment.

In developing countries, 40% of girls have their first child before the age of twenty, many before the age of 18. Not only does this mean that more girls are dropping out of school, but girls are also more likely than adults to die, experience complications, or suffer chronic injuries related to childbirth. Because they have less access to contraceptives and are less sexually experienced, adolescents are more likely than adults to seek out unsafe (often late-term) abortions.  Each year, it is estimated that 2 million to 4.4 million adolescents in developing countries have abortions, 70,000 unsafe abortions are carried out, and 13% of all maternal deaths occur as a result of unsafe abortion.

Early pregnancy is often associated with child marriage, a practice which also puts girls at increased risk of HIV infection.  Female genital mutilation, infanticide, nutritional bias—these and other harmful traditional practices disproportionately affect girls, infringing on their fundamental rights and opportunities for development.

The short answer to why these inequalities exist is that girls, especially the most vulnerable girls, continue to remain invisible. Despite the aforementioned figures, policymakers have consistently masked the specific needs of girls within “male-focused and male-dominated community-based activities and generic ‘youth’ prevention initiatives, all of which widely miss the mark” (Bruce, Temin, & Hallman, 2012).  This generic youth programming disproportionately benefits boys over girls overall, but it also favors unmarried to married girls, well-connected to socially marginalized girls, urban to rural girls, girls belonging to an ethnic majority to migrant or indigenous girls, and so on.

Girls also remain invisible because of how we measure progress.  Primary education enrollment figures, for example, are based on one day of the school year; even if there were genuine parity on this particular day, these figures fail to account for the reality that girls often miss multiple days of school each week because their domestic and reproductive responsibilities take priority.  Moreover, data on young people is rarely disaggregated, resulting in measures of participation which fail to report gender, age, marital status, and other critical factors.

The disproportionate burden that girls share for maternal morbidity and mortality, the time burdens that girls shoulder, the staggering inequalities in girls’ educational outcomes—these are all reversible realities. To tackle these disparities, we need to begin by making girls visible.  We must call for the post-2015 agenda to pay particular attention to girls and the challenges that they face.  The risks facing girls are well documented and the next step is to match the research with the necessary resources.

We need to make girls visible.

Making girls visible begins with how we count them.  By properly counting girls and disaggregating data by age and gender, we can target youth programming at specific subsets of youth—like adolescent girls.  We can also measure whether programs are actually reaching the girls who are most at risk.

We need to invest in girls.

We must invest in programming aimed specifically at girls, with an emphasis on the most at-risk populations of girls—those who engage in transactional sex, those who are forced into early marriage, those who fluently speak their native language but cannot communicate in their national language, and so on.  These programs must include the following features.

• Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) must be thorough, scientifically sound, and culturally appropriate.  It should take place in a safe and healthy learning environment and it should explicitly address gender norms and gender equality.  When young people are educated about human rights, gender equality, and the role of power in relationships, they are not only equipped with the tools to negotiate their own health relationships, but they are also able to educate and influence power-brokers in their communities.
• Comprehensive services must be universally available and accessible.  This means, access to high quality sexual and reproductive health care, all forms of safe and effective contraception, safe abortion and post abortion care, maternity care, and prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections including HIV.
• Education is foundational to girls’ empowerment. We must ensure that all girls, no matter how poor, isolated or disadvantaged, are able to attend school regularly and without the interruption of early pregnancy, forced marriage, etc.  Education—for both girls and boys—must go beyond academics and equip young people with life skills so that they are prepared to think critically and challenge discriminatory and repressive policies and practices.
• Empowering spaces ensure girls have the opportunity to feel secure, be themselves, and plan for their safety and development.  Even if only for a few hours a week, accessing safe spaces allows girls to frame their own agendas, receive training on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and develop their social and economic capital. These participatory social spaces also foster opportunities for community-building and networking, mitigating the isolation that many girls experience.

We need to support young leaders.

We must continue to support both young women and young men to be advocates for change. Ensuring that reproductive rights are protected and promoted rests in the hands of young women and men, particularly young people throughout the global South.  Young people should be involved in all types of decision making on sexual and reproductive health and rights.  Seasoned advocates must be willing to pass the torch, share best practices, and work alongside—sometimes even be led by—a new generation of SRHR leaders.

As advocates, we can listen to one another and work in tandem to repeal legislation that legitimizes discrimination against girls and press for new protections that ensure equality of access to health services, jobs and earnings, education, property and all the rest.  Addressing the profoundly complex root causes of gender inequality (and accordingly the inequalities experienced by girls) is not a simple challenge.

As we begin to develop a tangible action plan for the post-2015 development framework, we must remain mindful that shifting the social and cultural norms that permit and promote discrimination against girls is not a simple box-ticking task. We cannot continue to view gender equality as a singular aim, but rather as both an explicit goal and an issue that needs to be mainstreamed throughout the post-2015 development agenda.

As I reported previously, the ICPD Global Youth Forum in Bali earlier this month brought passionate engagement by young people committed to securing a healthy and just life for youth worldwide. The Forum closed on December 6 with a celebratory reading of the key recommendations from the various multi-stakeholder consultations that took place related to five themes: Staying Healthy, Education, Decent Work, Youth Leadership and Participation, and Families, Rights, and Sexuality.

The key recommendations are included in a public declaration. Please take a look and share your thoughts with us. We here at the International Women’s Health Coalition are thrilled that young people and adult allies from governments, civil society, the private sector, multilateral agencies, and other stakeholders from around the world spoke out in support of a bold and progressive vision for what the global community must do in partnership with youth to achieve the largest generation ever of educated, empowered, safe, and healthy young people.

Only by working together as a global community and as individuals can we realize this bold and achievable vision of what young people want, need, and deserve. UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin rightly described the process of meeting the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of young people as “a journey of 1,000 miles [that] starts with the first step.”

We look forward to working with and on behalf of young people to realize the key recommendations contained in the Bali Declaration, including with UNFPA which did an exemplary job ensuring that the process remained youth-led and youth-driven. We simply cannot progress as communities and nations without continuing to make these important leaps forward on our collective journey of 1,000 miles to secure an educated, empowered, safe, and healthy future for all.

Will you join us?

Researchers estimate that 35,000 pregnancies occur every year in Peru as a result of rape. Women and girls in this situation are faced with two options: seek an illegal abortion and risk going to jail or carry the pregnancy to term and suffer the psychological and physical trauma that go along with giving birth to your rapist’s child. Women who can prove that a pregnancy is the result of rape receive a “reduced” sentence of three months in jail (the standard prison sentence for illegal abortions in Peru is two years). Perversely, this reduced sentence does not apply to married women who are raped by their husbands, even though marital rape is a crime under Peruvian law. Doctors who perform abortions in cases of rape face up to six years in prison.

On September 28, 2012, a coalition of women’s rights groups launched a campaign to challenge this cruel violation of human rights. The campaign, Dejala Decidir (“Let her decide”), seeks to introduce a new law that decriminalizes abortion in cases of rape (currently, abortion is only permitted when the woman’s life or health is at risk). The groups, led by partners of the International Women’s Health Coalition—PROMSEX, Demus, Catholics for the Right to Decide-Peru, Manuela Ramos, CLADEM-Peru, and Flora Tristán—need to collect 60,000 valid signatures to petition Congress to consider the bill.

Photo courtesy of PROMSEX

This is no small challenge. The requirement for valid signatures means that people must be willing to provide their government ID numbers to verify their identities. This may be intimidating to many people in a country where the Catholic Church exerts a great deal of influence in the government and within communities. Consider also that many people in rural and indigenous communities—especially poor women who are disproportionately impacted by the abortion ban—do not have government IDs. Even if the campaign succeeds in obtaining 60,000 valid signatures, there is no guarantee that Congress members will risk controversy or the ire of the Catholic Church and support a change in the law.

The groups see the Dejala Decidir campaign as an opportunity to build a powerful and active movement on two important but neglected issues: abortion and rape. Every signature represents at least one more person informed about the harsh realities faced by rape victims in Peru, and mobilized to change the current abortion law.

George Liendo, Director of PROMSEX, says the time is ripe for a national dialogue. “It’s not always easy to build a coalition in Peru, but there is real energy for this campaign. People across the country want to put this on the political agenda.”

Peru is not the only country in the region rethinking its draconian approach to abortion. In October 2012, the Uruguayan congress voted to decriminalize abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.

Activists in Peru have until October 2013 to collect enough signatures to ask their own Congress to act. In the meantime, we can expect a rich and lively dialogue on rape and abortion. It’s about time.

This blog was cross-posted on RH Reality Check at http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/12/19/double-jeopardy-rape-victims-in-peru.

The bill is far from what many Uruguayans had hoped for. For one, it does not take first-trimester abortions out of the criminal code. Instead, it allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy only after she has appeared before an interdisciplinary panel of professionals to outline her reasons for requesting an abortion. The panel is required by law to tell her about alternatives to abortion, such as adoption. Moreover, it must “create an environment of psycho-social support to the woman, to contribute to overcome the factors which may be driving her towards pregnancy termination, and ensure that she has the information to make a decision that is conscious and responsible.”

In addition, the woman must wait five days to “reflect on her decision.” These requirements will most certainly discourage many women, and in particular young and poor women, from accessing safe services for fear of stigma and humiliation. They also mean that a woman who self-induces an abortion, for example with misoprostol, without going through these procedures, would still face penalties.

Finally, the bill contains allows for conscientious objections by individual providers and by hospitals, without spelling out what obligations providers and hospitals have to ensure that these objections do not deny women the safe abortions they would now be entitled to.

The debate in the House was fierce.  For those in favor of making first-term abortion available without restrictions, this bill fell far short of what women need. Álvaro Vega, a member of the majority governmental coalition, the Broad Front, lamented: “Is this an advance?  No, this is not advancing anything.  We should…fully eliminate the articles (of the Criminal Code) that criminalize abortion. Abortions are not going to end in 2012.” It is estimated that in Uruguay every year there are 30,000 abortions, most of them unsafe.

Representatives on both sides of the debate were forced to leave the Chamber so that their alternates could take their places and vote the party line.  A member of the opposition Colorado Party, who vacated his seat so that his alternate could cast a vote against the bill, criticized his party’s position: “This is totally wrong and fails our historic responsibility to allow free conscience.”

Those opposed to decriminalizing abortion were just as passionate.  One Representative left the room in tears, saying that his wife had suffered two miscarriages.  Another swore he would bring this matter to a national referendum. Given that some 60% of the population in Uruguay supports the decriminalization of abortion, such a referendum would face an uphill battle.

Meanwhile, outside Parliament, demonstrators marched. Women, nude and covered in bright body paint, stood and chanted: “They put in their restrictions, but our bodies are on the line.”

The text approved by the House is quite different from the version Uruguay’s Senate had passed at the end of 2011. That bill had removed penalties for abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, without making women jump through any hoops. That was also the case for a bill passed by Congress in 2007, but later vetoed by then President Tabaré Vazquez. A Presidential veto is not expected this time.

Implementation of the new law will need to be closely followed to ensure that safe abortion is in fact accessible. Health regulations spelling out how and where abortion services will be provided are yet to be developed, and health providers will have to be trained to respect women’s decisions and provide them with quality care. Measures will have to be taken to ensure that conscientious objection claims do not prevent women from accessing services altogether, and to address cases where delays push a woman’s pregnancy past 12 weeks.

At this pivotal moment, IWHC stands in solidarity with the feminist activists who have tirelessly advocated for the decriminalization of abortion in Uruguay. For more than 12 years, IWHC has proudly stood by MYSU – Mujer y Salud en Uruguay – a team of committed and effective advocates for women’s rights and health who have been central to recent advances in women’s rights in Uruguay. MYSU has played an instrumental role in educating and mobilizing Uruguayan society, building political will, and influencing political negotiations in the Congress. They did not give up after the 2007 veto and will continue fighting for increased access to safe abortion services. In the words of MYSU’s Director Lilián Abracinskas, “We will continue to fight for women to be respected as citizens who have the right and the autonomy to decide.”

Although the final Outcome Document “The Future We Want” (PDF) is weak overall, and in the last days of the negotiations was significantly weakened in the section dealing with the social pillar of sustainable development, women stayed the course and ensured that language around women’s and young people’s health and human rights was maintained and agreed upon as critical elements to achieve sustainable development.

Since the inter-governmental negotiations began in December 2011, feminist organizations were told by key countries, including Brazil and South Africa, that the Group of 77 (a group that represents “developing countries” in United Nations negotiations) would not break over differences of position on “controversial issues” such as gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights because “more important issues were at stake”.

Disappointingly, this was Brazil’s consistent position throughout the process as it sought to affirm its leadership within the Economic South and obtain gains on other issues such as the green economy and trade. Our allies remained vocal throughout the process and helped secure the language that we will use for enshrining reproductive health and human rights in future development agreements. These critical positions came from: Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, the United States, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Israel and Mexico.

Among other things, the Outcome Document urges governments to fully implement their previous commitments “leading to sexual and reproductive health and the promotion and protection of all human rights in this context” and emphasize the “need for the provision of universal access to reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health and the integration of reproductive health in national strategies and programmes.”

Governments also committed to “reduce maternal and child mortality and to improve the health of women, men, youth and children” by achieving “gender equality and protecting the rights of women, men and youth to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality.” Finally, governments committed to “promote the equal access of women and girls to education, basic services, economic opportunities and health care services, including addressing women’s sexual and reproductive health, and ensuring universal access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable modern methods of family planning”.

These words did not appear in the final document easily. Women worked day and night, through speaking with the media, taking to the streets and protesting, lobbying governments, and educating other civil society actors. to have our voices heard and hold our governments accountable.

The overall assessment by social movements and organizations that participated in the Rio+20 process is that it fell short of making any real progress and commitments for addressing pressing and critical sustainable development needs. Against the backdrop of an unwieldy process, multiple and often competing agendas, it is unsurprising that the outcome lacked content and clarity.

Moving forward as the post-2015 development discussions take shape, and if Rio+20 is to serve as an indication of how this process will unfold, it is critical that women’s and young people’s voices are heard in this process, and that social movements continue to pressure their governments to uphold their commitments to achieving sustainable development, gender equality, poverty eradication, and the realization of human rights for all.

Brazil, a country that in the past has championed women’s human rights, including reproductive rights, at the global level, has failed women in both Brazil and the world over.

During meetings to finalize the Rio+20 document, Heads of State will adopt in the next few days at Rio+20, delegates agreed on a plan short on vision and big on compromises. After three days of long, drawn-out negotiations, marked with lack of clarity about the process, a document to be signed off by heads of government was presented. Quickly gaveled through by the Brazilian chair, one after another government thanked Brazil for facilitating this document and largely expressed how this was the best they could do. By all accounts, despite the attempts to spin the outcome as a success, this document is neither “the future we want” nor what future generations deserve. In an effort to get consensus at whatever cost, Brazil forgot Rio: the vision and commitments of the Rio Earth Summit held 20 years ago.

From the start of the negotiations, gender equality and women’s human rights, including reproductive rights, have continuously been challenged by a few governments, claiming that [these] had “nothing to do with sustainable development.”

This debate continued until the last few hours of the negotiations. In the end, the text includes a re-affirmation of both the Cairo and Beijing agreements, but it falls short by failing to recognize that reproductive rights are also critical to the achievement of sustainable development. If a woman cannot decide if and when to have children and if she is not provided with the reproductive health care that is her human right, it is challenging to contribute to sustainable solutions for the planet.

Opposition to women’s human rights per se was concentrated among a few countries, with the un-holy alliance of the Holy See and oppressive governments such as Syria and Egypt insisting on marginalizing women. And since there was so much at stake for “more important issues,” such as trade, financing for sustainable development, and the green economy, other governments in the end traded away women’s reproductive rights, giving the Vatican what it wanted in the first place. But even if reproductive rights had been reaffirmed, the lack of real commitment by the international community to eradicate poverty, address urgent environmental concerns, and to chart a clear path for implementation of sustainable development, makes it difficult for women– and for the world — to  achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment in this context.

Norway, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, Mexico, Iceland, Switzerland, Israel and many others fought to the end to retain the reference to reproductive rights and expressed disappointment that this was not incorporated in the final text. However, it is expected that they will speak of their continued commitment through their leaders during the High Level Segment that begins today.

The Brazilian failure: selling out women’s human rights in this negotiation, has not gone unnoticed. Brazilian feminists quickly mobilized and demanded an explanation from their government. In an interview with local media following the agreement on the text, the Brazilian Foreign Minister expressed disappointment that “reproductive rights” had been kept out of the document, but went on to explain that this was done out of the need to reach a compromise. Immediately following the adoption of the text, women gathered and protested at Rio Centro, the main venue for the conference, chanting “reproductive rights are not for sale”, “governments have failed women and the planet” and “women’s rights are human rights.” Finally, in a meeting with Michelle Bachelet, the head of UNWomen, and the Brazilian Minister for the Environment, Brazilian women presented their declaration to Rio+20 which fittingly ended with these words:

“We defend women’s rights to equality, autonomy and freedom in all the territories where we live, particularly in our bodies, which are our first territory.”

For now, governments attending Rio+20 have failed both territories.

Women wave scarves at Rio+20 protest. Photo courtesy of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD).

On the road to Rio+20, the 20th anniversary meeting of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, the negotiations for an outcome document are almost at an end, but still, we need to ensure that the outcome of the negotiations really reflect the needs of people around the world, particularly young people. In the Rio+20 process, we cannot forget that this whole process is about people, about our rights, our wellbeing, our needs. To speak about sustainable development is also to speak about human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights, especially for young people and adolescents.

What are the implications?

Young people today account for 1.8 billion people between 15-25 years old.  Sexual and reproductive rights and health are fundamental for young people and is fundamental to sustainable development. If young people do not have access to sexual and reproductive health services and information they need, they will be less likely to have a healthy life, which will impact their ability to stay in school and find a job. This will contribute to the growing amount of unemployed youth. Also If governments do not take measures to end gender inequality, women, particularly young women and girls, will continue to lack the power and independence they need to make informed decisions, continue their studies and to have a healthy life.

Why now?

20 years ago the Earth Summit in Rio triggered a series of global conferences that promoted a rights-based agenda to development, health, gender equality and women’s empowerment. Almost 20 years later, young people have high expectations for the reviews of the Rio+20, ICPD and MDG processes. During the review of these processes, young people expect major commitments to be made, which will have considerable impact on young people at the national level. As a launching off point for the review of the ICPD and MDG processes, the Rio+20 outcome must address young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health services as fundamental in the context of sustainable development, in addition to the empowerment of young women and girls in all spheres of society.
With a strengthened and comprehensive Rio+20 outcome document, that recognizes the rights of young people, especially those of young women and girls, the Agendas of the ICPD PoA and Beijing PfA can only be strengthened. It is therefore unacceptable that the Rio+20 Summit mark a step back in young people’s rights, our access to information and services. Young people cannot afford to have our rights ignored, nor our access to information and services; within the context of sustainable development, and our common futures.
The sexual and reproductive rights community needs to strengthen its engagement in the Rio+20 process. We need to work together. We urge you to see this as a call for support to SRR organizations to consider the impact that Rio+20 will have.

Looking towards the RIO+20 Summit

Today, almost 80% of young people live in the developing countries. Our strength is in our numbers, and our joint commitment to ensuring a sustainable future for all. It is therefore essential that young people are supported to meaningful participate in international decision-making spaces. It is particularly essential that young people from the Global South are supported to attend the Rio+20 summit, specifically as members of their official country delegations. To effectively give young people a space that reflect their diverse needs, is fundamental, especially when discussing a framework that will determine our futures.
Let us work together to make sure that the Rio+20 Summit guarantees our rights, the rights of young women, girls, and all people. Sustainable development is about us, it is about our rights

In February, I was honored to become the third president in the International Women’s Health Coalition’s 28-year history.  My first 100 days are soon coming up, and I am simply awed by the work of the Coalition and its courageous and visionary partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Let’s take, for example, our work to end early and forced marriage. This is one of the many battles we fight to support women’s and girls’ rights and health, often in the face of regressive forces aligned against women’s rights and health.

At the local level – In Cameroun, almost half of the girls under 18 are married off by their fathers, often against their will. These early marriages usually end girls’ education and put them at very high risk of complications and death in pregnancy and childbirth. IWHC supports APAD (Association for the Promotion of the Rights and Autonomy of Women and Girls), a local organization that educates communities about the intrinsic human rights of girls, including the right to choose when and whom to marry. Led by young women who escaped or avoided early and forced marriage, APAD empowers survivors and works to stop these marriages before they occur. They do this by building skills for young women, changing cultural values through collaboration with religious and traditional leaders, and educating parents.

In Washington, DC – As a leader of Girls Not Brides: The US Partnership to End Child Marriage, IWHC commends the United States Senate for passing the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act, which is a rare victory for women and girls. This is a critical step in upholding the rights of adolescent girls around the world, and in shielding them from the harmful practice of child marriage, which often has devastating consequences for girls, their families and their communities. We now look to the Administration to ensure that sufficient attention and resources are directed to girls most in need to prevent more marriages from occurring and to support married adolescents. Ending early and forced marriage is key to ensuring the health and rights of girls and women and a higher standard of living for them, their families, and their country.

At the global level – With women and youth from around the world, IWHC is fighting to ensure that international agreements include funding for important programs that save women’s and girls’ lives and protect their rights and health. These include contraceptives; maternity care; access to HIV services; and age-appropriate sexuality education, which teaches gender equality and provides accurate health information to young people aged 10 to 24 who often have little, or no, understanding of their bodies.

Leading IWHC is a great responsibility and I am indebted to its former presidents, Joan Dunlop and Adrienne Germain, for their vision and dedication to women’s rights and health.  In the upcoming year, I look forward to building on their legacy and that of our partners.

Controlling one’s body and fertility is key to everything else in a woman’s life.  Please support us generously, so we can do even more.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Françoise Girard
President, International Women’s Health Coalition

Working on the funding bill for the State Department and U.S. foreign assistance programs, today the Senate Appropriations Committee repudiated the negative action recently taken in the House.  The overall funding levels in the Senate bill for family planning and reproductive health programs were set at $700 million (an increase of about $125 million from last year’s levels – in an attempt to make up for disproportionate cuts in the past).  And, rather than seeking to defund UNFPA, as the House bill does, the Senate committee included $44.5 million for reproductive health services in more than 140 countries.

In direct opposition to House action, the Senate Committee included a provision to prohibit a futurePresident from unilaterally imposing the Global Gag Rule. The amendment was offered by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) – a stalwart supporter of reproductive rights – and passed by a vote of 18-12. Committee Democrats (with the exception of Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), supported it and were joined by Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mark Kirk (by proxy, as he is absent from the Senate due to health issues). Please take a moment to call or email Senator Frank Lautenberg and thank him for his continued commitment to women and girls’ basic human right to access the information and services they need to promote their health and well-being.

Additional good news: the bill contains language to allow abortion services for Peace Corps volunteers in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment of the woman.  This is progress of sorts – and if enacted would give Peace Corps volunteers the same right federal employees already have in other federal programs.

Next step is action by the full Senate – and then the House and Senate will need to work out differences between the two versions of their bills before sending to the President for signature into law.