ASPIRE UPS CALL FOR ABORTION REFORM

Today is the second anniversary of Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity’s (ASPIRE) appeal for the Government to reform the laws dealing with abortions in TT. ASPIRE has asked Government to address the issue because the criminal law has failed to prevent abortions or protect women from unsafe abortions. “It is widely known that non-poor women have access to safe abortions from their private medical practitioners. And there is undeniable evidence of the number of poor women who enter our public hospitals year after year as a result of botched abortions.” In a statement to coincide with today’s International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women, ASPIRE said for several years the need for treatment following unsafe, incomplete, clandestine abortions has been the leading cause of hospital admissions.

ASPIRE is asking the Government to: provide clarification on the state of the law of abortion currently in force; establish a formal inquiry into the impact of the law on women’s health, through an open, transparent process in which all citizens are given an opportunity to give their views on the operation and impact of the criminal law of abortion; and initiate an open, public dialogue on the merits and concerns of decriminalising abortion and developing a positive, civil regulatory law. ASPIRE is calling on the Government to “open its eyes, its ears, its heart and mind” to the request which is based on concern for women’s reproductive health, social justice and social equity. “We ask for oneness, fairness, and inclusion in assessing and contributing to the public policies that govern our lives.”