I think many people would feel humbled and awed by their first experience in Africa.  I recently accompanied Women on Waves to Tanzania to film their most recent informational campaign, and was left without words adequate enough to describe what I witnessed.  (Good thing I was there with a camera!) The radical efforts of these volunteers and the local activists they work with is, for me, beyond inspiring.  I attempted to recount some of it in an article published today in the Huffington Post:

The East African participants

Under the shade of a tin roof, amidst the household sounds of chickens, fussing babies, and chai being served, a group of 60 eastern African men and women took turns role playing the plight of women desperately seeking abortion. They were participants in a “Training of Trainers” conference convened by a small NGO in rural Tanzania and the Dutch reproductive rights NGO Women on Waves…

Read more here

Pictures by Cedric Zoenen

WoW volunteer Cecilia helps lead the conference

Tanzanian and Congolese activists

Tanzanian children play with Women on Waves stickers

A young supporter of women's rights

Women’s Health Week, Vanderbilt

Students associated with Medical Students for Choice at Vanderbilt U. in Nashville are keeping up the good fight with their Womens Health Week. Check out what they are up to here.  I was invited to give a presentation and screening of Vessel footage, and was warmly welcomed by an impressive group of thoughful, enthusiastic, inquisitive students.  Once again, I’m amazed at the ability of these students – so often associated with MSFC – to be so active in the movements WHILE in medical school.  Thanks to all involved!

The Dire State of Abortion in Tanzania

Vessel is hitting Tanzania now, for Women on Waves’s first trip to Africa. So what’s going on in Tanzania?

A woman who sought care after a botched abortion. Photo courtesy of the NYTimes

The New York Times did an extensive report on the dire situation of women seeking abortions there this past June, bringing to light the horrors of a system where basic health care is hard to come by and where abortion is criminally illegal.

Worldwide, there are 19 million unsafe abortions a year, and they kill 70,000 women (accounting for 13 percent of maternal deaths), mostly in poor countries like Tanzania where abortion is illegal, according to the World Health Organization. More than two million women a year suffer serious complications. According to Unicef, unsafe abortions cause 4 percent of deaths among pregnant women in Africa, 6 percent in Asia and 12 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Reliable figures on abortion in Tanzania are hard to come by, but the World Health Organization reports that its region, Eastern Africa, has the world’s second-highest rate of unsafe abortions (only South America is higher). And Africa as a whole has the highest proportion of teenagers — 25 percent — among women having unsafe abortions.

AND

Pregnancy and childbirth are among the greatest dangers that women face in Africa, which has the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality — at least 100 times those in developed countries. Abortion accounts for a significant part of the death toll.

Maternal mortality is high in Tanzania: for every 100,000 births, 950 women die. In the United States, the figure is 11, and it is even lower in other developed countries. But Tanzania’s record is neither the best nor the worst in Africa. Many other countries have similar statistics; quite a few do better and a handful do markedly worse.

In addition, according to a UN report:

In the late 1990s, the cumulative impact of HIV/AIDS, the influx of Rwandan refugees, the burden of debt servicing and deteriorating socio-economic conditions resulted in a general deterioration of the sexual and reproductive health of women and adolescents. Illegal abortion and maternal mortality as a result of complications from abortion are reportedly on the rise.

Reducing maternal mortality seems to be getting some attention there, with recent projects increasing access to post-abortion care (ostensibly for  “spontaneous abortions,” or miscarriages) and discussion around misoprostol as a potential aid in finishing botched abortions under discussion. Yet the dissonance between allowing women to access safe and legal abortion and the cost in lives, not to mention medical costs, of keeping abortion criminal, remains.

Stay tuned for more from the ground from Diana, who is there filming now.

Vessel in the Blogs!

Pamela Cohn writes the fantastic blog Still in Motion, and has recently chosen to follow a few selected documentary projects she finds promising and exciting that have yet to catch the eye of larger foundations and distributors.  In her words, “It gives me pleasure to celebrate this kind of  independent filmmaker and showcase the foolhardy bravery on display to keep moving forward, despite odds stacked so high even Sisyphus is intimidated and calls it a day.”

Though there are indeed days when independent doc production about international abortion pirates feels like a cracked out, labyrinthine Fitzcarraldo, articles like Pamela’s, here, are a gentle reassurance that the film is solidly on its way.

Vessel in the News!

Check out this article about Women on Waves and Vessel in Radio Netherlands Worldwide, with a brief interview with Diana!

Or for the full article in Spanish, look here.

Happy 10th Anniversary Women on Waves!

It was standing room only at the Anniversary party for Women on Waves last friday evening. Ten years of volunteers, donors, supporters and friends gathered to celebrate, reminisce, and rally for the next ten years of courageous and dedicated work for reproductive justice. It was super exciting for the Vessel team to present a short edit of footage from the developing film to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience, who all agreed that this film must reach audiences. Congratulations to Women on Waves, and thank you for the work that you do.

Rebecca addressing the crowd

Diana presenting Vessel footage

Response to Article about the Decline in Abortion Providers

Washington Post just covered the  decline in abortion providers due to the intimidation by the extreme right. According to WaPo:

Thirty-six years after it was legalized, abortion remains one of the most common procedures in American medicine — and the most stigmatized. In 2005, 1.2 million abortions were performed, dwarfing the number of appendectomies (341,000), gallbladder removals (398,000) and hysterectomies (575,000). “There’s this feeling it’s dirty and should not be spoken about,” said Miller. “It’s hard to be brave and seek everything out yourself.”

Her soul-searching underscores a long-standing problem some reproductive health experts say is worsening: a shortage of physicians willing to perform abortions. Although nearly one-third of American women will have an abortion by age 45, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a respected New York research organization, the number of abortion providers dropped from 2,908 in 1982 to 1,787 in 2005. Eighty-seven percent of counties in the United States and 31 percent of metropolitan areas have no abortion services.

Salon’s Tracy Clark-Flory responded deploring the scare tactics of radical extremist anti-choice groups.

It seems medical students aren’t so keen on the idea of spending their entire career wearing a bullet proof vest, being targeted with bombs and arson, having their loved ones lives’ threatened and having their mug displayed around town on homemade wanted posters. Of course, that is exactly the aim of such activists. Not only do they want to frighten women out of obtaining abortions, they also want to intimidate physicians out of the line of work altogether.

There are a lot of factors that are discouraging medical students from learning about abortion – the set-up of medical schools, where learning this simple procedure is deemed elective; the increasing specialization of doctors and decrease in general practitioners, and the political environment are only some of the factors influencing individual choice. But is a doctor with 8-10 years of education necessary for abortion, one of the simplest surgical procedures and the second-most common outpatient procedure? My response that I posted to the Salon letters after the jump.

Diana and Anita write on the Dutch law’s effect on Women On Waves, in Huffington Post

Rebecca spoke to Diana about her reaction to the debacle with the Dutch Pregnancy  Termination Act, which has been changed to regulate pregnancies under 6 weeks. As we know, this means that Women On Waves has canceled its upcoming campaigns, and  Rebecca is rallying to reverse this change. Read more here.

Hotline launched in Buenos Aires

from the Women on Waves website:

At 5pm, over 100 people gathered in the Archibraso Cultural Center for the presentation of the safe abortion hotline, “Abortion: More Information, Less risk.” The hotline was presented by a spokesperson, who spoke about the need for the hotline and situation of abortion in Argentina. Other panelists spoke about the legal and medical aspects of the hotline, and there was a question and answer session afterward.

From the press conference, the attendees headed to the streets to meet up with the other activists that were already occupying a central corner in downtown Buenos Aires. From there, the crowd took to the street, marching to the congressional plaza. There were at least 200 people in the march, representing groups that form part of the national movement to decriminalize abortion, as well as individuals who came out to support. There were banners, drummers, and a truck with a sound system. People were sticking stickers with the hotline number, and painting stencils and grafitti.

And in the true spirit of Argentine activism, someone brought 500 homemade empanadas to feed the crowd!

Rebecca’s Last Stand? And What Does She Stand For? Blogs debate…

Women On Waves’ recent announcement that they’re cancelling upcoming campaigns due to a new Dutch law has sparked discussion across various blogs. The law, which limits distribution of the abortion medications to only licensed clinics, not only prevents Women on Waves’ work but also stops general practitioners from being involved in abortion services.

Salon doesn’t quite get it – Judy Berman says:

While I imagine Gomperts has saved the lives of many women who would otherwise have resorted to unsafe abortion methods, I (and others) worry that these shipboard examinations may not leave women adequate time to explore their options and receive follow-up care in the event of complications from a medical abortion.

Gomperts has saved the lives of a handful of women directly – but has brought awareness to the plight of women seeking safe and affordable access to abortions and helped change laws in the process. Also — what other options is Judy talking about? “Doctors” that charge 1000s of dollars and offer no follow-up care? Dangerous methods like the infamous coathanger? Having a baby without the social and economic support to raise it?

Jezebel points out their work with Women on Web, and takes the time to understand the issue a  little more deeply:

Gomperts, however, hasn’t simply given up. She’s involved with a new organization called Women on Web, which operates in Canada and under Canadian law and uses online interviews to prescribe the abortion pill to women all over the world who otherwise lack access to it. She tells The Independent:

Dr Gomperts is also involved in another organisation, the Canadian-registered Women on Web, which makes abortion pills available by mail – sometimes for free – to women in countries where it is illegal. A doctor asks 25 questions over the internet to check for counter-indications. The pills are then sent in a plain envelope.

“For many women this is huge progress,” Dr Gomperts said. “Women in countries where abortion is illegal live under tremendous stress. They go to unreliable websites where they are offered fake pills. There is also a [Women on Web] help desk where women can talk about their worries. There are no taboos online; there is no shame to talk.”

Online counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals — especially from companies pretending to be in Canada — is a big problem, as some (one could even say most) often don’t contain the advertised active ingredients. Both of Gomperts’ sites warn women about the problems with buying counterfeit pills.

Thanks, Jezebel, for sharing useful information – I hope that this info gets to women who need it the world over.

And finally, from the NRC Handelsblad interview, a quote from Rebecca about the broader impact of this law:

“We had planned to campaign this year with a yacht off the coasts of Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Our legal system states that what is allowed under Dutch law is also allowed in international waters. So women boarding our ship did not have to fear prosecution. Now they risk prosecution in their own country if the Dutch health inspection rules that we are working outside the law. That’s a risk we couldn’t take, so we had to call off the campaign.”

The fear of prosecution is just one of the many barriers faced by women seeking abortions where it is illegal. Women on Waves offered protection from prosecution, as well as safe and affordable access. And the main point, which Salon missed, is this (also from NRC interview):

“Our only real strategy is letting women know that there is such a thing as the abortion pill. They have to know that there is medication available for pregnancy termination.”

By making Women on Waves’ work illegal, the Dutch government is preventing thousands of women around the world from learning that there is an alternative to the illegal, potentially life-threatening, and often costly procedures that hide in the shadows when abortion is illegal.