Swiss Association for the Impunity of Abortion

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The Swiss Association for the Impunity of Abortion ( SVSS , French Union suisse pour décriminaliser l'avortement, USPDA , Italian Unione svizzera per decriminalizzare l'aborto, USPDA ) was founded in 1973, around the Federal People's Initiative "for impunity of the termination of pregnancy" launched two years earlier. to support.

Aim and purpose

According to its statutes, the association campaigned “for the right to free and responsible parenthood and motherhood”. She advocated the introduction of sex education in schools and the creation of family planning agencies, fought the inequalities, injustices and abuses associated with abortion, and the legal punishment of abortion. In their opinion, however, termination of pregnancy should only be a last resort, while contraception had to be the first remedy for unwanted pregnancy.

Presidents

The journalist Simone Hauert was the first female president until her resignation in 1977. From 1978 to 1984 followed Carmen Hatz-Stauffer (who had presided over the Swiss Association of Free Democratic Women from 1974 to 1977 ). From 1984 to the dissolution of the association, Anne-Marie Rey , founding member and until then Vice-President of the SVSS, co-chaired the committee, together with the liberal Doris Cohen-Dumani until 1987, with Martine Dondénaz from 1987 to 1993, then with Rose Marie Chapuis.

chronology

In 1973 the SVSS was founded by the initiative committee of the popular initiative for unpunished abortion . The association should create a sponsorship for the initiative and its concerns that is politically and with the women's organizations as broadly supported as possible.

The apparent lack of chances for the initiative in parliament, in the media and in public led the SVSS to a compromise: In June 1975 it launched the initiative to resolve deadlines . This limited the demand for the impunity of the termination of pregnancy to the first 12 weeks after the start of the last period.

Indeed, this second initiative received broad support from political parties and women's organizations. In parliament, however, it was unable to achieve a majority, and in the referendum of September 25, 1977 it was scarce by the people, but clearly rejected by the cantons. The counter-proposal by the Federal Council and Parliament, which provided for a social indication, fared much worse in the referendum vote of March 1978. It was fought both by the progressive side, on the front line, by the SVSS, as well as by the conservatives.

Attempts by the SVSS in the 1980s to launch a new initiative failed because not enough support could be mobilized. The association therefore concentrated on combating the popular initiative "for the right to life" launched by the conservative side . This move was rejected by the electorate in 1985.

From 1979 to 1995 the SVSS operated the HELP pregnancy counseling hotline, on which voluntary employees provided information and provided addresses of doctors and advice centers.

At the suggestion of the SVSS, National Councilor Barbara Haering (SP) submitted a parliamentary initiative in 1993 for the revision of the penal code in terms of a time limit . With intensive lobbying by the SVSS in parliament for nine years, it finally succeeded in making the time limit a breakthrough, albeit with a few compromises . In doing so, it was possible to avoid the fact that the application submitted by the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) to stipulate mandatory counseling and a period of reflection before the termination of pregnancy, based on the German model, found a majority.

In parallel with its work in parliament, the SVSS started a campaign in 1989 for the approval of the “abortion pill” Ru 486 (Mifegyne) in Switzerland. The campaign was necessary because anti-abortion opponents massively mobilized against the approval of the drug. Mifegyne was approved in 1999 and quickly found widespread use in hospitals and gynecologists. In 2007, 57 percent of all abortions in Switzerland were carried out using this medicinal method.

In 1998 the association “Swiss Aid for Mother and Child”, founded by conservative Christian circles, launched a popular initiative as a counter-proposal to the regulation of deadlines. The initiative demanded that the federal government must protect the life of the unborn child and that an abortion should only be permitted in the event of acute physical danger to the life of the pregnant woman. The SVSS expanded its public relations work in order to mobilize against this advance.

In March 2001 the deadline regulation was finally passed by parliament. A referendum was called against the revision of the law by the conservative Christian side as well as by the CVP. In a broad coalition with political parties, women's, youth and specialist organizations, the SVSS led the voting campaign. In the referendum of June 2, 2002, the deadline regulation was approved with 72.2 percent of the votes, the "For Mother and Child" initiative was rejected with 81.8 percent no.

The SVSS disbanded at the end of 2003 after having achieved its goal with the successful referendum on the deadline regulation .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.frauenkommission.ch/pdf/d_3_8_recht.pdf ( Memento from July 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Federal Women's Commission: Women - Power - History , chapter on abortion
  2. ↑ [1] result of the vote
  3. ↑ http://www.svss-uspda.ch/de/abtreibung.htm