rnational Contraception Action
From 31 October to 1 November ICASC (International Contraception, Abortion and Sterilisation Campaign) held a workshop in London, England. Rosangela Gramoni, a
member of the Dispensaire des Femmes in Geneva, went to the workshop, and wrote this report for ISIS
No to Population Control
Yes to women's control
Our bodies, our lives
Our right to decide
Under these banners the plenary session of the meeting organised by ICASC opened in London. There were about 60 of us, both members and non-members of ICASC groups. Eleven European countries were represented (Austria, Belgium, Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and West Germany), and there were several women from Latin America, Mauritius, India, Israel and South Africa.
The meeting began with a presentation of each group and requests for solidarity from Belgium, Spain and South Africa. There are currently abortion trials going on in Spain and Belgium.
There were many workshops on the agenda. Too many in my opinion. In future ICASC meetings it might be more fruitful to chosse only one theme and conduct workshops on the different aspects of this theme. As it was, the workshops scheduled were : depo-provera, prostaglandins, politics of contraception, anti-abortionists, psychological reactions to abortion, sterilisation, building national campaigns, sexuality and fertility control, self-help groups and clinics, demography and population control, travelling to other countries for abortion, illegal abortion, building support in unions.
In the workshop on the "politics of contraception" we discussed how such politics depend on things like culture, religion, age, type of relationship, health, the economic situation, feelings about possible pregnancy. The kind of contraceptive women can use also depends a great deal on the partner, and this is often something which is overlooked. The attitude of doctors is also very important. For example, one English woman from a group giving help to Spanish women coming to Britain for abortion explained that a good deal of those women want lUD's inserted, but this creates problems because lUD's have to be taken out or replaced every two-and-a-half to three years, and there are very few doctors in Spain who fit lUD's. An Indian woman talked of the situation in the region she comes from, explaining that village women havealmost no information about what contraceptive methods exist. Another woman from Colombia pointed out that western feminists are against depo-provera but that in hercountry women have to walk so far to the health centres that depo-provera is an acceptable method of contraception.
Other issues were only briefly touched upon because of lack of time. One such issue was the terminology of contraception. For example, abortion, sterilisation and contraception are often considered as different things whereas in fact they are all methods of contraception. We also discussed what is meant and understood by the words "family planning" and "birth control". In Kenya, for instance, "birth control" is clearly associated with "population control" so that programmes to introduce contraception are now termed "family planning".
Additional subjects should have been discussed, but we were only able to make a list : population control and women's control, the pharmaceutical industry, the politics of IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation), laws, services, international research, the lack of any revolutionary breakthrough in new methods of contraception, contraception abuse, and finally, positive aspects of contraception (yes — there really are some !...).
In the workshop on "feminist self-help groups / clinics", we shared our various experiences — the DIspensaire des Femmes In Geneva, the London group within the National Health Service, Dutch health groups.
I was unfortunately unable to attend the final plenary session where decisions were taken and resolutions passed. I would simply like to end this brief report on these two days of real sisterhood, with some personal comments. I found the atmosphere very warm and the discussions at the workshops I attended very rich. I can only affirm yet again that solidarity amongst women is not an empty slogan. Lesbian women were very present and they work in groups which give support to heterosexual women. Indeed, we shouldn't forget that contraception, abortion and sterilisation are the "side effects" of heterosexuallty whether it is freely chosen or not. I only hope that there are as many heterosexual women supporting lesbiansIn their specific struggles.
Once more a big thank-you and a warm hug to the women of ICASC in London who organised this meeting so beautifully both materially (accommodation, food, child-care) and in the running of the workshops.
If you want to become a member of ICASC, make your own actions on contraception, abortion and sterilisation known, or If you want to get international support or give
your support and solidarity, or suscribe to the newsletter, write to the following address :
ICASC coordination group, 374 Grays Inn Road, London WC1, England.