{"id":8617,"date":"2016-03-01T11:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T05:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?p=8617"},"modified":"2018-08-21T16:18:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T10:48:32","slug":"voices-abortion-vacations-and-other-complications-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/voices-abortion-vacations-and-other-complications-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion \u2018Vacations\u2019 and Other Complications \u2013 I"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I had a dollar every time I heard an opponent of abortion rights say something like \u201cIf you remove the option for abortions, women will stop getting them,\u201d it\u2019s safe to say I would go up a tax bracket or two. In many places today, Global South or North, I would need all of those dollars in order to travel a considerable distance for an abortion that may neither be legal nor safe.<\/p>\n

Feminist organisations in parts of Europe where new restrictions on reproductive health care have been implemented (Hungary, Poland, etc.) are protesting these shifts with innovative campaigns highlighting the phenomenon of \u201cabortion journeys\u201d, often called \u201cabortion tourism\u201d or \u201cabortion vacations\u201d. These terms refer to \u201cthe long, distressing, often expensive journeys that women are forced to undertake in order to access safe abortion due to restrictive legislation in their home countries\u201d (or states).[1]<\/a> Ads for fake travel agencies called \u201cAbortourism\u201d or for \u201cAbort Airlines\u201d poke holes in the effectiveness of restrictive laws by bringing the common knowledge out into the open that people who need to terminate a pregnancy will just go elsewhere<\/a> to do so. The cost is high, but a plane ticket<\/a> beats the bill (and risk) for a back alley procedure and possible criminal charges at home.<\/p>\n

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An ad by Polish group SROM stating, \u201cPlane ticket to England: special offer 300 zloty\u201d, and \u201cAbortion in a public clinic: 0 zloty\u201d. \u201cFor everything you pay less than an underground abortion in Poland\u201d.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Poster from a protest in Seville, where women carrying suitcases with the slogan Abort Airlines, \u201cVamos a Londres a abortar.\u201d (\u201cGoing to London for an abortion.\u201d) queued up at the airport. It is worth noting that Spanish organizations such as Agora Feminists and CELEM used the looming return of the need for abortion journeys very effectively in their campaigns against proposed legislation that would have severely restricted abortion access; the legislation ultimately did not pass.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A fake abortion travel agency pop-up that CELEM created as part of activism against the proposed changes. Read about it here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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In many countries with strict laws regarding abortion, contraception is also difficult to obtain, highlighted in this travel \u2018package\u2019 from the Hungary-based Abortourism campaign.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Abortourism-type ads<\/a> make me want to cheer; especially once I learned some were issued as a counter measure to a \u201cpro-life\u201d campaign featuring Hitler and a bunch of torn foetuses (yes, really<\/a>). At the same time it\u2019s disappointing that they cater to a narrow audience: those with sufficient financial resources and social mobility to travel internationally. Socioeconomic status\/class remains one of the strongest predictors of whether a person will be able to obtain an abortion, regardless of its legality where they live. As Marcy Bloom and Susan Cohen comment, though abortion journeys receive more publicity these days (due to the shock factor, perhaps, that provisions for an important aspect of health care are still denied even in wealthy countries), women who were able have always travelled for terminations. From Kenya to Poland, Mexico to Ireland, abortion remains a class issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thinking intersectionally, even poorer women living in urban areas and\/or in the Global North have crosscutting geographic and infrastructure advantages that help alleviate socioeconomic burdens. Proximity to a medical provider who will give a safe and\/or legal abortion; access to documentation like passports and insurance cards; dependable public transportation and better overall resource availability, if not from one\u2019s own finances then possibly from organisations dedicated to funding abortion-related travel, all make a huge difference. After abortion was legalised in Mexico City in 2007, numerous states around the capital actually strengthened<\/em> their laws against abortion<\/a> in a ripple effect conservative backlash, creating an even larger gap in access for those outside of the urban centre. In a 2014 interview with TARSHI, feminist activist Alejandra\u00a0Sard\u00e1-Chandiramani shared how in response to this nationwide gap, organisations in Mexico City started quietly funding the abortion journeys of women to come to the capital. Previously, Mexican women had travelled to U.S. states like California, a practice that continues for a privileged minority with visas.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

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