On Wednesday, March 26, political, health and human rights leaders from more than 30 countries issued a declaration, “The Airlie Declaration for Safe Legal Abortion,” calling for the repeal of all criminal abortion laws and universal access to safe legal abortion. The Declaration was the culmination of a two-day meeting, World Leaders Consultation on Safe Legal Abortion, at Airlie Center, Virginia, March 24-25, set against the backdrop of the 20-year review by the United Nations of the Program of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and global debates about the post-2015 development agenda. The Airlie Declaration focuses on the slow progress on improving access to safe abortion since the Cairo conference, drawing attention to estimates that more than 1 million women have died and more than 100 million have suffered injuries – many of them lifelong – due to complications from unsafe abortion. The Declaration calls on governments to “make safe legal abortion universally available and accessible to all women regardless of age, income, or where they live.”

The Airlie Declaration is available online at www.safeabortionpost2015.org

Source: IPAS