Each year, International Safe Abortion Day calls for access to safe and legal abortion. It emerged from the Latin American and Caribbean feminist women’s movement that mobilised across the continent to decriminalise abortion, demand safe and accessible abortion care, and shift away from stigma.
This year’s 28 September campaign takes place in a context of intense political pressure from rising fascist forces and powerful anti-rights groups who continue to contest reproductive freedoms around the world and to weaken access to abortion care. Many countries around the world still criminalise abortion, and globally approximately 45% of all abortions are unsafe, with refugees, low-income and young women most at risk.
With civic space and democracy under attack, social movements face an increasingly hostile environment to advance their demands for free, safe and legal abortion. Ultra-conservative discourses rooted in colonial, religious and nationalist frames around “family values” are poisoning the public debate further, fuelling reactionary politics. At the same time, online manosphere influencers are spreading regressive ideologies through fear-based narratives around demographic decline and falling birthrates, popularising pro-natalist ideas. This is part of a systematic effort to reassert patriarchal control over sexuality and reproduction.
Get Involved
Our Words To Win campaign is designed to empower Member Associations, advocates, activists, and partners with language that wins hearts, shifts narratives, and defends sexual and reproductive rights.
The campaign is grounded in research led by IPPF on the most effective and winning narratives to mobilize support for sexual rights and counter opposition messaging. Rooted in decades of experience in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy, Words To Win highlights the power of storytelling and framing.
Through compelling, illustrated social media content, it equips people with the messages that work. Feel free to download the assets and share on your social media!
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Abortion Care
Systemic injustice within our health systems deny the most marginalised and vulnerable people access to the compassionate and timely healthcare they need. Reproductive justice is central to access and equity for abortion care - Daile Kelleher CF, Chief Executive Officer, Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia
