PP Global Details Its Work in Ecuador
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
 

Planned Parenthood Global, the international outreach of the abortion industry giant Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is celebrating 50 years of operation and details the pro-abortion activism in Ecuador that worked to achieve the Supreme Court ruling that criminalizing abortion in the case of rape was unconstitutional. PP Global calls it an “historic achievement to advance access to abortion” and details the strategies employed during the past five years in the report It’s Legal! The Decriminatlizaton of Abortion in Cases of Rape in Ecuador.

The document is intended to “promote the hard-won achievements and lessons learned from the women’s and feminist organizations working on incremental changes to promote the recognition of reproductive rights.”

The introduction explains the pro-abortion movement in Ecuador stating: “At the heart of this historic achievement was a coalition of many organizations from the sexual and reproductive rights (SRR) movement. Through tireless commitment and years of work, these organizations led the way by compiling evidence, designing advocacy strategies, identifying effective spokespersons, and implementing creative communications campaigns that led to both legislative changes and a significant reduction in the stigma surrounding abortion in the country.”

The report includes the goal of using the case in Ecuador to push for legal changes to abortion throughout the region: “After 50 years of collaborating with a diversity of brave partners committed to fighting for access to sexual and reproductive health services including abortion, Planned Parenthood Global offers this publication to the community of sexual and reproductive rights advocates in the region to support the ongoing push for structural changes. Together, we can ensure that all people can make their own decisions about their bodies and their futures.”

Legislators were the #1 target in the advocacy effort which included having to overcome their religious convictions: “To have an impact on individual and party positions, raising awareness and using accurate and scientific data to overcome religious convictions and also elevate the technical debate in the legislature, especially in the vote to achieve the approval of the Criminal Code reforms on abortion, while ensuring that authorities from different levels of the government could access quality information.”

Pro-abortion activists strategically “aimed to help legislators overcome their personal and religious biases in favor of the SRR of girls and women in the country, and to assume a favorable position in support of decriminalizing abortion in cases of rape. To this end, they held work sessions, workshops, one-on-one meetings with assembly members, and meetings with advisors and members of legislative blocs, in which they presented statistics, scientific, legal, public health, and human rights arguments, as well as testimonies and facts about the realities faced by women and girls who are pregnant because of rape. Furthermore, ongoing political dialogue was established with the legislators and their advisors…These strategic alliances allowed the women’s organizations to ensure the attendance of national and international experts and influential people in favor of the decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape in the Justice Commission and in the plenary of the legislature.”

The four targets for pro-abortion advocacy were legislators; the Constitutional Court; mass media and alternative media journalists; and social movements and collectives.

PP Global hopes that the document will be used by others to “learn and replicate the strategies for legal and social change that are favorable to abortion access”, and is especially useful for “advocates, activists, spokespersons, and other people who develop advocacy actions to protect and expand sexual and reproductive rights (SRR) in Ecuador and in other countries in the region with similar contexts.

The goals include:

  • Promoting a broad understanding of abortion as a public health issue.
  • Supporting the implementation of legal abortion services.
  • Pushing for adequate and timely public funding to address sexual and reproductive health.

Planned Parenthood Global’s press release about the report, in both English and Spanish, can be found here.

PNCI highly recommends pro-life advocates read the report so they can be better equipped to protect pro-life laws and policies. Planned Parenthood Global is active in Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda.


 


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