Also in Varese women of all ages, but also several men, took to the streets to defend the right to abortion. This afternoon the feminist collective Fem.Va and Eos – Women’s listening centredemonstrated in front of the Filippo Del Ponte Hospital together with about a hundred people on the occasion of the national mobilization of Not One Less against attacks on the right to abortion. A place chosen not by chance, because in the maternal and child center in Piazza Biroldi there has been a listening desk for the Pro-Life Movement for almost twenty years, open at the same times as the reference clinic for voluntary termination of pregnancy.
«A right enshrined 46 years ago by law 194/1978, but violated and disregarded every day in all regions of Italy – explained the girls of Fem.Va and the women of Eos – We must do a reality check: we cannot be surprised that the current government takes the pieces of Law 194 that interest it and bends them to its plans. A policy that goes hand in hand with the fight against “rainbow families”, discrimination against migrants, empty promises on increases in nursery schools to support working women. We should not be surprised, but we must fight to defend this right, the right of every woman to freely choose what is right for herself».
At the center of this afternoon’s reflection the role of public consultantsi, less and less and less equipped to guarantee prevention, health and rights to women, in the face of a growth in private clinics of anti-abortion associations, but also the presence of an ever-increasing number of “conscientious objector” doctors which effectively restrict women’s ability to terminate pregnancies, putting stress on the few doctors who practice voluntary termination of pregnancy. Likewise, the choice to practice surgical interruption instead of pharmacological one «transforming every abortion into a traumatic event», or the “week of reflection” to which women who have chosen to have an abortion are forced or the terrible practice of make the heartbeat of the fetus heardunacceptable psychological violence.
Many interventions and testimonies from women and professionals working in the sector from which it emerged with great clarity a growing difficulty that concerns the entire sphere of conscious sexuality, starting from contraception, prevention and sexual education.
«We are not there – is the message of the women of Fem.va and Eos – We want to cross health spaces without fear, without judgment and without abuse; we want to regain possession of a public, secular, adequately funded, welcoming health system for all; we don’t want penalties or interference on our bodies. We demand the right of each and every one to self-determination. Neither the Church, nor the State, nor the associations can choose for us.”
After half a century, the slogan that marked an epochal change in our society resonates in the streets: today’s daughters, like their mothers, are forced to reiterate “The body is mine, I decide”.
