On both sides of the abortion debate, campaigners champion their views

Proponents on both sides of the local abortion debate continued to engage with the community yesterday to set out their views and garner support for their standpoint.

The Pro-Life launched a ‘New Beginnings - Both lives Matter’ campaign during its weekly ‘Nights Watch’ outside No.6 Convent Place.

This campaign is one of the various projects that we are rolling out as part of the general Pro-Life initiative.

“As we have always stated clearly, the Pro-Life Movement is non-judgmental and seeks to ensure that pregnant women facing adversity and those who have undergone abortions are given all due consideration and support,” the group stated.

As part of this process, the “New Beginnings” initiative involves working with women and men who have had experience of abortion, to better understand what led them to this choice, what could have been done in terms of guidance and support which would have allowed them to make an alternative choice, and to learn from their experiences in order to better assist other women and families.

Meanwhile, as part of the pro-choice movement members from the “No More Shame” campaign collected signatures for a petition asking the Government of Gibraltar to decriminalise abortion.

The pro-choice campaign group is calling on the Government to “provide safe, legal and accessible abortion services, within an appropriate legislative framework, determined by women’s healthcare needs and their right to bodily autonomy as advocated by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations”.

The campaign aims to remove the stigma of abortion and to generate discussion on the subject, explained campaign member Selena Victory.

She described the response to the petition as “quite positive” and explained how numerous tourists had approached the stand in the Piazza “in disbelief” of Gibraltar’s current abortion legislation.

The petition reads as: “The No More Shame Campaign supports the individual’s rights to safe, legal and accessible abortion services which are predicated on numerous human rights, recognised and protected under international law.”

The campaign group will continue their petition at the Piazza on Thursday September 27, October 3, October 9, October 15 and October 22.