28S Access to legal and safe abortion – Catalonia, Spain (AECS)

Name of the activity: 28S Access to legal and safe abortion

Country/NMO: Catalonia, Spain (AECS)

Program: Maternal Health & Access to Safe Abortion

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

General description:

Campaign at the university:
Some posters and balloons will be put around the building. Myths at red balloons and next to them the reality/truth in green balloons. Later during the week, we will gather everyone where the balloons will be and everybody will be invited to “burst the myths” literally and figuratively while we discuss about why are them true or not. We will film people during the day so we’ll have a video for future talks promotion.

Online campaign:
3 days to the 28th: sharing questions regarding objective data regarding safe abortion via FB in the morning and the myth and the correct answer at night.
28th: sharing a part of our policy statement and the link to the whole document.
Post 28th: share a form with some questions regarding abortion to be filled by students to evaluate the average knowledge regarding the topic and their interest in having capacity building on it that can be used to work on advocacy at our universities at a national level.

Focus area:

Access to Safe Abortion

Problem statement:

Abortion has been legal in Spain since 2010, but many people remain unaware of it and there’s still a huge stigma and myths surrounding the topic.

During 2009, 113.031 procedures were performed and 118.359 in 2010. Legalization does not mean a significant increase of abortions.

The law became more restrictive in 2015 which meant a step backwards. We believe health care students aren’t aware of women’s health issues. We see the project as a priority at local and national levels.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Health Sciences students would be the target. We believe it is very important to raise awareness about this issue between new generations of healthcare professionals. So, as future practitioners, their patients will benefit, but also colleagues at the workplace and friends as they would learn the knowledge and opinions of the target.

Objectives and indicators of success:

– Eliminate myths surrounding abortion. Asking students about it in future workshops or trainings during the term.
– Raise awareness about the problem of illegal and unsafe abortions. See if people are interested and how they react to the online campaign (counting the likes and views) and their reactions at the university activity.
– Generate critical thinking on students.
– Motivate students to learn more about the topic. Hold sessions/ workshops about it later during the term.

Methodology:

Campaign at the university:
– Putting up posters with different myths and realities to demystify them. Some of them written in balloons: red balloons for the myths and green for real facts.
– Stopping students and talk them about the topic and make them think about it.
– “Bursting the myths time” gather colleagues where the balloons will be and they’ll be invited to burst the red balloons as a symbolic act.
– Making a video of the day of the activity, showing the interest of students and how the activity went.

Online campaign:
3 previous days to 28th: sharing questions via FB in the morning and the myth and the correct answer at night.

28th: sharing a part of our policy statement and the link to the whole document.

Post 28th: share a form with some questions regarding abortion to be filled by students to evaluate the average knowledge they have regarding the topic and their interest to have workshops and capacity building on it.

Plans for evaluation:

Counting the people stopped and the outcome on the meeting for bursting the myths.

Counting the number of answers to the forms.

Having a feedback form for the volunteers organizing the activities regarding logistics and internal organisation.