Dozens of women have demonstrated in Rabat to claim the revision of laws criminalizing abortion.
Le Monde with afp
Dozens of feminist activists demonstrated on Wednesday September 28 in Rabat to claim the revision of laws criminalizing abortion in Morocco following the death of a teenage girl victim of a clandestine abortion, reported journalists from the ‘AFP.
“Abortion is one of the rights of women”, “The law killed me”, “abortion is a medical care”, “respect my choice”. Before the capital’s parliament, the demonstrators brandished signs denouncing the “liberticide” law which sanctions abortion. “It is essential to review these unfounded laws. Having a child should be a choice!”, Sarah Benmoussa, an activist.
told AFP.
“We are present today because our voices count to make things happen. Every human being must have their body. The laws must be reformed and society will follow!” Pled Khaoula, a journalism student 23 years which participated for the first time in a demonstration. “It is horrible to know that girls die of clandestine abortion,” she deplored.
A Moroccan teenager died in early September following a clandestine abortion in a village in the center of Morocco, causing a shock and the indignation of feminist NGOs and awakening the claims to decriminalize the voluntary termination of pregnancy (Abortion).
from 600 to 800 daily clandestine abortions 2>
The Moroccan law punishes abortion of six months to five years in prison except when the mother’s health is in danger. From 600 to 800 clandestine abortions are practiced every day in Morocco, according to associations militant for its legalization.
“We have been asking the decriminalization of abortion for ten years already. We renew this claim today. The legislator is responsible for this situation and the violence and the difficulties that women endeavor” Explained Fouzia Yassine, from the spring of dignity, a coalition of Moroccan feminist associations.
Morocco was engaged in 2015 in a thorough debate on “the emergency” of a relaxation of its legislation in the face of the scourge of hundreds of clandestine abortions practiced every day, in sometimes disastrous health conditions.
An official commission even had in the process recommended that abortion becomes authorized in “certain cases of force majeure”, in particular in the event of rape or serious malformations of the fetus. But no law has since come to confirm these recommendations ardently supported by women’s rights activists.