25 years ago in Cairo, Egypt, 179 governments came together and adopted a radical and revolutionary Programme of Action (PoA) on women’s reproductive health and rights.
"The field began to change as reproductive rights groups began to insist that programs be more holistic, addressing the needs of women much more broadly than just family planning."
Steven Sinding
Population Expert | Retired
Steven Sinding remembers, pretty much to the day, when he became fascinated with population studies. He was a senior in college, and concern about global population growth was just starting to emerge. “Population was a hot topic in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” he says.
One of his favorite professors, Robert Neil, gave a lecture called the Mushroom Crowd. “It really captured my imagination,” he says. “It was a pivotal moment in my career.”
Decades later, Sinding has retired from a storied career as a population expert that took him from the US Agency for International Development to the World Bank to the Rockefeller Foundation to Columbia University, and eventually to become Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
“Women’s ability to control their bodies and decide when and how to get pregnant is very important to their resilience to climate change.”
Carmen Barroso
Activist & Former Regional Director | IPPF/WHR
On a recent rainy morning in Portland, USA, Carmen Barroso, aged 75, stood amongst thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets to advocate for climate policies. She held her Planned Parenthood sign which simply read: "March. Vote. Win."
Her pleas at this rally have everything to do with how she believes the environment impacts women’s health and in turn the health of children around the world, explaining: "I’m a grandma concerned with my grandkids."
"Women’s ability to control their bodies and decide when and how to get pregnant is very important to their resilience to climate change," she said.
“I became a feminist”
Atashendartini Habsjah
Activist
In the 25 years since ICPD in Cairo, there have been few campaigns for Indonesian women’s health and reproductive rights Atashendartini Habsjah has not been involved in. From her work within the Indonesian Planned Parenthood to mentoring the next crop of changemakers, Habsjah’s influence has shaped the lives of millions of women.
“I became a feminist then,” Habsjah says of meeting her mentor, Professor Saparinah Sadli, who joins her at this makeshift ICPD reunion. As a researcher at Atma Jaya University studying maternal and post-natal health in 1989, her work led her to meet the professor, as well as longtime activists Tini Hadad and Ninuk Widyantoro.
All four women have been integral to developing reproductive rights and access in Indonesia and today they’re sharing a table, some tea and faith that future generations will bring change. Like everything in Indonesia, and in Indonesian women’s activism particularly, collectivism and support are key. That’s what got Atashendartini Habsjah to Cairo 25 years ago, she says.
“You go way back in history, thousands of years, and you can read about women terminating pregnancies with whatever means are to hand — so either we make that safe or we don’t,” she says. “For me that’s the bottom line.”
Marge Berer
Veteran Campaigner | International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion
For Marge Berer, the arc of history in the fight for safe abortion is a long one.
“You go way back in history, thousands of years, and you can read about women terminating pregnancies with whatever means are to hand — so either we make that safe or we don’t,” she says. “For me that’s the bottom line.”
Berer is a veteran of the fight for women’s right to safe abortion, with a campaigning career spanning five decades. Today, she works as coordinator for the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion and as a writer and events organizer.
But like many in the safe abortion movement, it was an intense personal experience — in her case, navigating UK abortion services in the 1970s — that spurred her to action.
“[Having an abortion] was a difficult decision, as it is for most women,” she says. “Once I took that decision, I never looked back.”
IPPF commitments at ICPD+25
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