History of FIAPAC

FIAPAC was founded by:

During the International Conference "Abortion Matters" in Amsterdam in 1996, the need for a federation of professionals in the field of abortion and contraception became obvious. Therefore, FIAPAC was founded on Jan-25-1997 with the aim of providing a platform for all practical and ethical aspects of unwanted pregnancy and abortion.

Here you can find a short history of FIAPAC:

In 1996 the first international conference on abortion took place in Amsterdam on the occasion of the 25th birthday of Stimezo, the Federation of Dutch abortion providers. This conference has been a great success and was followed by the so-called “Amsterdam Declaration”. 

The conference inspired some persons, Dr. Elizabeth Aubény (Fr.) and Dr. Marijke Alblas (Nl), to meet afterward in Barcelona in order to establish an international platform for professionals to inform and discuss all issues concerning the practical and moral aspects related to abortion and contraception on a more permanent base.

This meeting resulted in the foundation of 2 separate Federations: ‘ISAD’, (International Society of Abortion Doctors, strictly for medical doctors), and some months later, in February 1997 FIAPAC: ‘International Federation of Professional Abortion and Contraception Providers’  was founded in Paris by among others the Dutch and Belgian representatives of abortion centers under the vital inspiration of dr. Elizabeth Aubény.

In September of that same year, the first meeting took place in Holland. About 35 persons – medical doctors as well as nurses and social workers - were present mainly from the founding organizations in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. One of the main issues of this meeting was the setting of clinics or centers where abortions are performed and the education of specialized doctors, nurses and, social workers.

At the second two-day meeting in Brussels in 1998 there were already more nationalities who participated, like Germany and Austria. An important matter that has been discussed was the registration of abortions in different countries and the - sometimes political - reasons why registrations were, and still are not always done correctly.

 

The 1999 meeting in Maastricht (one day) had more than 100 participants from nearly all European countries. Abortion tourism was one of the issues.

In Paris in November 2000, the 2-day meeting has been visited by 250 participantsAtomium also from the USA and for the first time from some of the eastern European countries. Medical abortion got a great deal of attention at his meeting.

The fifth conference in Amsterdam in 2002 with more than 350 participants proved that a specialized meeting on abortion fulfills a need. Apart from the new results on medical abortion and other medical issues, there has been a lot of interest shown in the fact that abortion figures are growing, mainly because of the increasing immigration in the European Community.

The congress in Vienna has shown once more how much abortion providers, may they be medical doctors, nurses- midwives, or social workers, are positive about sharing their experience.

Das RiesenradFrom the start, it has been one of the goals of FIAPAC - apart from the organization of a 2-year congress - to publish a bi-annual paper to keep the members updated. The fact that almost all our members are full-time workers and money funding is a problem (not many pharmaceuticals or political organizations are ready to sponsor abortion providers) we were forced to quit the realization of this project.

Nevertheless, we have the impression that the political interest in our conferences is growing if you take into consideration that at the Vienna conference, two members of the European Parliament and two local authorities participated.

We now are in the process of finding an alternative way to create a “year-round” platform for professionals to discuss all issues concerning abortion. The internet could be a solution for those members who agree to have their name on a special database for that purpose.

Since the number of participants at the conferences and the number of paying members of Fiapac is growing we have good hope that Fiapac will continue to keep its idealistic standard and may realize some of its goals.