Peru Hotline, Day 1

In the press conference, the Spokespersons for the hotline, Fátima Valdivia and Arón Núnez-Curto, spoke about the need for the hotline, both as a way to get this much needed information into the hands of women in Peru, and as a way to push public debate on this issue. Given that there are at least 376,000 abortions performed annually in Peru, and all of these under conditions of clandestinity (the number of abortions performed legally is very small), it is an issue that affects all women in Peru. Of course, the women who are wealthy and/or very computer literate can either pay large amounts of money to get a safe abortion in a well-run clandestine clinic, or travel abroad, or at least access the reliable information on a number of websites, such as those of the World Health Organization, or Women on Waves. However, most women are not able to pay for the Internet and/or do not know where to look for this information, which has already showed that it can lower the complications from unsafe abortion, and protect women's lives and health.

The spokespeople from the hotline were joined by Veronica Marzano, from the abortion hotline in Argentina, and Susan Davies, from Women on Waves, to speak about the international and regional aspects of this project.

To speak about the different social and medical aspects of the abortion situation in Peru, feministas Gina Vargas, Maria Emma Mannarelli y María Ysabel Cedano participated in a panel discussion, joined as well by Dr. Miguel Gutiérrez, a specialist in sexual and reproductive rights.