I am 32 years old, I live in the south of a capital island, I work as a chambermaid in a hotel, I am married and I have an 8-year-old daughter. I take birth control pills and last month I forgot to take one. I was also sick and was prescribed antibiotics. I don't know what the cause was, but I got pregnant. I couldn't go through with the pregnancy, I didn't know what to do, and I didn't dare say it at home because we were going through a difficult time. So, after a few weeks of great anguish, waiting for my period to come, I went to my doctor and he sent me to have a urine test. I waited more than a week for him to confirm that I was pregnant. That same day I told him that I wanted to have an abortion. The doctor passed me on to the social worker and she informed me that I had to go to the capital.
I had to wait for my "day off" to travel and I went with a lot of uncertainty, but trusting to end the ordeal I was going through. I had no conditions to have another child. Why me? I wondered, if I have always been very careful. But when I arrived at the Area Health Directorate they gave me an envelope and told me that I had to come back three days later to make the request to terminate the pregnancy. I didn't understand anything. "That's what I've come for," I told them. But they insisted that the protocol was like that, that I had to "think about it". That day was Wednesday. I had to come back the following Tuesday. I took the envelope and left, devastated. On the bus, back home, I looked at what was in it. I found information from 2010 about public aid for pregnant women, health coverage and labor rights related to pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood, as well as benefits and aid for the care of children. And what do I want this for? I repeated to myself. Then I looked at my planning and found that I worked on Tuesday. Surely some colleague would change it for me, but what would I invent! Then I realized that it was really six days between both appointments. Of course, she had told me "three working days" and that Saturday was not considered as such. More waiting time and gestation.
On Tuesday I arrived early, thinking that I would resolve the situation. But, to my surprise, after handing in the envelope and signing the request for the IVE, they tell me that they will let me know when to pick up the signed paper. They clarify that the protocol is like that and that they had explained it to me in the first appointment. I didn't deny it. I know that in that first appointment they told me many things, but I was very nervous and I didn't understand almost anything. Again to keep waiting, trusting that the day I had to return I would have a "free" day. Three days later I received a call warning that the document was ready and two days later, when I was free, I went to pick it up.
On the third time, they gave me the referral resolution to the clinic. They told me to call by phone, but I went there hoping that they would do the intervention that day. It was not possible, they gave me an appointment for the following week, a day that I worked! I changed with a colleague, once again, and again on the move. I was very nervous. When they did the ultrasound I was trembling, what if I am more than 14 weeks? When they told me 13 weeks, I breathed. The rest was very simple. When I left there, I felt liberated, but also exhausted. Almost two months of anguish and tension had passed. I have been very afraid of not "making it in time", I have considered myself guilty for the pill that I forgot to take? and I have felt very alone. I think that having a son or a daughter is very important and that every human being has the right to come into this world being wanted and with the conditions to have a dignified life. And I have always been clear that if I became pregnant unintentionally, I would terminate the pregnancy. I never thought it would happen to me, so I had not looked for information about it. But I have to admit that I never thought that to access this benefit they would make it so complicated for us.
This story collects one of the many stories that occur in the Canary Islands, which exemplify the tortuous path that must be taken to access the voluntary termination of a pregnancy "at the request of the woman" - up to 14 weeks -. From a government that defines itself as feminist, it is expected that conditions will be created to build and advance in the guarantee of sexual and reproductive rights as essential elements to achieve real social justice. And this entails ensuring, together with affective and sexual information and education throughout life, universal and free access to sexual and reproductive health services that include, among other benefits, abortion.
Organic Law 2/2010 on sexual and reproductive health and the voluntary termination of pregnancy specifies the responsibility and obligation of public authorities to guarantee this access. However, after ten years of this Law being in force, reality shows the enormous distance that separates the rights recognized in the legal text from their implementation. Moreover, the government of the Canary Islands, throughout these years, has hindered its application in relation to the practices of IVEs and has not developed its educational and preventive measures. In the seven months of life of the government of progress in the Canary Islands we have not seen any initiative in this way either. Moreover, since September the Platform "We decide" requested an interview with the Minister of Health to inform her of a study carried out on the restrictive application of the Law in the Canary Islands in relation to abortion and even today, in the month of February, we are waiting for her.
The latest data published by the MSSI show that in 2018 the Canary Islands occupies the sixth place with the highest number of abortions in the Spanish State, with a rate of 11.56 per 1,000 women between 15 and 44 years, above the state average rate. In relation to ages, the group of women from 20 to 29 years represents 45.3% of IVEs and three out of ten women who had an IVE were under 24 years (31.7%). It is worth mentioning the 483 abortions of women under 20 years, which represent 9.51% of the total, where we find 194 in minors under 18 years and 57 in minors under 16.
The added obstacles in the Canary Islands, in addition to violating fundamental rights, means that IVEs are performed with more weeks of gestation, and that a group of them, especially from the most vulnerable groups, are excluded from the right to terminate the pregnancy by their own decision, as they exceed 14 weeks. Of the total IVEs performed in 2018, 40.7% were performed between week 9 and 14 (23.7% in the State), rising this percentage to 49.1% in minors under 20 years and 66.7% in minors under 15 years. The circuit, full of difficulties, that people who decide to have an abortion in the Canary Islands have to go through, moves away from the consideration of abortion as another health service, which puts people at the center of the intervention, taking into account their diversity; in which close and friendly spaces are generated where they feel accompanied and are given the necessary time to strengthen their decision-making capacity; a health service that is performed in the public health network, a formula that would ensure the universality of the service and reduce the stigma experienced by people who have abortions.
Public policies are defined by the action or inaction of public authorities. The reality is that abortion is still a taboo subject and an issue that is not on the political agenda. The periodic evaluation and research, which would allow to improve the information and implementation of the IVE service in the Canarian Health Service, is non-existent in the Canary Islands. It is very important to achieve a social and human look in public services, taking care that the quality and adequacy of their services is in accordance with the situation of each person, ensuring their attention, accompaniment and follow-up. In her first statements, the Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands declared that she was facing her position with the challenge of "humanizing" health in the Islands. In relation to sexual and reproductive rights, she has a lot to do. For now, we have not seen any progress, we have not even managed to get her to listen to us.
Mary C. Bolaños Espinosa. Harimaguada Collective
