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Marked with negations, advances and regressions, the situation of sexual and reproductive rights in the Mediterranean region is quite worrying especially on the southern shore: as pointed out by the RAWSA MENA network to which we are dedicating an article, only Tunisia authorizes safe abortion. This explains why at the regional level, many women die each year as a result of complications in countries where abortion is prohibited.
The testimonies of young Algerian students collected by Ghania Khelifi remind us of the cruelty, loneliness experienced by women and the risks they run when they have to fend for themselves to terminate their unwanted pregnancies in an illegal way.
While the voluntary interruption of pregnancy is widely authorized in southern Europe, it is still prohibited and severely penalized in several countries including Malta where, as Helena Grech writes, the law criminalizes both women and doctors.
On the other hand, in Italy where abortion has been legal since 1978, an increasing number of gynecologists are asserting the conscience clause to legitimize their refusal to practice it. Thus, the national average of conscientious objectors reaches 70% as reports Monica Lanfranco in her article.
The scenario is even worse in Turkey. Although abortion has been legal since 1983, its access is fraught with pitfalls. “When activists from the women’s shelter Purple Roof called public hospitals in Istanbul in 2015 to ask if they carry out abortions, less than a tenth responded positively,” writes Övgü Pinar. Besides, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has himself proclaimed loud and clear that he believes that “Abortion is murder.”
The application of sexual and reproductive rights is never neutral, states Lebanese journalist Caline Nasrallah. In her article “Show me how you care: Birth control, is it (a) right?” she questions the government’s discriminatory use of birth control to limit births among stigmatized and oppressed groups such as Palestinians, Syrians and migrant workers. Conversely, safe abortion is absolutely prohibited for Lebanese women.
More generally, Federica Araco demonstrates how patriarchal logics shape mentalities and behavior towards women who choose not to procreate. Referring to several edifying examples, she explains how those who do not have a child are faced with a largely internalized social disapproval.
The right of women to dispose of their bodies would therefore mean, for each and every one of us, having a fulfilling sexuality, controlling fertility thanks to easy access to various contraceptive methods, and, when the time comes -and if we make the choice- experiencing a safe and harmonious pregnancy and childbirth while benefiting from support and respectful care.
Yet, as Lina Asif states in her report on rural midwives in Morocco, remoteness to urban centers still too often exposes pregnant women to isolation and to risks that could be avoided if the profession of midwives was better recognized and valued.
Obstetric violence is also at the core of this issue. In Egypt, Marianne Roux analyses the exponential and unjustified increase in the practice of Caesarean sections across the country. A phenomenon that is also expanding in Italy, where 1 in 3 women gives birth by caesarean section. Our journalist also explains how Italian women organize themselves to denounce the ill treatment they suffer during labor.
Lastly, Rama Youssef reminds us that no reproductive health in Palestine is possible without the responsible participation of men. Their ignorance of the great metamorphoses that women experience in their bodies and psyches throughout their lives is a fact that only solid sex education programs can counteract.
A message that is undoubtedly relevant to the rest of the world where the female body and its reproductive power remain major issues.
