Throughout its over 20 years of experience, the Reproductive Health Training Center (RHTC) in the Republic of Moldova has grown accustomed to the occasional anti-choice message directed toward its activities and initiatives to promote and protect sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Since launching the pilot project, “Medical abortion via telemedicine for women and adolescents in rural Moldova: breaking barriers with technology,” supported by the OPTions Initiative, these attacks have intensified. Not only has the RHTC team had to filter negative, anti-choice commentary on its social media accounts more frequently, but it has also recently had to respond to a letter addressed to the Moldovan Prime Minister presenting misleading and nonfactual information in support of policies that would facilitate the creation of crisis pregnancy centers across the country.
The letter was written by the president of Moldova for Life, the same organization that has organized the annual “March for Life” since its inception in 2015. In the letter, a number of statistics are listed from a publication produced by a US-based anti-choice organization. In addition, the situation in Moldova is misconstrued in a way to make it appear as though people seeking abortion are misguided by medical personnel and are not made aware of all existing options at their disposal. The basis for these claims is entirely fabricated in an effort to support the already highly uninformed and uneducated argument presented.
RHTC has submitted a well-reasoned, evidence-based response to the Secretary General of the Moldovan government. Our team has also translated and shared the letter with local and international health and human rights organizations, including WHO Moldova, Promo-LEX, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Open Society Foundations.
SOURCE: RHTC, in ASTRA Central and Eastern Europe Bulletin on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights 05 (194)