September 28 – International Day of Access to Safe Abortion will be marked by a public demonstration that will take place from 5:30 p.m. in front of the Ministry of Health. A similar demonstration will take place simultaneously in Iași, in front of the Prefecture.

Access to abortion on demand has worsened dramatically in Romania in recent years. In many counties, abortion on demand cannot be performed in state hospitals, and in private medical units this service is only available at exorbitant amounts. Restricting access to abortion does not reduce the number of abortions, it only endangers the physical and mental health of pregnant women and children. We ask the Ministry of Health to take measures to ensure free and free access to safe abortion in public hospitals.

At the same time, most gynecological services are expensive and difficult to access, and gynecological and obstetric violence and humiliating treatments in maternity hospitals affect many people. Reproductive rights include: pregnancy terminations, stopping sterilizations without consent, contraception, family planning, gynecological tests and analyzes and for pregnancy monitoring, hormone replacement therapy. In this context, we ask the authorities to ensure all public reproductive and sexual health services from public funds.

In terms of prevention, there is a need for sex education and correct information in schools, in institutions, at workplaces, in the family. Sex education teaches us about our bodies, consent, relationships, sexual violence, contraception, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, reproductive rights. These things are vital, but the Orthodox Church, neo-Protestant and pro-life organizations oppose sex education and abortion, misinform and manipulate with premeditation and huge funding. In the context of the massive funding of the anti-choice movement by conservative groups, public institutions have a duty more than ever to defend the functioning of public reproductive and sexual health services.

We want conservative ideologies and private interests to stop interfering with sexual and reproductive health!

We don't want more private clinics, we demand public hospitals with quality services! Public health services are the only ones that can ensure universal, free and safe access for everyone, so we believe that privatization is not in our collective and public health interest.

Last but not least, we want to be treated regardless of ethnicity, language, social status, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, income and residence. We demand the appropriate training of medical personnel, from public funds.

On International Safe Abortion Day, we're going out into the streets together!

We call for the guarantee of access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, age-appropriate and evidence-based sexuality and relationship education, including family planning, contraceptive methods and abortion, and respect for each person's autonomy and ability to make informed decisions cause over their bodies and lives, with the necessary support to achieve gender, social and economic equality.

We are deeply concerned that bans and other procedural restrictions on abortion disproportionately affect feminized and impoverished bodies, particularly racialized bodies, including refugees, Roma, LGBTIA+ as well as rural, disabled, adolescent , migrants, including those considered illegal, as well as those from single-parent families.

It is important that all social groups mentioned above participate in the formulation of laws and public policies that affect them, including regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially abortion. We demand justice and redress when their rights are violated, when they are harmed by the lack of universal access to health care and their needs are not met.

We emphasize that one effect of successive capitalist crises, neoliberal policies and wars is the prohibitive costs of care services. Thus, people who have to pay for an abortion or travel long distances to gynecological offices in the nearest cities or countries, sometimes tens or hundreds of km away, are exposed to a greater risk of undergoing procedures unsafe and life-threatening or, in the absence of alternatives, end up being forced to carry the unwanted pregnancy to term.

We call on the Government and other relevant authorities to respect human rights, including the right to life, privacy, health, equality and non-discrimination, freedom from violence, torture or inhuman and degrading treatment by establishing and supporting legal protections for access to free and safe sexual health services and high-quality reproductive health, including universal access to abortion.

We call on the Government and other relevant authorities to regulate refusals to provide legal abortion services by medical providers, including on religious grounds, in a manner that does not in any way restrict access to services. We ask all public hospitals to guarantee access to termination of pregnancy procedures, upon request, as provided by the legal framework in Romania.

We call on state institutions to guarantee sexual and reproductive rights, including universal access to safe, free and legal abortion, to work to ensure that abortion and contraception are integrated into service provision and are accessible to all without discrimination , harassment, coercion, fear or intimidation, with due respect for their privacy and confidentiality, with protection and respect from health care providers.

 

Feminist collective Thank you for Flowers