Feminists For Choice

United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) is a champion for women’s rights and should get significant support from activists everywhere. DFID was created in 1997 to manage Britain’s aid money and ensure that their resources are going to fighting extreme poverty. This includes working towards human rights in order to alleviate poverty and its consequences.  

This month with an updated policy report on safe and unsafe abortion was published by UK’s DFID.  Observations that should be obvious began the summary of the report.

“First, it is a right. Women have the right to reproductive health choices. Second, it is necessary.” It is absolutely refreshing that one of the governments in world is expressing that the right to reproductive freedom is a necessity!”

As I read the eight page report, I found it amazing and great the repeated position of the DFID to support actions to increase accessibility to safe abortions and education areas where it is illegal.

“A central aim of DFID policy is to empower and enable women and adolescent girls^a to have sexual and reproductive choices.”

“DFID’s position is that safe abortion reduces recourse to unsafe abortion and thus saves lives, and that in a humane and just society women and adolescent girls must have the right to make their own decisions about their sexual and reproductive well being.”

“In countries where it is illegal and mortality and morbidity is high, DFID will make the consequences of unsafe abortion more widely understood, and will consider supporting processes of legal and policy reform.”

Background information and evidence for why they are taking these positions were clearly articulated. Other countries should take reproductive rights seriously and make the appropriate policy decisions based on the realities shown in this report and other research.  For example, the report demonstrated that gender inequity within a culture plays a major role in the safety and ability of a woman to choice any type of reproductive action. DFID also noted that poor women have the least access to family planning resources. Finally, they touched on the high costs of not supporting access to abortion and other reproductive resources. The costs are both financial and in human lives.

In order to show gratitude and encourage comparable policy in other countries, the International Women’s Health Coalition is managing an action of sending thank you messages to the UK government. IWHC is dedicated to protecting reproductive rights and health in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Their assistance comes in form of grant making and partnering with local leaders and organization on projects.

You can visit the IWHC site to add your voice in support of the positive policy update by British Government Department for International Development. It is my hope that someday countries like the UK won’t have to address this issues because all women will have access to safe abortions and birth control.

Photo Credit: IWHC