Supercop146;s global gag rule

Abortion clinic closures have been reported in Bangladesh and Zambia. This holds serious consequences for poor women who now will not have the choice to get pregnancies medically terminated. Instead, they will be driven to self abortion or seek clandestine clinics run by quacks. The Family Planning Association of India with a countrywide presence has had a one-million US dollar cut in aid from the International Planned Parenthood Federation IPPF which, in turn, receives it from the US government. IPPF is one of the few NGOs that has decided not to comply with the ruling.

Though FPAI will still be able to run its clinics as the state governments fund its clinic work, its activities related to contraceptive procurement and distribution will be affected. The hardest hit will be poor women. India gives its women the choice to go ahead with conception or terminate it in the early weeks. However, the Indian public health system is heavily burdened. Male doctors and lack of privacy in consulting rooms do not instill confidence in a woman. She prefers the local dai, private doctor or quack. Female NGO workers in rural and semi urban areas are often approached by women who seek information on contraception, have a gynecological problem or wish to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Abortion in India as in other developing countries has to be viewed differently than in the US where a large number of unmarried teenage girls become pregnant. In India women who seek MTPs are usually those who do not know about contraceptives or have access to them. But they wish to space their children or after having the number they desire, want to stop having them altogether.

When these women come in for abortions in legally run clinics they are introduced to contraceptives. Susan Cohen of the Alan Guttmacher Institute says the most effective way to reduce abortion rates is to facilitate access to high-quality contraceptive services. But the policy impedes access by prohibiting US family planning assistance from going to hospitals and health clinics that also provide abortions, or even abortion-related information. Repeated abortions harm a woman8217;s health. But when she is denied the abortion choice, she loses even that little control she may have over her body and the decision to have a baby or not. The mental and physical consequences of being forced to carry an unwanted child can be hell for women. Therefore, they take serious risks to their lives, even in countries where abortion is illegal to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

Officially 6,00,000 abortions take place in India, but the real figure could be 10 times higher as most abortions are done by quacks. Thousands of women die from complications arising from botched up abortions. A report by Panos from Chile where abortion is illegal in all circumstances 8212; including rap, incest or even when her life is in danger 8212; shows how women are made to suffer. Nepal, which used to jail its women if they sought an abortion, relaxed its law recently after pressure from women groups and international organisations. However, the signal US policy makers have sent out with the new ruling is that abortion is wrong and should not even be spoken about. It has added to the total helplessness of poor women in the developing world.