September 28 is an International Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion. Its origin comes from Latin America and the Caribbean where women’s groups have been mobilizing around September 28 the last two decades to demand their governments to decriminalize abortion, provide access to safe and affordable abortion services, and end stigma and discrimination towards women who choose to have an abortion. This day was marked as an international day starting in 2011 so that the world could act in solidarity with the women rising up in regions of South America. Now it is a global day of action to demand Safe Abortion Everywhere.
This day was marked by mass vibrant Green Outpourings in Peru & Mexico. There was singing in the streets in Barcelona, Spain, and in Bogota, Colombia, where there was a mass march with plenty of rejoicing. They finally decriminalized abortion in March of this year (2022), but still, fight for fewer restrictions and for safe abortion globally. In the video (linked below), they are singing the resistance song Cancion Sin Miedo.
Organizers with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights spread the green wave from Waikiki to Boston and Philadelphia to the Bay Area, who had 8 actions throughout the day including UC Berkeley students who carried out a die-in to show everyone what happens when abortion is illegal: it doesn’t eliminate abortions, it makes them unsafe and deadly. The activists were joined by a few students who were moved to take part and stand together with women across the world on this day. Together we raised our uncompromising demand: LEGAL ABORTION NATIONWIDE NOW!
We organized in states with trigger bans like Ohio; with a protest in Cleveland spreading the green wave, and a banner drop in Cincinnati which made a lot of noise in support of Abortion Rights during morning rush hour traffic.
sweden
In Sweden, dozens gathered in Stockholm. And in Germany, a coalition of pro-choice activists has been marking the day since 2019, and this year people in more than 50 cities took action for International Safe Abortion Day. Here is a thread of pictures from Hamburg.
Italy
Italy just elected the first female Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who mimics the Trump/ Pence Maga “pro-lifers” in this country. Italian women and men marched in record numbers after this fascist victory on International Safe Abortion Day.
hungarian protest
More than 1,000 Hungarians protested on this day against a change in abortion rules that took effect on Sept. 15, which women’s rights groups say would “humiliate” and torment women while having no effect on the number of abortions. Women now need to listen to the ”heartbeat” and provide proof of doing so before you can get the abortion, which is already limited to cases of rape, risks to the woman’s health from the pregnancy, a severe disability of the fetus or in case of a serious personal crisis.
chicago
Chicago had rich rally and program followed by a march with a statement on #28s saying that in many cases, cities in the US are joining internationally for the first time.
Atlanta, GA
In Atlanta, Georgia, where a fetal personhood act recently passed, activists went to the Neil Degrasse Tyson event to spread the green wave to other science-loving humans.
seattle
Seattle raised the green bandana and overtook the anti-abortion “40 Days for Life” goons who were preying on the Lynnwood Planned Parenthood clinic.
Austin, TX
A vigil for safe abortion at a previous Planned Parenthood clinic (now shut down) in Austin that dramatically brought the sorrow and loss we all feel to life.
texas
In Texas, organizers held a banner drop in Houston and spread the green wave protest in Tyler, TX (Dallas area) which garnered support from passersby.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles RU4AR marched through the Arts District downtown across the 6th St Bridge to do a banner drop over the busy 101 freeway with the slogan “No Going Back – No Surrender! Legal Abortion Nationwide Now!”.
New york city
Coverage from Newspoint wrote:
International Safe Abortion Day began in Latin America in 1990 as a day of action for the decriminalization of abortion. The protestors at Union Square in NYC honored the day’s legacy in their speeches.
“We stand with our sisters in Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico who rose up in a green wave and made [abortion] legal in these majority Catholic countries,” protestors said. “There’s no damn reason we can’t do that here.”
The protestors also chanted in support of women in Iran. “We stand with the women in Iran who are throwing off the hijab. We need to do the same thing here – mass defiance in the streets.”
The overturning of Roe meant a setback taking away 50 years of national legal abortion precedent in the U.S. and has ripple effects throughout the world that were mourned by many internationally.
We received these statements of solidarity from activists from Poland, the UK, and India on the overturning of Roe.
Leading up to the day Rise Up worked with activists from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and El Salvador, deepening our connections through gathering statements of support, advice, and updates on what it’s like in their countries. Acting with others around the world on this day shows just how linked we all are, and despite the legal status of abortion being different around the world, there is a desire and a fight to be waged for safe legal abortion EVERYWHERE!
In El Salvador, women are living under some of the strictest abortion laws in the world and being imprisoned for miscarriages. Teodora Vazquez sent a statement (linked below) to Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights as part of our initiative to share stories from around the world. She was accused of having an abortion, imprisoned right after her miscarriage, and sentenced to 30 years. She was released after serving 10, 5 years ago.
An activist in El Salvador sent this video (video below) of support to the U.S. stating:
“…we consider it very serious to go backward in terms of reproductive rights. It is essential to make visible the obstacles generated by the total prohibition of abortion. We stand in solidarity with all the women who fight. We fight for our right to health to be guaranteed in our lives. We fight for the right to legal abortion to be guaranteed. It is important that we UNITE to denounce the setbacks, and above all, to advance in this fight for freedom and reproductive justice.”
Friends of ours in Colombia sent this video (video below) to women in the U.S. saying the green wave doesn’t have borders, the fight in the U.S. is their fight as well!
A friend in Argentina, who was part of leading their national campaign that waged a fight for years to finally decriminalize abortion in 2018, sent this (video below).
“…We women suffer multiple discrimination, we suffer violence and we suffer multiple inequalities, depending on where we are born, depending on our skin color, depending on how old we are, and also depending on whether or not we decide to have children or how many children we decide to have.
In this sense, we continue to insist that it is the state and the justice system that must guarantee the basic human rights of women, including the right to decide, because forced motherhood is torture. We keep fighting, and as our triple motto says, we keep insisting, ‘sexual education to decide, Contraceptive access so that abortion can be a last resort, and legal abortion so that they don’t have to die.’ We are with you!”
