Sexual abuse by doctors, inflated prices charged by providers and high rates of suicide as a result of unwanted pregnancies were just some of the experiences raised by some amazing individuals providing clandestine abortion services around the world.
Providers brought together by the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights related their experiences of working in countries around the world helping to save women's lives in the most difficult of circumstances. We heard anonymous testimonies from practitioners working in the Philippines, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Kenya and Poland.
Each provider encountered and dealt with a different set of barriers - issues of public health, social justice, security, training, lack of public awareness amongst others, but all were united in their commitment.
The most arresting story was that of a Sri Lankan doctor who has spent the last 24 years building a network of clinics in Sri Lanka and providing women with essential access to safe abortion. He described how the pivotal moment for him came in the 1970s when he refused to give an 18 year-old girl an abortion - on legal and religious grounds. The girl attempted to terminate the pregnancy herself, suffered a haemorraghe and died shortly afterwards.
Since then, he has dedicated his life to supporting reproductive rights for women, and the clandestine provision of safe abortion all over Sri Lanka. Country-specific factors he cited as barriers to legal abortion included the influence of the Catholic church, and a public fear of ethnic imbalance - all this against the backdrop of ongoing conflict after decades of civil war and ethnic division.
We heard that in Mexico, estimates of clandestine abortions range between 200,000 and 1million, in Kenya activists are pushing for law reform and greater public awarness, in Costa Rica, over 20% of births are by women under the age of 19, and unreliability of providers is a big problem. Finally, we heard from a Polish provider with an unusual and controversial solution - her initiative Women on Web acts as an online abortion service.
At the end of the session, one of the delegates expressed her gratitude and thanks for the inspiration of the testimonies. In the midst of a huge conference where sweeping policy statements can sometimes distract from the issue, it was important to hear the personal stories from those working on the ground.
