CHOICE PROJECT werkgruppe2

2018 passierte in Irland Erstaunliches. Im stark katholisch geprägten Land das Verbot von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen per Referendum gekippt und ist seitdem bis zur 12. Schwangerschaftswoche legal. Wir sprechen mit der Autorin und Journalistin Una Mullally, die mit Repeal the 8th Anthology eine Sammlung von Schriften, Gedichten und Fotografien herausgegeben hat, die die Wucht der Kampagne für reproduktive Rechte im Land im Jahr 2018 einfangen. Sie ist Kolumnistin für The Irisch Times. Ebenfalls aus Irland, in Kinsale, ist die deutsche Auslandskorrespondentin und Journalistin Mareike Graepel vom Netzwerk DEINE KORRESPONDENTIN. „Sobald man das Schweigen bricht, bricht man auf eine Art auch mit dem Stigma, und sobald man das Stigma bricht, bricht man auch mit der Scham.“ Una Mullally

In our second episode, we will be talking about Sri Lanka. Our guests are Sonali Gunasekera, director for advocacy at the Family Planning Association in Sri Lanka. Sonali has a wealth of experience working in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health, Child Protection and Gender and Advocacy related activities. Previously she worked at the Child Fund Sri Lanka, Oxfam GB Sri Lanka, the International Labour Organisation and Save the Children Sri Lanka and is joining us from Colombo! Also with us in Mumbai is South Asia correspondent and author, Natalie Mayroth, from the network Deine Korrespondentin.

"Sri Lanka is not ready for the change." The abortion laws on the island are among the most restrictive in the world and have not been changes since the colonial area. According to estimates Hundreds of women a day take the risks with illegal terminations, because of the lack of excess to professional assistance, money or professional help. "Women have to look after their own bodies.“

In this episode of CHOICE we are focussing on abortion rights in Colombia. We are talking to Mónica Roa, a Colombian Lawyer for Human Rights. She is founder and director of the organization BRIDGES and has been working for Women’s Link Worldwide  for more than 12 years. In 2006 she became a public figure when she filed a constitutional lawsuit that resulted in the liberalization of abortion laws in Colombia. Our second guest is Franziska Pröll - a freelance german Journalist that – during the last year - has been reporting from Colombia on social an educational topics, amongst others for or the german newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and ZEIT online.
„Reproductive rights means that YOU are the one that gets to decide if you want to use contraceptives, if you want an abortion or if you want to have a child. And the state cannot impose that decision on you. During those years of conflict women within the guerrilla were being forced to have abortions, women outside the guerrilla in urban life were being prohibited to have an abortion - in both cases the state was not protecting or respecting our reproductive rights.“ (Mónica Roa)

This episode is about abortion rights and political protest in Poland. The idea for this podcast series came about under the impression of the strong protests in Poland in autumn 2021 against the tightening of the already restrictive legislation on abortion. Only since 1993 abortion is mostly ban and this happened during the change of social system, which promised more liberal rights and gave the hope of freedom.
Now in 2020/21 the amount of protesting women (but also men) in autumn was very impressive. We want to know: how did they manage to mobilize so many people? We talk to Karolina Micula, a musican, performer and activist, who chooses many different forms of protesting (and is pictured on the front page of the podcasts’ website). Our second guest is Terry Reintke, member of the European Parliament for the Green Group since 2014 and currently also its Vice President. She demands that the EU intervenes in Polish breaches of fundamental rights and supports the Polish activists by saying „Your struggle is our struggle.“

In this episode we want to talk about the right of self-determination over the body and what it looks like in the Netherlands, how the continuation of the current liberalization can be guaranteed and what future goals could be.
Our guests are Devika Partiman, a social activist that has founded the STEM OP EEN VROUW foundation, which aims to get more women into political positions. Also with us is Sarah Tekath, journalist, based in Amsterdam since 2014. She works for different medias like euronews, FAZ, neues deutschland and is the podcast host AMSTERDAMES and member of the network DEINE KORRESPONDENTIN.
“Shouldn’t we not be patient, shouldn’t we not be happy with that we have?
There is still be a big lack of understanding. I think the educational system still does not explain why the feminist movement was there. They tell pupils, women were not allowed ot vote, they were not allowed to go to school. But they don’t learn the mechanics of the discriminating system. How all the details are go to show their faces everywhere you go.”

In Namibia the abortion law is very strictly regulated – but last year in July a young, committed movement of activists started a petition that caused quite a stir. In our new episode we talk to one of them: Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe, a Namibian activist who has been at the forefront of the #ShutItAllDown Movement and the equal rights protests in Windhoek. She is also the co-founder of the Voices and Choices for Rights Coalition which started the petition to legalise abortion in Namibia. Also with us is multimedia journalist Lisa Ossenbrink, based in Windhoek. She reports on people, power and populism from Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa and has been published by Al Jazeera English, VICE World News and Deutsche Welle, among others. She is also a member of the network DEINE KORRESPONDENTIN.