Advocacy for legal reform for safe abortion

In Ethiopia, violation of women's reproductive rights is both a cause and a manifestation of women's disempowerment. Obstacles to full realisation of Ethiopian women's reproductive health and rights include the persistence of harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation, early marriage and abduction, as well as the disturbing prevalence of rape and HIV/AIDS. Unsafe abortion represents a particularly serious threat to women's health and lives. Ethiopia's status as a signatory to the Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its constitutional guarantee of women's equality demand more aggressive action to eradicate such practices and inequities. After years of lobbying by women's organisations, parliamentarians are now reviewing a draft of the 1957 penal code, which includes numerous provisions addressing some of these practices and other conditions that underlie women's poor social and health status.