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NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2007Belize feminist clinicBelize City, Belize--That the Women's Liberation Movement is a world movement is seen at the Belize Family Life Association clinic (BFLA). BFLA has seven reproductive health clinics throughout the country, an English-speaking nation of 266,000 people only a little bit smaller than New Hampshire. While abortion is available only to save the woman's life, for severe physical or mental health problems or fetal impairment--over 365 women were admitted to local hospitals in 2005 due to complications from illegal abortions. Sex under the age of 16 is also illegal, yet Joanne Burke, the clinic director, points out that 28 girls 12 years old or younger gave birth last year. BFLA battles a Catholic hierarchy: fighting for young women to continue their education when pregnant or after they give birth; to talk about reproductive issues in schools. How hard that is can be seen in how a Catholic girls' school built a 12-foot concrete fence topped with barbed wire to separate itself from the clinic. BFLA defies the law by referring women to doctors who perform abortions; and by refusing to report underage youth who come to their clinic for information or for sex-related health concerns. BFLA reaches out to men, offering prostate cancer and HIV/AIDS testing and counseling. It sees 50 to 60 youth a month. And they do all this on only donations plus $5,000 per year from the International Planned Parenthood Federation. They are fighting to change a culture where males don't access healthcare; where families condone young girls having sex with much older men. Less than 20 years ago, if a woman came to a hospital with complications from an abortion, she would receive no care until she revealed who did the procedure. Joanne knew a woman who died because of this outrage. BFLA dreams of a reproductive health bus to make it possible to access the small villages where women have 12 or 14 children with no access to healthcare and no transportation to services. They want to stop women from dying from cervical cancer; stop the spread of HIV, where those getting it now are mostly young women from 14 to 25 years old--the fastest growing segment of the population to contract HIV, which is on the rise in this Catholic country where 33% live below the poverty line. BFLA has helped create a transformation in healthcare and women's reproductive rights in Belize. If you want to help support them, they can always use donations: 2621 Caribbean Shores, Mercy Lane, Belize City, Belize; email: bfla@btl.net --Feminist traveler |
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