Call for Stories – Safe Abortion Day 2025
In Solidarity We Resist: Our Fight, Our Right!
Abortion is healthcare. Yet across Southern Africa it remains criminalised, inaccessible, or buried under stigma. This year, Gender Links and SRJC, in partnership with the Safe Abortion Alliance of Southern Africa (SAASA), are creating space for real stories that expose these realities, the silences, the barriers, the pain, the resistance, and the care.
Why Your Story Matters
Your lived experience helps us:
- Break the silence around abortion, including Self-Managed Abortion (SMA), as an act of survival and autonomy, not a crime.
- Hold governments accountable for failing to meet their Maputo Protocol commitments on reproductive rights.
- Show the gap between policy and lived reality, pushing for regional policy change.
- Recruit new voices and allies into the movement for reproductive justice through SAASA.
- Build solidarity and show others they are not alone.
What We’re Looking For
- Personal reflections or anonymous accounts of accessing (or being denied) abortion.
- Stories of self-managed abortion, support systems, or barriers faced.
- Experiences that highlight intersections: race, gender, disability, queerness, youth, or migration.
- Creative expressions: art, poetry, visuals that speak to resistance and autonomy.
Formats You Can Use
- Pre-recorded video (for those open to sharing publicly).
- Voice note (can be anonymised).
- Anonymous creative submissions (writing, drawings, digital art)
Your Safety Comes First
- No need to share your name or location.
- All stories treated with confidentiality.
- We will contact you before sharing your story publicly.
- You may opt out at any time
How to Submit
Send your story to:
Deadline: 12 September 2025
Your stories may be anonymously included in the Safe Abortion Day Virtual Roundtable (28 September) with activists, legal experts, and healthcare workers, amplifying lived realities to challenge stigma and inaction.
Because our stories are powerful. Our autonomy is not up for negotiation. Our fight is our right.