From becoming only the second country in the world to appoint a female minister (in 1924) to leading the charge to fill the aid vacuum left by ‘Global Gag Rule‘ in the wake of the new US government’s anti-abortion rhetoric, Denmark has been a long-time trailblazer for women’s rights.
So it’s no surprise that the Danes will co-host the newly-established ‘She Decides’ international conference for women’s rights in Brussels on March 2.
“We have a strong European core of nations who have women’s rights at the very top of their agendas,” explained the development minister, Ulla Tørnæs.
“I’m really happy that we, via the conference in March, can expand the core to include nations from outside the EU willing to fight for women’s rights. When there are countries winding down their engagement to ensure that basic women’s rights are respected, well, then we step up our efforts in the battle.”
She Decides, not you Donald
She Decides was founded as a reaction to the so-called ‘Global Gag Rule’, the policy of the new Donald Trump-led US government to roll back all funding support for organisations that support planned parenthood, contraception and abortion.
The conference aims to attract broad political and financial support for women’s rights in the wake of the hundreds of millions of kroner that the US has decided to withdraw thanks to its new policy shift. Alongside Denmark and Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands will also assume co-hosting duties for She Decides.
There are an estimated 225 million women across the world who don’t have access to contraception, and over 800 women die every day in connection with pregnancy or birth. Every year about 22 million unsafe abortions take place globally.
