Some history
The coordination of ICWRSA at the global level has become only a shadow of what it used to be, a situation that has been the case for over two years now, especially due to the loss of a major grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2022, the removal of which was later acknowledged by them to have been a mistake, but nonetheless was not restored. Staff could not be paid and left and a new coordinator from Kenya who had just been hired resigned as her salary could not be guaranteed.
Only three of us stayed on: myself as coordinator and newsletter editor, Shruti Arora as the coordinator of YANAA (Young Activist Network for Abortion Advocacy), and Rithvik, also in India, as ICWRSA website editor, administrator and designer, who also prepares and sends out the weekly Campaign newsletter and posts all the news reports on the Campaign website.
We were, however, thankfully rescued by the Global Fund for Women in 2022 and 2023 with the provision of three consecutive grants, plus a donation from DKT International, which have kept us and YANAA going until the end of December 2024, when the funds will run out just in time for us to take a couple of weeks of much welcome holiday. We have also just been rescued by a donation towards the Campaign work in 2025 from DKT International, this being the second time they have made a donation. Other donors are welcome to contact us to offer more if you wish to see this work continue.
ICWRSA is still a network with a membership of about 1,570 members in about 130 countries. The regional networks that first formed in different years, starting as early as in 2002 and 2005, were the ones who agreed to form the international campaign. Almost all those networks still exist or have metamorphosed into different regional networks but with the same aims of campaigning for the right to safe abortion. They continue to work independently but are still affiliated, and they share news and information through both the newsletter and website. Those regions are: all-Europe; Eastern Europe/Western Asia; Asia-Pacific; Mediterranean and North Africa; French-speaking Africa; and Latin America & Caribbean. There are also many North American members but they have never formally formed a “region” as such.
Three main areas of ICWRSA work in 2024
The three main aspects of our work at international level that have continued throughout 2024 are information sharing via the weekly newsletter and the website, and YANAA’ activities including social media and webinars; their report for 2024 follows this one.
- The newsletter, edited by Marge Berer, has not only been weekly but has also become much longer and more detailed than in earlier years and includes news from many more members and sources than it used to. Originally, starting in 2015, we published six articles per week. During the past several years, and especially in 2023 and 2024, the newsletter has contained as many as 12-20 pages per week of articles, including reports received from Campaign members and many other colleagues about their activities and what is happening in their countries; a growing number of journal articles and media reports, received from a wide range of sources globally; solidarity requests from members, and abstracts and summaries of articles from a range of journals, plus conference reports and other one-off reports, reports of activities for 28 September, International Safe Abortion Day, and reports from international conferences.
Regions/countries covered in the newsletter in the past ± 5 years have included: Africa (40 countries), Asia (24 countries), Eastern Europe (19 countries), Western Europe (25 countries), Latin America & Caribbean (25 countries), Middle East/Mediterranean (15 countries), North America (2 countries), Pacific (8 countries).
- The website – the most recent revamping of the Campaign website by Rithvik, begun in 2023, included the overall design and use of visuals, and development of the growing News Archive of newsletter reports, which at this writing, contains 283 pages of news reports going back to 2016 as a whole and part of 2015. To date there have been a total of some 3,396 news reports in those pages published in the nine years.
In the section called “I Need an Abortion”, the Abortion Helpline Information section, broken down into regions and countries, lists 58 national helplines in some 37 countries. It was last updated in mid- 2024 with new details about a number of the listed groups and several new groups as well. There were many new groups in North America especially.
Sections on YANAA, 28 September/International Safe Abortion Day, international, regional and national information on where to find help for those who need an abortion, and our annual reports are updated or added regularly as well.
Visitors to the ICWRSA Website 2024
2024 was a good year for the website usage metrics. The website saw close to 61,000 unique users from all over the world contributing to a total of 76,000 page views. Each user stayed on the website for 40 seconds on average.
Below is a visual representation of the geographical distribution of users based on their country. The 10 countries with the most visitors in descending order are USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, Philippines, India, Trinidad and Tobago.
The most visited pages on the website beyond the homepage, included the News Archive, YAANA’s overview page, International Safe Abortion Day page, the Who We Are and What We Do pages, the Join the Campaign page, and the National and International Abortion Information Hotline pages. A few news stories from Antigua and Barbuda, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Philippines also garnered significant viewership.
Financial Report for 2024
To put it very succinctly, we had very few expenses in 2024 and even less money.
In fact, until DKT offered us a donation, we would not have had enough money to finish this year.
Plans for 2025
The right to safe abortion is as far from being achieved globally and universally as it has ever been.
In 2025, in the short term, we hope to continue the three main activities: the two information sharing activities of the newsletter and the website, and the YANAA Network. YANAA has happily received a grant independently for 2024-25.
I will also actively begin looking, once again, for a new coordinator for the Campaign, to replace me. She will need to be based in the global south, fundraise, recruit a new Steering Committee and also staff. This will require seeking additional funding compared to 2024. I have worked full-time unpaid for nine years now. No one else can be expected to do the same.
I would really like to see the Campaign continue but only if it can become more than it is currently. The money that the Dutch Ministry took back would have been enough to keep an office and staff together and organise another Forum like the one we had in 2018 in Lisbon, with all costs paid. It was only because of the pandemic that it was postponed.
Rithvik and I hope to carry on for the first half of 2025, as we have done in 2024. After that, it will be up to others to step up.
With heartfelt thanks to everyone who has shared information and reports, supported both the members and staff in a myriad of ways in these last nine years and everyone who has worked their socks off for the right to safe abortion all over the world, which it has been our honour to report.
Very best wishes for the coming year — in hopes of peace with justice and human rights everywhere, and especially an end to genocide and wars, and a great deal more good will all around.
Marge Berer, ICWRSA Coordinator/Newsletter Editor; Rithvik, Website/Newsletter Production and Design, 18 December 2024.