CRR Annual Report 2009 - Center for Reproductive Rights

Around the world, battles are waged to control women’s
reproduction—sometimes forcing women to have
children against their will, other times preventing them
from having children they want. Marginalized women,
such as those living with HIV or serving time in prison,
often suffer unthinkable brutality and humiliation, and
very rarely is anyone held accountable.
The Center has always fought to win justice for women
who have endured grave abuses. In February 2009, we
took Francisca’s case to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights. Working with the Chilean HIV/
AIDS group Vivo Positivo, we asked the commission to
urge Chile to provide Francisca with compensation for
her loss and to adopt policies that will guarantee that
women living with HIV retain the power to make their
own decisions about childbearing. (Read our interview
with Francisca on opposite page.)
There is no justification for
denying any woman the
right to control what happens
to her body, and the Center
is committed to defending
the reproductive rights of
every woman.
We also fight for women punished for terminating
pregnancies, such as Lena,* a young, poor woman from
Moldova who had an abortion at home. Suffering from
severe blood loss, she rushed to a local hospital, only to
be reported to the police by doctors. Even though there
is no criminal penalty under Moldovan law for women
who have illegal abortions, the police charged Lena
with intentional and premeditated murder, and she was
sentenced to twenty years in prison.
As in many other places, families and communities
in Moldova often shun women who become pregnant
outside of marriage or have abortions, making it difficult
for someone in Lena’s situation to receive fair treatment.
Lena encountered rampant sex discrimination: male
prison guards humiliated her, she was denied postabortion
care while awaiting trial even though
she was continuously bleeding, and the prosecutor
repeatedly targeted her with disparaging remarks.
Together with the Moldovan Institute for Human Rights,
we took Lena’s case to the European Court of Human
Rights in February, demanding her immediate release
from prison and pressing Moldova to ensure that women
who have abortions are not treated as criminals.
There is no justification for denying any woman the right
to control what happens to her body, and the Center
is committed to defending the reproductive rights of
every woman. In the United States, we are taking on
the inhumane shackling of female prisoners during
childbirth, a common practice across the country. In
2009, we successfully lobbied for an anti-shackling bill
in New York, which in August 2009 became one of six
states to ban the practice. We also helped to win an
important victory for Shawanna Nelson, a former inmate
who was forced to give birth to her son with her legs
shackled, even after she begged a prison guard to
remove them. In October, a federal appeals court
allowed Nelson’s lawsuit against Arkansas prison
officials to proceed; we demonstrated in a friend-ofthe-court
brief that the practice violated both the U.S.
Constitution and international human rights laws.
When it comes to reproductive rights, authorities
are often content to sweep abuses under the rug,
especially when the women in question are already
being discriminated against or ostracized. Our work is
not just about winning justice for individual women—it
is about challenging impunity for endemic assaults on
women’s basic dignity so that no other woman has to
endure the same horrific abuses.
*The names of our clients have been changed to
protect their confidentiality.
24