Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-262"
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"en.20030212.9.3-262"2
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". – First of all, I would like to thank the two shadow rapporteurs, Mrs Martens and Mrs Sauquillo, for their great cooperation. I would also like to thank the Commission, the Council and the secretariat.
You cannot fight poverty without sexual and reproductive health care. I am very happy that we have raised the amount, in comparison with the last regulation. I am very pleased that we have now secured the consensus reached so painstakingly at the UN Conference in Cairo and which is soon to have its 10th anniversary. We will soon be at Cairo+10, and this is therefore a very important signal: we back the Cairo consensus here in Europe, here in the European Parliament.
This regulation replaces a former one that expired in December last year. It was necessary to try to get this regulation adopted at first reading. Without the cooperation of all these actors this would not have been possible. For the same reason, it is only necessary to adopt those amendments that have been agreed upon among these actors. This is, as Commissioner Nielson mentioned, a very important regulation. Every minute of every day, 380 women become pregnant. Of them, one woman dies. One hundred and ninety women have unwanted pregnancies; 110 women face a pregnancy-related problem; 40 women have unsafe abortions.
It is a fact that pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death and disability for women in the developing countries. Every year 600 000 women die as a direct result of getting pregnant. An estimated 30% to 40% more are left with serious complications. This is appalling, especially since at least 75% of all deaths and injuries could be prevented through basic and affordable reproductive health care measures.
This is what reproductive health care and rights are all about - saving women's lives. This regulation is about providing women in the developing countries with access to the most basic services – those services which we take for granted – and also, where it is legal, to include in these services the choice of a safe abortion.
The regulation specifically underlines that abortion should never be used as a means of contraception. The regulation also emphasises that everything possible should be done to avoid abortions. In fact, it has been proved that in those countries where reproductive health care was introduced, the abortion rate dropped by 25% immediately. This has, for instance, been the case in Russia.
A lot of allegations have been made against this report. There has been misinformation, confusing information, unacceptable information and misleading information, such as the statement that, for instance, in the US the teaching of abstinence only has resulted in the decline of teenage pregnancies whereas, on the contrary, it has been proved that good sex education, information and counselling have reduced teenage pregnancies. It has been implied that this regulation could leave the door open to use abortion as a means of contraception or even birth control. It has even been implied that this regulation would be used to keep down the number of the poor. The use of condoms has been compared to playing Russian roulette. Those are just a few examples of what this regulation has been accused of.
All of this is obviously completely untrue. The Commissioner has already mentioned that this is a follow-up to the Cairo programme which was signed by all of our Member States, and that is exactly so. Moreover, it has become a very balanced report. It puts a lot of emphasis on education. It puts a lot of emphasis on counselling.
who reads this report can doubt that it never recommends abortion. On the contrary, it says that everything should be done to avoid abortion, but if a woman in a developing country has an unwanted pregnancy she should not be deprived of the right to a safe abortion, a right which we have in our part of the world. We cannot leave a woman in the Third World to die because she has an unwanted pregnancy. That would be immoral.
I have been travelling extensively in Africa. Wherever I have travelled I have visited small clinics for reproductive health and rights. These clinics are the only place people can go to be tested for HIV-AIDS. When they come with their children they are treated for all kinds of other diseases as well: if they have malaria, then the malaria is treated. It is extremely important to have centres for reproductive health and rights.
The HIV-AIDS issue is one of the reasons why we have asked to have the amount of money raised compared to the last regulation. It is very important that a woman can be tested to see whether she is HIV positive. It is very important that a woman can have counselling as to how she can protect herself against HIV-AIDS."@en1
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"Nobody"1
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