Although unsafe abortion continues to be a leading cause of maternal mortality in many countries in Asia, the right to safe abortion remains highly stigmatized across the region. The Asia Safe Abortion Partnership, a regional network advocating for safe abortion, conducted a research study, led by Shweta Krishnan, that found misconceptions and a dearth of information among key stakeholders as well as limited recognition of the importance of international covenants and the understanding of safe abortion as a right.

ASAP recognized the need to create a self-contained message that could provide essential knowledge about abortion and facilitate conversations around the need to understand a rights-based approach. The idea for creating such a film also grew from the Partnership’s advocacy and capacity-building workshops. In order to increase knowledge about specific barriers to safe abortion through educational materials for its regional advocacy, ASAP funded the making of an animated short film entitled From Unwanted Pregnancy to Safe Abortion.

This film addresses the various barriers to safe abortion that the Partnership and its partner organizations in 20 countries across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East encounter in their everyday work. These countries have extremely diverse abortion laws. While a greater number of safe abortions occur in countries where abortion is legal, abortion stigma and negative attitudes towards abortion can still drive women to unsafe abortion even in these countries.

Additionally, this movie attempts to put a face to the issue and seeks to portray abortion as a personal issue that affects the lives of individual women and girls who collectively constitute the maternal health statistics. It portrays safe abortion as a woman’s right and shows that it has an impact on all subsequent life choices such as education, employment and a woman’s ability to establish her independence. Furthermore, the film aims to show that unsafe abortion is an issue that affects relationships and entire families and is not only a woman’s problem. Thus, the film emphasizes not only the need to empower women as decision-makers, it also stresses the need to build and foster a supportive community as well as the duties of the State towards women.

ASAP’s experience highlights the advantages of using animated films in addressing highly politicized and sensitive issues like abortion. The popularity of the film among ASAP’s youth advocates and the use of the film in subsequent workshops conducted by them shows that the film is able to serve the purpose it was created for.

Click here to read more about the making of this film, its objectives, content, dissemination and how it has been used.