For Immediate Release:	May 5, 2004
For More Information:	Merrill Wolf, IPAS, wolfm@ipas.org, 919-960-5612
Sponsor Organization:	Ipsa
US-BASED HEALTH ADVOCATES QUESTION INTERFERENCE IN SOVEREIGN NATION
May 5, 2004 — In a continuing assault on the reproductive rights of women at home and abroad, six extreme anti-choice members of the United States Congress sent a two-page fax to every member of the Uruguayan senate on April 30th, urging them to vote yesterday against a law that would have legalized early abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. In the letter, Congressional members Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Mike Pence (R-IN), Todd Akin (R-MO), Steve King (R-IA), Jo Ann Davis (R-VA) and Joseph Pitts (R-PA) said passing Uruguay’s “Law for the Defense of Reproductive Health” would “legalize the violent murder of unborn children and the exploitation of women through abortion.” “The lobbying efforts of these anti-choice members of Congress interfere with the democratic process in Uruguay by promoting false, ideologically-based propaganda about abortion,” said Elizabeth Maguire, president of Ipas, an international organization which promotes the reproductive health of women worldwide. “Our experience in the United States and around the world clearly shows that safe, legal abortion saves women’s lives, not destroys them.” Despite evidence that very few women in the United States have died due to unsafe abortion since the legalization of abortion through Roe v. Wade, the members of Congress stated that American women “continue to die from legal and lethal abortion, just as they did before our courts legalized the killing of unborn children.” In contrast to the members of Congress, Uruguay’s medical association issued a statement in support of the law legalizing abortion and the woman’s right to choose. Four women’s groups, including Ipas, sent a letter to the Uruguayan senate yesterday which expressed their support for the law. After seven hours of debate, the Uruguayan senate ultimately voted against the proposed law by a vote of 17-13. Two senators mentioned their intent to seek petitions to hold a national referendum on the issue. The toll of unsafe abortion is highest in developing countries where almost all of the 19 million unsafe abortions that take place each year occur. According to the World Health Organization, Latin America has the highest rate of abortion in the world, with an average of one unsafe abortion occurring for every live birth. Abortion is legally permitted in Uruguay only in cases of rape, risk to the mother’s health and fetal malformation. “Our members of Congress ought to be doing everything they can to prevent the deaths of women in Uruguay and elsewhere,” said Maguire. “Instead, they feel compelled to promote policies, such as the Global Gag Rule, which increase unintended pregnancies and endanger women’s lives, as well as to interfere in the sovereign legislative processes of other countries.” # # #