Istalia

[XanderOne]

Tragedy in Ingona: young woman dies from clandestine abortion

The debate on denied rights erupts in the wake of the current social unrest that seems set to grow

A pro-choice demonstartion

March 5647

INGONA - A 19-year-old girl, who came from a small village in the countryside of Ingona Province, died alone in a dark room on the outskirts of the provincial capital (Region of Fidelia). Her name will not be released due to her family's wishes, but the news of her tragic end, following a botched clandestine abortion, has quickly spread, sparking a wave of grief and anger.

Initial reports speak of an interruption of pregnancy carried out in precarious hygienic conditions and without qualified medical assistance. The young woman, according to hospital sources, arrived at the emergency room in critical condition and despite the doctors' attempts, it was not possible to save her life.

The reaction of civil associations and youth movements was immediate, taking to the streets in many cities across the country to loudly demand a reform of the current legislation on abortion but quickly it became a demad for broader reforms in terms of civil rights. “She did not die by accident, she died by a law that turned its back on her,” declared the spokesperson of "Libere di Scegliere", one of the organizations promoting the protest.

Politics, as often happens in these circumstances, reacted late: exponents of progressive forces expressed condolences and called for a review of the current legislation; from the more conservative ranks, however, appeals for caution were raised, underlining the risk of ethical drifts and defending the current legislative framework, which allows abortion only in case of danger to the mother's life and other few specific cases.

For decades, issues such as abortion, LGBT+ rights, gender identity or the regulation of non-heterosexual relationships have remained in the background of the national debate, not because of social disinterest, but because collective attention was elsewhere: on post-war reconstruction, on economic recovery, on the consolidation of institutional structures. Now, however, something is changing.

The current social ferment, fueled by new generations more aware and determined, has felt reinvigorated in recent years by the important signals that have come from the institutional summit of the State, the Crown, which with sensitivity and attention has intercepted the most pressing concerns expressed by citizens and led to the formation of the Moretti government precisely to respond to these requests. In this climate, new demands are taking shape and urgently require space in the public debate.

The Constitution of the Imperial State of Istalia is, in many of its articles (the very first ones being those related to the rights and freedom of the citizens), a bastion of fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of thought, speech, faith, press, etc... the right to life, to physical integrity, the rejection of the death penalty, the guarantee of a fair trial, etc... a solid system born from a very long democratic tradition and protection of the dignity of the person, a legal system that the Imperial State has restored precisely in continuation of that great and prideful tradition.

But on many other issues the Constitution itself is silent: the right to gender identity, the possibility of contracting marriage between people of the same sex, the right to safe abortion, to adoption for all couples, to assisted procreation, to affective and sexual expression in public spaces, ecc...: these are issues left to ordinary legislation, which to this day remains, in large part, based on the legal system established before the Fourth Imperial Restoration.

From the legacy of the Seventh Republic to the most recent experience of the Socialist Republic, Istalia has maintained a hybrid legislation. Some openings, such as the decriminalization of adultery or the introduction of state-funded sex reassignment surgery for low-incomes, are still accompanied by very stringent limits: legal sex change is considered a medical treatment to alleviate the suffering of the interested party, but it is odly not legally recognized, the production of pornography is still prohibited and its use is also very limited, as is assisted procreation for those who do not fall within narrow medical criteria.
Civil unions for same-sex couples, often defined more as a legal form of “concubinage”, exist but do not provide for adoption, nor full equality with heterosexual marriages. And although there are anti-discrimination and anti-bullying laws, these are applied inconsistently: extremely rigorous in the school, public life and social media spheres, but weak or disregarded in the world of work.

A situation partly inherited from the long influence of Aurorian Church which, as the official state religion for almost four centuries, since the time of the Third Empire, has shaped the legal and social culture of the country under a conservative and paternalistic vision, a situation that has not essentially changed under the subsequent Socialist Republic, which in fact has never excessively focused on such issues, disinterested in them we could say, espousing a position of maintaining the status quo on such matters that involve the morality of individuals and the community, probably so as not to offend the general popular sensibility, engaging in the construction and acceptance of the new socialist regime (and in any case, historically, it has not been unusual to see communist regimes that have assumed typically conservative positions on such areas, in the wake of their positioning themselves even in the role of source of morality and ethics of the nation and often having to relate to very conservative populations, especially if born from revolutions that have overthrown regimes of this type).

In any case, the death of a young woman should never be the price to pay for political inertia, yet it is often in the face of tragedy that societies awaken. Today, in Istalia, that awakening seems to have begun. The political forces must now decide whether to remain anchored to an increasingly fragile balance or to courageously welcome the demands that come from those who look to the future with new eyes.