Jun 18 - Pro-Choice Group Launched
A new group called ‘Choice Gibraltar’ has been formed to call for the end to the “silent suffering of women who fear to speak out about their reproductive rights in their own homeland.”
In a press statement, the group said:
“The Crimes Act 2011 criminalises women, including those who have a medical need, for terminating a pregnancy, forcing them into Spain or U.K. This is without the support or family or friends sometimes under exacerbated unsafe conditions.
“The women of Gibraltar are British women who deserve the same level of health care as their U.K. counterparts who are able to fulfill their human rights as recommended by WHO guidelines and the UN.
"Making abortion illegal makes it unsafe, putting lives at risk.
“We call for respect for women and their reproductive choices, comprehensive sex education focusing on relationships, sexual health advice and free contraception.
“We call for full financial support to allow women to make a conscious choice on motherhood by providing them with realistic maternity allowances, protection and child payments, protected employment laws and modern paternity provision.
“We call for Gibraltar to acknowledge the extent that terminations are already happening and the consequences both mentally and physically that forcing the procedure underground has on those already vulnerable.
“We call on Gibraltar politicians to decriminalize and protect the health of the individual to decide what happens to her own body, in line with best medical practice, so that she can be supported in her own homeland by her family and doctor without risk, fear or shame.”
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