"Unwanted pregnancies are inevitable, even when contraception is used meticulously; women must have access to comprehensive abortion services"

Dr Gill Greer, Director-General, IPPF

"By the early 1980s, about 40 percent of American women were estimated to have an abortion during their reproductive years (the number now is about 33 percent)."

Alternet.org, Carole Joffe, 24 May 2010

"Over the past year, a number of laws have been passed in Latin America to confer rights on fertilized ova.

In Mexico for example, a number of federal
states have recently amended their constitutions to extend the protection of the right to life to 'the conceived'.

Many of these laws specifically protect earlier legal exceptions for abortion in cases of rape, incest, or where the life or health of the pregnant woman is threatened.

Brazil's bill goes further. It extends the right to child support to ova that have been fertilized through rape, and seeks to give 'absolute priority' to
the rights of the fertilized ovum.

This could lead to the criminalization of any act or
omission thought to affect the fertilized ovum negatively, trumping the rights to life or health of any pregnant woman."

Human Rights Watch

Millennium Development Goal 5, to improve maternal health, now includes the target of universal access to reproductive health by 2015 Goal 5 (b).

Access to safe abortion is an intrinsic part of maternal health, as many women who have abortions already have children, and unsafe abortion is potentially fatal.