What is September 28th Campaign ?
It is a Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion. It has its origin in Latin America and the Caribbean where women’s groups have been mobilizing around this date over the last two decades to demand that their governments decriminalize abortion, provide access to safe and affordable abortion services, and end stigma and discrimination towards women who choose to have an abortion.
Why was this date chosen?
September 28 was chosen in commemoration of the abolition of slavery in Brazil which is now remembered as the day of the “free womb” demanding safe and legal abortion for all women.
In 2012, it was adopted by the International Campaign as the Global Day of Action for Safe and Legal Abortion and became a platform of solidarity with women’s movement across the world.
What happens on this day?
On this day every year, major regional and global SRHR networks, numerous national partners and grassroots activists come together to stand together and make one clear demand – access to affordable, safe and legal abortion now!
What does the Asia Safe Abortion Partnership do?
As co-founders, the Asia Safe Abortion Partnership stands strongly with the mission of the Campaign and has supported our partners by providing technical support, being a source of credible information, and by increasing visibility for their events.
Over the past few years, we have also participated in and helped moderate a Global Tweetathon, as part of a global effort to occupy social media and promote the right to safe abortion widely.
Campaign 2023:
Campaign 2022: #MakeSafeAbortionCertain
This year we focussed on the global theme of ‘Abortion in Uncertain Times’ along with our own perpective, that anyone who needs an abortion is technically facing uncertain times.
We shared quotes from our Youth Champions from Bhutan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam , reflecting their experience as safe abortion rights and SRHR activists, working in certain as well as uncertain times, in their respective countries.
Through these quotes, we can get an idea of the kind of challenges they faced from various aspects, be it from the authorities, lack of enough resources, restrictions on mobility and privacy, systemic gender violence so and so forth.
Despite these roadblocks Youth Champions have worked tirelessly to make sure to the best of their capacity, that access to SRHR and safe abortion services are not hindered, regardless of global pandemics, economic crises, or even in ‘peaceful times’.
Campaign 2021: International Safe Abortion Day
Campaign 2019: Why safe abortion is an absolute necessity.
ASAP in 2019 emphasized why safe abortion is an absolute necessity by talking about 5 developing countries from Asia that even today provide extremely limited or no provision for safe abortion for their citizens, leading to declining health and rights for a large portion of their population.
Having said that it’s important to remember that while country-wise statistics of deaths or complications due to unsafe abortions matter and need to be monitored, it’s equally important for us to zoom in and understand that abortions don’t happen in isolation.
We need to hear these stories and understand that anyone choosing to get an abortion could be doing so for any reason and that should require nobody’s certificate of approval.
Photo Campaigns
As we do every year, the Partnership launched a campaign this year as well to mark September 28th.
This year we launched a photo campaign on 28th September with the themes: #iresistwepersist and #leavenononebehind.
In addition to the photo campaign, ASAP also held an online film festival throughout September where we showcased a series of short films and videos made by ASAP and members, to highlight the difficulties women and girls face in obtaining a safe abortion across our region.
Select images from our previous campaigns can be previewed below, and previous campaigns can be accessed here.