Official Announcement on Reproductive Rights

We are all entitled to human rights. These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn a livable wage. It is our belief that everyone should be able to make decisions about their own body. Every human has sexual and reproductive rights . This means they are entitled to equal access to health services like contraception and safe abortions, to choose if, when, and who they marry, and to decide if they want to have children and if so how many, when and with who. Humans should be able to live without fear of gender-based violence, including rape and other sexual violence, genital mutilation, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. Sexual harassment means any unwelcome sexual behaviour. This could be physical conduct and advances, demanding or requesting sexual favours or using inappropriate sexual language. Sexual violence is when someone is physically sexually assaulted.

Awaken the North stands by the unalienable rights as directed by the United Nations. Adopted in 1945, the Charter of the United Nations sets out as one of its goals “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, [and] in the equal rights of men and women”. Furthermore, Article 1 of the Charter stipulates that one of the purposes of the United Nations is to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms “without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion”. This prohibition of discrimination based on sex is repeated in its Articles 13 (mandate of the General Assembly) and 55 (promotion of universal human rights). In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. It, too, proclaimed the equal entitlements of women and men to the rights contained in it, “without distinction of any kind, such as … sex, ….” In drafting the Declaration, there was considerable discussion about the use of the term “all men” rather than a gender-neutral term. The Declaration was eventually adopted using the terms “all human beings” and “everyone” in order to leave no doubt that the Universal Declaration was intended for everyone, men and women alike. WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly. Article 1, which lays down the philosophy on which the Declaration is based, reads: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. The article thus defines the basic assumptions of the Declaration: that the right to liberty and equality is a human’s birthright and cannot be alienated: and that, because a human is a rational and moral being, they are different from other creatures on earth and therefore entitled to certain rights and freedoms which other creatures do not enjoy.

Article 2, which sets out the basic principle of equality and non discrimination as regards the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, forbids “distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”.

Article 3, the first cornerstone of the Declaration, proclaims the right to life, liberty and security of person -a right essential to the enjoyment of all other rights. This article introduces articles 4 to 21, in which other civil and political rights are set out, including: freedom from slavery and servitude; freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law; the right to an effective judicial remedy; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; the right to a fair trial and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal; the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty; freedom from arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence; freedom of movement and residence; the right of asylum; the right to a nationality; the right to marry and to found a family; the right to own property; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; the right to peaceful assembly and association; and the right to take part in the government of one’s country and to equal access to public service in one’s country.

Article 22, the second cornerstone of the Declaration, introduces articles 23 to 27, in which economic, social and cultural rights -the rights to which everyone is entitled “as a member of society” -are set out. The article characterizes these rights as indispensable for human dignity and the free development of personality, and indicates that they are to be realized “through national effort and international cooperation”. At the same time, it points out the limitations of realization, the extent of which depends on the resources of each State. The economic, social and cultural rights recognized in articles 22 to 27 include the right to social security; the right to work; the right to equal pay for equal work; the right to rest and leisure; the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being; the right to education; and the right to participate in the cultural life of the community.
The concluding articles, articles 28 to 30, recognize that everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the human rights and fundamental freedoms set forth in the Declaration may be fully realized, and stress the duties and responsibilities which each individual owes to his community.

Article 29 states that “in the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society”. It adds that in no case may human rights and fundamental freedoms be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30 emphasizes that no State, group or person may claim any right, under the Declaration, “to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth” in the Declaration.

Furthermore, the H.R.1308 – Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 states unequivacolly that “(3) governments should not substantially burden religious exercise without compelling justification;”.

We see in our own lore and texts that abortion was a common and accepted occurance in our Ancestors lives, and retained a significant spiritual association.

The references to abortion potions, herbs, tinctures, and spells are staggering their numbers. The primary advice of our predicessors was caution (birth control). If pregnancy did occur, medieval women could resort to abortion (or infanticide), but had to contend with the view on whether or not this was socially acceptable, or even criminal. In his book The Criminalization of Abortion in the West: Its Origins in Medieval Law, Wolfgang Muller notes that the medieval thinkers had differing ideas on when the fetus constituted a living-human being. Some believed that when the unborn child had formed extremities like arms and legs it signified personhood, while others thought that the baby would get a soul around 40 days after conception. Similar notions existed in Islamic thought, although the fetus might not be considered a child until as late as 120 days. The idea that life began at conception was not typical in medieval thought – this notion emerged in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation.

In the article, ”Marvellous Secrets’: Birth Control in European Short Fiction, 1150-1650,’ Etienne Van de Walle finds that in medieval literature, especially short stories such as the fabliaux, you would find no shortage of people having sex outside of marriage – from adulterous affairs to sex with prostitutes, and that pregnancy was an occasional outcome. Van de Walle notes that these characters sometimes try to use contraception or take drugs to induce an abortion, but these methods almost always fail. In one comic tale found in the Facetiae by Poggio Bracciolini a monk and an abbess have a sexual liaison. The woman is afraid of becoming pregnant, but the monk gives her a necklace that holds a folded piece of paper where he had written a magical formula that will prevent her from having a child. Soon after she does conceive and the monk flees. The abbess takes out the folded piece of paper and reads it:

‘Asca imbarasca, non facias te supponi, et non implebis tascam.’
(‘Don’t let yourself get laid, and you will not fill the cup.’)

In the corpus of Old Norse sources that is often referred to as “Saga Literature,” one can find a handful of narratives that reappear numerous times, sometimes with little changes between them. One of these is the tale of the Christianization of Iceland. Generally thought to have occurred around the year 1000, this event was prompted by increasing division within Icelandic society caused by the adoption of the new religion by a segment of the population, as well as the often violent proselytism of the Norwegian monarch. As Christians threatened to secede from their heathen countrymen by refusing to follow the ancient pre-Christian law, Þorgeirr goði, the law-speaker of the national assembly, was selected to find a solution.

Following what suspiciously looks like some sort of magical/ shamanic ritual where he isolated himself and covered his body with an animal skin for a few days, Þorgeirr came back before the assembly to declare that:

Allir menn skyldi kristnir vera ok skírn taka, þeir er áðr váru óskírðir á landi hér. En of barnaútburð skyldu standa in fornu lög ok of hrossakjötsát.
(“All the men should be Christian and take baptism, those who in the land were unbaptized. Yet that the exposure of infants should remain from the ancient law, as well as the consumption of horse meat.”)

Considering that Íslendingabók is widely considered to be the oldest extant prose narrative in Scandinavia, and that variations of this tale are found in no less than five other medieval Icelandic texts (for example Njáls saga), one ought to consider the information preserved therein as among the most reliable that can be found within Old Norse Icelandic literature.

This passage tells us two things: that Þorgeirr feared that the Christian Icelanders would bring division and conflict in the land, and that, despite figuratively bending the knee and agree to their demands, a number of concessions were possible. Besides the exposure of infants and the consumption of horse flesh, the text mentions as well private heathen sacrifices/ rituals as one last right heathen Icelanders would conserve following baptism.

While it is later stated that these few concessions were eventually overturned, it is telling that, for ancient heathens, the right to control reproduction was put on the same level of importance as the very act of worshiping the Gods themselves. One could thus understand that the practice of abortion must have been a deeply-entrenched one, something that was seen as being at the core of the ancient heathen religious identity and worldview.

Awaken the North believes it is ultimately the choice of each Heathen should they find themself pregnant to make the choice they deem appropriate in their given situation. We hold that it is a religious right to make this choice, and should not be removed by any governmental agency, whether at a state or federal level.