In September 2012, Irish medical doctors came together to present cutting-edge research and diverse opinions on maternal healthcare. One of the conclusions from the Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare was this – “As experienced practitioners and researchers in Obstetrics and Gynecology, we affirm that direct abortion is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.” On October 28, 2012, Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman living in Galway, Ireland, died of septicemia after having been denied a potentially life-saving abortion for three excruciatingly agonizing days at the University Hospital in Galway.

On October 21, when Savita, who was 17-weeks pregnant, was admitted to the hospital, she was in agony. She had suffered a miscarriage and accepted that she was going to lose her precious baby – a baby that her family back home had yearned for. But fighting through her pain and her grief, Savita requested for an induced abortion, which was refused outright.

“This is a Catholic country. As long as there is a fetal heartbeat, we can’t do anything,” the Irish doctors told her and her husband, Praveen Halappanavar. For three days, Praveen was caught in a desperately futile struggle to convince the doctors to proceed with terminating the pregnancy, as his wife’s health deteriorated with every passing minute. “I am neither Irish nor Catholic,” was Savita’s last plea. The fetus died two days later and a couple of days later, Savita’s heart, liver, and kidneys stopped working. She died because of blood poisoning that may have been reversed had she been allowed to undergo the abortion. Savita’s death sparked global debate over legalizing abortion in Ireland and outrage among thousands of men and women across the world.

Despite a 1992 ruling by the Supreme Court that permitted abortion in the case of a “real and substantive risk” to the mother’s life, Irish governments since then have been reluctant to legalize abortion in a country where 80% of the population is Catholic. Even though the European Court of Human Rights had ruled that the inadequate access to abortions in Ireland – resulting in most Irish women seeking medical termination of their pregnancies, travelling to Britain – for life-threatening pregnancies violated the European Union Law, there is still a lack of legislative detail in Irish law, making abortions a controversial issue. Medical practitioners are unclear on the guidelines and therefore refuse to carry out medical termination.

Carrying out an abortion, however, is not an easy choice even for the mother. Savita Halappanavar wanted to keep her baby but she knew that her body would not permit her to. Savita, like most women, faced the dilemma of her baby’s life and her own conscience. In her case, she had made the right decision by choosing to end her pregnancy.

But Nima Purohit, a lawyer in India, probably still wonders whether she made the right decision. 19-weeks into her pregnancy and Nima’s doctors informed her that her little one had Dandy-Walker Syndrome, a congenital disease that would have serious implications. Since 20-week limit for an abortion was fast approaching, Nima underwent an amniocentesis test, but had her pregnancy terminated. After the abortion, she was still waiting for the amniocentesis test results hoping that she had made the right decision.

Nima made a choice between her child’s quality of life and her own conscience as a mother. One cannot say that she made a wrong decision. Abortions are legal in India, a religious and secular country. Yet, the choice for an abortion is in the hands of a woman. Legalizing abortions can put an end to unsafe abortions but many Indians are still unaware of the risks involved in unsafe abortions. Anti-abortion groups are calling for liberalization of the abortion laws in Ireland. Losing one life, that of the fetus, is better than losing two lives.

The choice of life and conscience may remain a debatable topic; however, religion cannot triumph over a woman’s right to live. Religion will not be able to explain to a child why he lives each day with a genetic abnormality or mental retardation. In some situations, abortions are a desperate need for survival. Law makers and governments have to accept this hard truth. Savita lost out on her abortion rights. She lost a painful battle to religious fanaticism. But, for the other Savitas in the world, radical change and constitutional reform is needed.

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This is part 2 of an interview with feminist leader and professor Gulhan Balsoy.

Turkey has recently been plagued by a series of protests, after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government and party– the AKP Party– would push through a bill that would ban abortion after the first 4-6 weeks of pregnancy; this is a significant limitation from the original ten weeks that has been allowed in Turkey since 1983.

One woman and feminist, Gulhan Balsoy, a professor and historian of reproductive rights in the mid to late nineteenth century, spoke to Toonari Post about this ban, as well as the movement that has emerged to reject it.

Several protests have already occurred on June 3 and June 8, but the largest one yet happened June 17. These protests have occurred across the country and have been coordinated between the largest cities including Ankara (the capital), Eskisehir, and Istanbul. Balsoy stated, “Many young and old women were in the protests,” and these women were not only from feminist groups, but they were average Turkish citizens as well.

A protest was also arranged by a male group for women’s rights, called Irritated Men, although they protested independently of the other feminist groups. Balsoy discussed Irritated Men saying, “It is good to see some men support as well.”

According to Balsoy, the first protest resulted in police violence against the protesters, and several women being taken into custody. Since then the protests have grown in size and have been peaceful.

Balsoy, like many other women in Turkey, feels that there is no reasonable debate, stating, “Women haven’t seen any real ethical discussion.” She pointed out that the comments from government officials have been inflammatory at best and insulting at worst. The Health Minister Recep Akdag claimed that if a woman is raped and she does not want the child the government will take care of the child. Another example she gave was the comments of Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek who stated that if a woman is raped the child should not be aborted but the woman herself should be killed. Balsoy calmly stated, “We are offended, actually.” Many women can understand why.

Balsoy explains that there are so many different policies that the government could support to increase the population that would not involve banning abortion. She suggested that the government start by providing more funding for programs such as day care centers. She also added that the abortion rates in the country have been falling since 2008.

Balsoy has stated that the AKP Party has enough chairs in Parliament to pass the law. In fact, the Parliament’s summer break start date has been pushed back to July 19 which Balsoy believes may be so that the government can push through the law as the last act of this session. The main opposition party is not saying a lot about the issue. “They [the opposition party] act like nothing is happening. They are pretty much indifferent to the protest,” Balsoy stated. There are some members of government who are opposing the law, some even within the AKP Party, but not enough. Balsoy stated, “[The law passing] is the the worst scenario I can imagine right now.”

Balsoy stated that even if the law is passed the protests will continue and abortions will also probably continue,“Throughout all of human history women have had abortions.”

The ban has not gained much popular support. Only some conservatives are supporting the government, but weakly, and Balsoy claims that “people who support the government’s position are not bringing something new to the conversation.” As Balsoy pointed out, even if a woman is a conservative that does not mean that she will want to be only a mother her whole life. One Turkish newspaper, HaberTurk, reported that 55.5 percent of Turkish citizens oppose the law. Balsoy also claims that the popularity of the AKP Party is falling and that Erdogan has already announced that he will not be running for reelection.

Recently the protest groups have filed a petition with the government with 55,000 signatures and support from 900 organizations that are against the abortion ban.

According to Balsoy Health Minister Akdag has been talking about finding a middle ground. “[He says that] if a baby is going to have a health problem there could be an abortion. But this could be a problem too because people could know they are going to have a handicap child and still want to keep the child.”

Balsoy wants to make clear the message that the Turkish citizens and feminists are trying to get across. “Feminists think that abortion is a right and we are not negotiating this right with anybody… this is our right. It’s about our right to live and to make choices about our lives.”

Image Courtesy of  Gulhan Balsoy

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Turkey has recently been plagued by a series of protests after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government and party– the AKP Party– would push through a bill that would ban abortion after the first 4-6 weeks of pregnancy. This is a significant limitation from the original ten weeks that has been allowed in Turkey since 1983.

One woman and feminist, Gulhan Balsoy, a professor and historian of reproductive rights in the mid to late nineteenth century, spoke to Toonari Post about this ban, as well as the movement that has emerged to reject it.

Professor Balsoy explained that the debate about women’s rights and abortion rights began three years ago, when Prime Minister Erdogan declared that women should have at least three children; he later changed this number to more than three. Balsoy claimed that women protested because they did not want to be viewed as only mothers and wanted to have control over their bodies. Balsoy also stated that the protests were caused because “Prime Minister Erdogan has said several times that he does not believe in the equality of men and women.”

In addition to these women’s rights violations, Balsoy pointed out that the mandatory education of girls in Turkey is eight years, but with many questioning the policies and enforcement within Turkey. Some girls are only receiving four years, especially in the remote regions of Turkey.

Women across Turkey have also engaged in a photography campaign that advertises the sentiment “My body belongs to me.” The campaign, which features women– and men– supporting their partners, tells the government that their body is theirs and that the government cannot interfere with it.

“He wants to see women as mothers, just raising their children at home… even many conservatives do not accept that position,” Balsoy claimed. She later stated, “None of those men [from the AKP Party] have thought about abortion for a second.”

Erdogan wants to ban abortions and c-sections, in order to generate a larger population in Turkey that will propel the country into the top economies in the world. However, Balsoy challenges Erdogan’s claims about the shrinking population in Turkey stating, “His claims cannot be supported by numbers.” Although Erdogan has claimed that Turkey’s population is shrinking, the rate of growth is what has been shrinking, according to Balsoy.

Balsoy stated that previous to Erdogan’s announcement, women wanted the deadline for abortion to actually be extended to twelve weeks, so there was much outrage when Erdogan’s proposal limited it to four.

Erdogan is also trying to punish the use of c-sections because women who elect to have a c-section are usually only able to have two children. Balsoy admits that c-sections are happening more and more seemingly more than normal births; however, she also stated, “The government should not tell us how to give birth to our children.”

Instead, Balsoy believes that there are other policies and methods that the government could use to encourage natural births. Prior to the announcements from Erdogan, midwives in Turkey protested because they wanted normal births to be promoted. Instead of helping the midwives and listening to the ideas they had for promoting normal births, the government ignored their protests, according to Balsoy.

Image Courtesy of  Gülhan Balsoy

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David Margulies, author of the book Crisis Management in the Internet Age, notes that Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation’s recent news headlines illustrate how important it is that every organization incorporates a devil’s advocate in their decision making process.

“In any institution, fully vetting proposals by debating the pros and cons leads to better decision making and helps avoid public relations pitfalls,” said David Margulies, author of the book Crisis Management in the Internet Age and president of the Margulies Communications Group. “A devil’s advocate tests an organization’s policies against how an average consumer, customer, donor, voter, regulator or the news media might react.”

The recent controversy surrounding the Komen Foundation illustrates a common problem; the foundation is supervised by a small, closely knit board of directors.  People with similar viewpoints and life experiences tend to reinforce each other’s beliefs or want to avoid disagreement and controversy.

A more diverse board of directors or the presence of a devil’s advocate from outside the foundation’s leadership could have easily identified the fallout from the decision not to grant further support to Planned Parenthood. ”In litigation it is common to stage a mock trial where a defense attorney argues the plaintiff’s side of the case to help find weaknesses in the defense,” said Margulies. “Many organizations neglect this process.”

A complete discussion of the issue would have provided an opportunity to evaluate the likely response from Planned Parenthood supporters, the Foundation’s own donor base and whether the justification for the decision would withstand close scrutiny.

Sometimes the process of utilizing a devil’s advocate leads a decision not to move forward with a controversial initiative.  Other times, it makes sure that the organization has fully evaluated the likely fallout and has developed a communications plan that addresses controversial issues immediately, instead of dealing with negative coverage as it occurs.

Without a communications strategy, organizations often mishandle their public response, and risk having controversies dragged out over an extended period of time.

Image Courtesy of   aceshot1 / Shutterstock.com

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The so-called “personhood amendment” that aims to criminalize abortion by granting rights to unborn fetuses, was rejected by the voters of Mississippi with more than 55% against according to official results.

The vote has pressed the heated issue of abortion to the frontline ahead of the 2012 general elections. Initiative 26 would have recognized embryos in the Bible Belt as “people with full rights and protection under the law” including making abortion illegal and forbidding certain forms of birth control measures, according to AFP — an amendment which would even override cases of rape, incest and medical situations where the pregnant woman would be at risk.

The organization behind the legislation, Personhood USA, is based in Colorado and have been pushing for their initiative to be on the 2012 ballot for Florida, Montana, Ohio, Nevada and California, wrote NPR.org. One of the co-founders, Keith Mason, commented on the groups failure on Tuesday: “ It’s not because the people are not pro-life. It’s because Planned Parenthood put a lot of misconceptions and lies in front of folks and created a lot of confusion.”

Meanwhile, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, Nancy Northup has called ’26’ an “extreme, dangerous and direct assault” on abortion rights. AFP reports that the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy has been law in the US since the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade.

One supporter, Regina Madison, told reporters outside the Jackson polling station “This is the first step for a national fight: abortion would not be legal in this country.”

In a statement by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, they said:

Mississippi voters rejected the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment because they understood it is government gone too far, and would have allowed government to have control over personal decisions that should be left up to a woman, her family, her doctor and her faith, including keeping a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy from getting the care she needs, and criminalizing everything from abortion to common forms of birth control such as the pill and the IUD.

Felicia Brown-Williams from the Mississippi for Healthy Families Campaign told the CNN, “I think voters rejected a measure they understood to be dangerous [...] They really tried to manipulate values around faith and family.”

Despite the rejection, the supporters of Personhood USA are adamant to continue their cause. “We accomplished our mission to be a voice for the voiceless who have no one else speaking for them,” said Mason to CNN. “I want to make a commitment that we will stand with Mississippi until all humans are treated as persons.”

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