sempozyum_bildiri_kitabi

If you are going to ask women to have fewer children, when everything in their lives
dictates that for their own safety and their survival, they need to have as many children as
their husband wants, then you really have to give them options and alternatives. 6
The speech underlined the necessity for women to hold options and alternatives for being able to
get a free will about the number of children they have. Their situation in which they are bound to
have as many children as their husbands’ desire was regarded as the basic problem and the starting
point for solving the problem.
Adrienne and Joan attended a lot of conferences and meetings about the status of women like in
Mexico City where the first United Nations conference on the status of women took place in 1975.
Another one was in Nairobi that hosted the Second World Conference on women in 1975. Tietze
Symposium held in Berlin in 1985 was the other contribution to her abortion politics.
A huge progress was accomplished as a result of these conferences. For example, in the
International Conference on Population in Mexico City in 1984, it was unanimously accepted that all
couples and individuals have the right of deciding freely and responsibly about the number and the
frequency of the children they desire to have, and they have the knowledge, education and tools to
realize them. 7
Meanwhile, with Reagan government’s anti‐abortion policies, Joan was so worried that she
accepted the offer of the International Women’s Health Coalition and was appointed to director
position in 1984. She held the post for 14 years. Upon her assignment to the director position of
IWHC, Dunlop stated the vision of IWHC in 1984 Mexico City Conference as opposed to the Reagan’s
antiabortion delegates as; “... the debate over abortion is a fight for your life. The choices are very
stark if you face an unwanted pregnancy.” 8 In her talk, she regarded abortion in a broader framework
within the context of population issues and emphasized that abortion is a human right and that
women should have absolute control and power over their body. She further proposed that the
necessary steps to advance this human right should be followed.
IWHC was the outcome of the anti‐abortion politics of the 1970’s with the 1973 Helms
Amendment 9 and the 1976 Hyde Amendment that prohibited the use of federal government funds
for most abortions in the US. 10 IWHC was the best place for Dunlop’s abortion politics. The
organization has had the mission of creating a world where women are able to decide freely about
their sexuality, relationships, pregnancy, childbearing and marriage regardless of discrimination,
coercion, and violence. They are considered as the only decision makers on their sexual and
reproductive rights and health. 11 IWHC has had a role of impressing the governments and U.N.
policies putting the women’s human rights to the core of population policies. In the period when she
was the director of IWHC, Dunlop transformed this three‐person Office to an agency with a staff of
twentytwo having an agenda of four million dollars of budget and a programme of eight countries in
Asia, Africa and Latin America. 12
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the First Earth
Summit, held in Rio De Janeiro in 1992, could be regarded as the preparatory work for the U.N.
International Conference on Population and Development that was scheduled to take place in Cairo
in 1994. The importance of family planning for women’s health and rights was highlighted in this
Earth Summit.
Additionally, in the preparation to conference in Cairo, delegates from various United Nations
agencies and member countries participated in four preparatory committee meetings supported by
the UN in New York between 1993 and 1994. 24 feminists and women directors of NGO’s from all
around the world attended the meetings. The draft of the “Women’s Declaration on Population
Policies” was formed. All items in the draft were discussed around Joan’s idea of reshaping the
population issue from a narrow emphasis on numbers to a human‐centered focus on the needs of
women. In this draft, the necessity of population and family planning programs having a broader
view about women’s lives in terms of addressing the inequities and human rights violations that