International Women's Day Recognized Worldwide, Abortion Rights Discussed At Events

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Abortion
Article Date: 11 Mar 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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Events were held worldwide on Saturday to mark International Women's Day, which advocates used to highlight issues such as abortion rights and others related to women's health, AFP/Google.com reports. International Women's Day has been recognized annually on March 8 for nearly 100 years, according to AFP/Google.com.

In Italy, events marking the day focused on abortion rights, which are a focus of the country's parliamentary elections in April. Events discussing abortion rights also were held in Poland and other European countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, women marked the day by demanding punishment for people who commit sexual violence against women. Events held in other countries focused on reducing violence against women and promoting equality between women and men (AFP/Google.com, 3/9). In China, events focused on overhauling the country's one-child-per-family policy, the South China Morning Post reports (Lai, South China Morning Post, 3/8).

The Indian government marked the day by announcing a plan that would award monetary incentives to parents of girls in an effort to reduce sex-selective abortions in the country, AFP/France24 reports. Under the plan, families would receive payments totaling $5,000 until girls are age 18 as long as they are attending school and do not marry. The government plans to spend about $2.5 million over the next year on the plan, which is expected to benefit more than 100,000 girls, according to Renuka Chowdhury, women and child development minister (Gupta, AFP/France24, 3/8). According to the Morning Post, the Indian government plans to launch programs to reduce sex-selective abortion in seven states where the male-to-female ratio is "particularly alarming" (Dhillon, South China Morning Post, 3/8).

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