Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-274"
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"en.20030212.9.3-274"2
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"Mr President, I would firstly like to congratulate Mrs Sandbæk on her work and secondly I would like to express my indignation and condemn the harassment which the Members who have supported this report from the outset have once again been subjected to.
In recent days we have once again suffered – as also happened during the committee procedure and as also happened in this House in the case of the Van Lancker report – the bombardment of our e-mail systems with messages which have always been threatening, aggressive, laden with insults and furthermore always, without exception, lacking in arguments or a rigorous analysis of the content of the report, which is solely attributed with the aim of imposing mass sterilisations, and I will read out a fragment of an e-mail I have received: 'If this report is approved, the European Union would become one of the major promoters of abortion and the culture of death, and its approval would mean accepting the annihilation of the poor'.
Accusing this Parliament of wanting to annihilate the poor leads me at least to entirely reject the content of such positions and virulent expressions which attempt to conceal a complete lack of arguments, because these groups who harass us and who claim to be pro-life, resorting to their religious convictions, are the ones who condemn poor women to the illness and death resulting from their reproductive role.
In order to explain the true significance and importance of approving this report it is necessary to highlight certain crucial aspects. On the one hand, the importance of women as the main promoters of health, and on the other, the ratification – as has already been said – of the idea that there can be no social development without a healthy society and that the health of women is directly related to their reproductive role.
Currently, 20% of the world’s population is at the reproductive stage of their lives and it is therefore crucial that information on their sexuality and their reproductive capacity is available, in order to ensure that that population is protected from unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases. By ignoring the reproductive rights of women and denying them the power to chose, we are condemning them, their families and the communities they live in to illness and poverty, because we must not forget that health is undoubtedly a decisive element in the fight against poverty, a fight which the European Union advocates and is committed to.
That commitment – made many years ago by the international community – must be reinforced at this time when we are faced with a cut in the funds allocated to sexual and reproductive health by certain governments which take a false and hypocritically moral approach to life. It is not possible to be in favour of life and then deny women in developing countries their right to information and to controlling their sexuality and reproductive capacity. In the developing countries female mortality relating to pregnancy and childbirth is 33 times greater than that in the industrialised countries.
Reproductive health services are included amongst the indicators selected for evaluating the millennium development objectives. Improvements in reproductive health lead to lower pregnancy rates and reduction in dependency. Bad health leads to higher pregnancy rates and condemns families to poverty.
In 2015 there will be 742 million people requiring sexual and reproductive health services or supplies. Control of their sexuality is a woman’s right, but this is only recognised in the rich countries. The illnesses and consequences which women in the poor countries suffer principally originate from their reproductive role. Feminine health is an essential element if the poor countries are to make progress."@en1
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