“Our Law to Access”: The Role of Women’s Rights Organisations in the Passage and Implementation of Guyana’s Abortion Law
摘要
Guyana is one of two Anglo-Caribbean countries with abortion legislation allowing women access to legal and safe abortions. This accomplishment took years to materialise, with legislation and implementation challenged by political and local anti-abortion movements at every stage. Yet, the methods for its enactment, and implementation at some levels, demonstrate the importance of inclusive approaches to public policy. This research focuses on the work by Guyana’s women’s rights movement which considers the policy “our law to access”. It assesses how their activism, during the consultation period, significantly contributed to the law’s enactment and demonstrates how women’s rights organisations’ post-enactment interventions signal the criticality of non-state actors’ involvement in the public policy process. Drawing on Caribbean Feminist Scholarship, this research offers a critical review of the actions by the women’s movement, as a key non-government actor and an assessment of their actions towards its implementation, against the backdrop of cultural, political and religious resistances against abortion. It concludes by highlighting the current state of the implementation of Guyana’s abortion law legislation and the continued action by the women’s rights movement to ensure full access to abortions in Guyana for all women.