Free and safe abortion: a demand for social justice, human rights and democracy: a public declaration of women's networks, coalitions, campaigns and organizations in the region.

In commemoration of September 28, Day for the Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean, women's networks, coalitions, campaigns and organizations from the region issued a public declaration calling for abortion as women's human right:

"More than 4 million Latin American and Caribbean women have abortions each year, most of them clandestine procedures, risking their lives and in fear of being imprisoned. This seriously harms their physical and mental health and is a violation of their basic human rights, especially the rights to life, health, self-determination, equality and non-discrimination; the right to be free from torture and injury; the right to freedom of thought and religion; and the right to control their own fertility.

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"There can be no sustainable democracy or development in our societies while women, especially the poorest women, continue to die from this cause and remain the targets of condemnation and punishment. This reality makes unsafe abortion a serious problem of social justice.

"Those responsible for this situation include:

* Governments, which deny women's right to voluntary motherhood and fail to respect their sexual rights and reproductive rights, including freedom of choice.

* Churches, which interfere, threatening the separation of Church and State.

* Legislators, who refuse to decriminalize abortion or even to debate the issue.

* Service providers, who report and abuse women who are hospitalized after unsafe abortions.

* Judges, who allow the prosecution of women and sentence them for having abortions.

* Society, which remains silent and allows this situation to continue.

"These parties are responsible for imposing motherhood on women as their only and unavoidable destiny, without recognizing women's right to make autonomous decisions about their lives and their own bodies. They also refuse to understand that behind every induced abortion is a pregnancy that was forced upon the woman because of her lack of access to contraceptive methods or the failure of those methods, poverty or abandonment, illness or serious fetal malformation, among other reasons.

"In light of this situation, we demand access to free, safe, legal abortion as a demand for human rights, social justice and public health. Only by ending the indignity of clandestine abortion can we put an end to the drama of women's deaths from this cause and safeguard the health and lives of women and the wellbeing of their families. Motherhood cannot be imposed by punitive laws, which have been shown to be ineffective in preventing clandestine abortion. Neither should it be imposed by religious dogma or doctrine that refuses to respect human freedom and the diversity of beliefs.

"Women are rights bearers with the full moral capacity to make the decisions that are most beneficial to our realities and life plans, including the decision of whether to have an abortion or to become mothers, to not have children or to have them. We demand that all social actors and the State respect our sexual and reproductive autonomy and provide us with the information and the means to exercise this freedom without risk. This should include: universal access to safe, modern contraceptive methods, including emergency contraception; humanist, non-religious sex education; access to safe, legal abortion with high quality of care; and suitable social and structural conditions for motherhood that is voluntary, protected and enjoyable, when we choose to become mothers.

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"Only in this way will we ensure respect for the rights enshrined in the international human rights system and in the historic agreements reached at the Cairo and Beijing conferences. In the same way, the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, especially those concerning the empowerment of women, gender equity and the drama of maternal mortality, which continues even today in the first decade of the 21st century.

"While abortion continues to be a crime in most countries of the region, we are encouraged by seeing some major advances towards the recognition of women's right to sexual and reproductive freedom. The most recent of these was in Mexico's Federal District, where the Supreme Court recently backed a new law allowing Legal Interruption [Termination] of Pregnancy during the first trimester. And in 2006, the Constitutional Court of Colombia liberalized legislation to allow abortion when the woman's life or health is at risk, in cases of rape, and for serious fetal malformations. This shows some of the victories in women's historic demand for voluntary motherhood as a human sexual and reproductive right."

Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network, LACWHN

Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir Regional Network

September 28 Campaign for the Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean

Campaign for the Inter-American Convention of Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights

MARCOSUR Feminist Coalition

Gender and Health Network of the Asociacion Latino-americana de Medicina Social, ALAMES

Red Feminista Latinoamericana y del Caribe por una Vida sin Violencia para las Mujeres, REDFEM

Consorcio Latinoamericano contra el Aborto Inseguro, CLACAI

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