China’s lack of sex education is putting millions of young people at risk

By James Griffiths, Nanlin Fang and Serenitie Wang, CNN
Wed November 30, 2016

Lack of formal sex education is linked to a spike in HIV infections
New apps hope to fill the gap and promote safe sex

(CNN)When Xiao Niao was in high school, her teacher gathered all the girls in her class and told them if they were raped they should take the morning after pill.

That was the limit of her formal sex education. For millions of young Chinese people, it's more than they ever got.

As China marks World AIDS Day Thursday, the effects of that missing knowledge is more evident than ever, with growing numbers of HIV infections and staggeringly high abortion rates.

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Source: CNN.com


Researchers may have ‘found’ many of China’s 30 million missing girls

By Simon Denyer November 30, Washington Post

Academics often talk about between 30 and 60 million “missing girls” in China, apparently killed in the womb or just after birth, thanks to a combination of preference for sons and the country’s decades under a repressive one-child policy.

Now researchers in the United States and China think they might have found many — or even most — of them, and argue they might not have been killed after all.

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Source: Washington Post


Brazilian Supreme Court Takes Step Towards Decriminalizing Abortion

Case involving employees of an abortion clinic could set precedent for allowing abortions at the beginning of pregnancies
By plus55 on Nov 30, 2016

Four Brazilian Supreme Court Justices ruled on Tuesday that abortion should not be a crime when performed in the first three months of pregnancy. The decision concerns a specific case around employees of a clandestine abortion in Rio’s metropolitan area. It could, however, set a precedent for broader decisions on the issue.

For Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, the anti-abortion articles in the Criminal Code disrespect women’s basic rights. “Women bear alone the burden of pregnancy. Therefore, there will only exist gender equality if women have the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy or not,” he wrote in his decision.

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Source: Plus55.com


U.S.: Abortion Rights Groups Sue 3 More States As Trump Inauguration Nears

“This is the biggest threat we have seen, to be frank.”
11/30/2016

Laura Bassett Senior Politics Reporter, The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON ― As they prepare for a potentially massive threat to abortion access under the Donald Trump administration, Planned Parenthood and two of its allies on Wednesday announced a slew of new legal battles against abortion restrictions in Missouri, Alaska and North Carolina.

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Source: Huffington Post


Ireland compensates woman forced to travel to Britain for an abortion

Government agreed to pay compensation for trauma to Amanda Mellet after she was forced to obtain a termination of her pregnancy in England

Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent, The Guardian

Wednesday 30 November 2016

Ireland has for the first time in its history compensated a woman for the trauma caused by forcing her to travel to Britain for an abortion.

Pro-choice campaigners in the Republic said the Fine Gael-led minority government’s agreement on Wednesday to pay compensation to Amanda Mellet was highly significant.

Mellet and her husband James took their case all the way to the UN’s Human Rights Committee after the couple were forced to obtain a termination of her pregnancy in England.

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Source: The Guardian


UK: The morning-after pill is safe. So why is it so difficult to access?

by Laura Bates, The Guardian

Stop the patronising consultations. There is no valid reason to restrict women’s access to emergency contraception – or charge so much for it

Wednesday 30 November 2016

A new campaign from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is calling for emergency contraception, commonly known as the morning-after pill, to be sold directly from pharmacy shelves without a mandatory consultation. The campaign highlights the fact that the pill can cost British women up to £30, as much as five times higher than in other European countries, meaning that it could even be cheaper to fly to France and buy it there than to visit a local pharmacy.

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Source: The Guardian


Croatia’s anti-abortion lobby finds new ways to spread its message

Website posing as support tool and centres offering free board are among tactics used to discourage termination of pregnancies
Woman praying

Masenjka Bacic in Split for BIRN

Wednesday 30 November 2016 07.00 GMT

Search the internet in Croatia for abortion clinics and the top result on Google appears, at first glance, to be a website offering information to women about the procedure.

But klinikazapobacaje.com is in reality part of a nationwide campaign aimed at discouraging women from terminating their pregnancies.

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Source: The Guardian


Sri Lanka’s Fifth State Party Report in relation to its examination of Submission to the Committee against Torture

November 29, 2016
by Safe Abortion

Background
On 15 November 2016, the Committee Against Torture (CAT), during its 59th session, examined Sri Lanka’s fifth State party report. In October 2016, the Global Justice Center (GJC) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) jointly submitted a shadow report focused on how Sri Lankan law violates the Convention Against Torture by (1) banning abortion in most circumstances, (2) having an antiquated and flawed rape law and (3) by permitting child marriage.

The CAT has established that restrictions to abortion access, especially in cases of rape, incest, fetal unviability and where the health of the woman is at risk, can amount to cruel and inhuman treatment. The CAT has routinely expressed concern about the absence of marital rape provisions and repeatedly found that a widespread and high rate of sexual violence in a country violates the Convention. The CAT has also found that child marriage is a form of ill-treatment.

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Source: Internatonal Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
(reprinted from Global Justice Center and World Organisation Against Torture)


Ethiopia to Host Africa Regional Conference On Abortion

29 November 2016, Addis Standard (Addis Ababa)

Experts will discuss issues ranging from research to policy into action toward ending unsafe abortion in Africa

Addis Abeba Nov. 29/2016 - The Africa Regional Conference on Abortion: From Research to Policy will be held from today to Friday, December 2, 2016, in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. According to organizers, the Guttmacher Institute, African Population and Health Research Center and Ipas, the conference "builds on a decade of work linking research to action to reduce unsafe abortion in Sub-Saharan Africa."

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Source: All Africa


Canadian debut of abortion pill Mifegymiso delayed to January

by Cassandra Szklarski

TORONTO — The Canadian Press
Published Monday, Nov. 28, 2016 3:08PM EST

The much-anticipated arrival of the abortion pill Mifegymiso in Canada has been delayed until the new year.

The drug’s Canadian distributor, Celopharma Inc., says it now expects to launch “some time in January.”

Company president Paula Tenenbaum gave few details in a terse email exchange but said it was related to “a change in manufacturing site.”

Last month, Tenenbaum said Mifegymiso was on track for a November debut in Canada.

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Source: Globe & Mail, Canadian Press