Kenya: What situations allow for ending pregnancy early

Nov. 28, 2016
By JOHN MUCHANGI, @jomunji, Kenya Star

The Constitution does not permit abortion but provides an exception.

Article 26(4) allows abortion if in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is a need for emergency treatment or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.

This is an advancement from the old constitution which only allowed abortion to protect the pregnant woman’s life.

Evelyne Opondo, the regional director for Africa at the Nairobi-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, says Kenyan women are yet to benefit from the new law. She says thousands of women continue to die in illegal, unsafe abortion procedures.

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Source: Kenya Star


Malawi: Rev. Sembereka backs Termination of Pregnancy Bill, insists on respect for minority rights

November 28, 2016 Elijah Phimbi - Nyasa Times

Executive Board Member for Centre for Development of People (CEDEP) Reverend Macdonald Sembereka has insisted that Malawi needs at all cost to adopt the newly proposed Abortion Laws which he said will greatly assist in reducing cases of maternal deaths.

Sembereka was speaking prior to the March protest against the legalization of Abortion in Malawi as well as issues to do with same sex marriages.

Rev. Sembereka told Nyasa Times on Sunday 27th September 2016 that issues to do with safe abortion require a sober analysis.

“There’s a distortion that where a law admits such then there will be a blanket licence for anyone to undergo such. However, science and evidence has it that many abortions are done unsafely and women’s lives are lost where such could be prevented, as a nation and perhaps
churches aren’t we called to good stewardship and being responsible creators,” Reverend Sembereka said.

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Source: Nyasa Times


Coalition Brings Together Experts for the Africa Regional Conference on Abortion: From Research to Policy

November 28, 2016, News Release, Guttmacher.org

Working to Transform Research into Action toward Ending Unsafe Abortion in All Parts of Africa

The Africa Regional Conference on Abortion: From Research to Policy will be held from Tuesday, November 29 to Friday, December 2, 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This conference builds on a decade of work linking research to action to reduce unsafe abortion in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The three-day event will bring together 250 researchers, policymakers, advocates, health care providers, youth, journalists and donors who are focused on reducing the detrimental impact of unsafe abortion on African women, especially young women and adolescents, as well as on their families and on society as a whole.

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Source: Guttmacher.org


New Zealand: ALRANZ November 2016 Newsletter

ALRANZ November 2016 Newsletter

News
Prochoice Protests in Thames
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Conference
Values Clarification Workshop
News Roundup

Events
TRAPPED screening

Obituaries
Tribute to Valerie Scott QSM JP

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Source: ALRANZ


Abortion News Without the Stigma

 Abortion-News-logoNew Website Tool Presents Breaking News on Abortion Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, November 26, 2016

People looking for current and past news about abortion rights now have an easy-to-use tool. A new interactive website is available, which posts breaking news on abortion rights from around the world. As well as news, the website also posts opinion, commentary, videos, podcasts, film and book reviews, and other media about abortion.

Please check out the new website here: http://www.abortion-news.info

“Readers looking for up-to-date information about what’s happening on the abortion issue in countries around the world should find this site a useful resource, said Dr. Christian Fiala, the website’s team lead and a gynecologist who provides abortions. Dr. Fiala explained that everything posted is automatically added to the website’s Archives. “The website is entirely searchable using keywords, and categories such as date, topic, country, and region.”

In addition, readers can subscribe to a news feed, as well as submit news links to be posted.

“A key advantage is that we don’t post anti-choice news or links to other inaccurate pieces that are biased against abortion,” said Joyce Arthur, the website moderator and an abortion rights activist in Canada. “Readers can be assured that they are getting mainstream news from respected sources, as well as informed views from those who support women’s fundamental right to self-determination, including the right to abortion.”

The website is operated by the Initiative for Reproductive Health Information (IRHI) / Initiative zur Information über Reproduktive Gesundheit.

END

Contact:


MILES (Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Rights) denounces the detention of a Chilean woman accused of having an abortion

by Safe Abortion, Nov 25, 2016

The Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (MILES) today denounced the fact that a Colombian woman of 32 years of age was detained at Antofagasta by the Sexual Crimes Brigade of the IDPS for allegedly aborting a fetus of 18 weeks. She was said to have taken three doses of misoprostol and then gone to the Medical Center North (CAN), where she was arrested and detained by the Office of the Prosecutor.

“This situation is inhumane. Women are treated like criminals because the State has been unable to regulate and facilitate the termination of pregnancy, even for women at risk of losing their lives by the absence of this care,” said MILES. “Instead of being helped, the woman was put in the pillory in public, without any concern about the deep psychological and physical unease that she must be feeling. This is a flagrant violation of her human rights.”

“The government and legislators must show the decency to adopt the pending abortion law reform, because every day that passes without this law, there are egregious abuses of women’s health and lives. The State must respond to the demands and needs of the people, the majority of whom endorse the abortion bill, as all the opinion polls show.”

SOURCE: Miles por los derechose sexuales y reproductivos, 18 November 2016 ; PHOTO

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion


UN Human Rights Council says: reduce maternal mortality and amend the abortion law in Uganda

by Safe Abortion, Nov 25, 2016

Among the recommendations the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) members made to the government of Uganda as part of its review of the country’s human rights record this year was one to revise its abortion legislation.

The Ugandan Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and the Center for Reproductive Rights submitted a shadow letter in March 2016 to the HRC review in which they called for greater attention to all aspects of maternal mortality and morbidity and showed why less improvement has occurred than is hoped for. They also discussed the criminalization of abortion and other reproductive health services as a barrier that interferes with access to safe health care services. They also said: “While the Ugandan government has ratified the Maputo Protocol and has repeatedly recognized unsafe abortion as a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, the government has entered a reservation on this article which would have expanded access to safe abortion. They also expressed concern about the ambiguity and misinformation surrounding the legality of abortion and post-abortion services.

Under Ugandan law, they say, “abortion is permitted only to preserve the life, mental and physical health of the pregnant woman. However, the Ministry of Health’s National Guidelines and Services Standards for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights expands grounds for permitting legal abortion to include cases such as sexual violence and incest and outlines comprehensive abortion and post-abortion care standards. The narrow interpretation of abortion laws by the courts and other government bodies, as well as extremely restricted access to relevant information, have resulted in misinformation about the legality of abortion among the general public, health care providers, law enforcement officers, the judiciary, and regulators… The ambiguity in the law further deters health care professionals from providing safe abortion services… [Yet] most doctors and other trained providers mistakenly believe that there is a complete prohibition on abortion. Due to this, they are reluctant to provide the comprehensive services outlined in the Reproductive Health Guidelines for fear of being subjected to criminal liability.”

In June 2015, the Ugandan Ministry of Health issued “Standards & Guidelines for Reducing Morbidity and Mortality from Unsafe Abortion in Uganda,” which contains “practical and standardized information to various stakeholders from a range of sectors that will help reduce morbidity and mortality due to unsafe abortion.” However, the publication was delayed until recently.

The Ugandan government supported a number of recommendations made at the HRC review, including that they should strengthen measures to fight against maternal mortality and morbidity with a human rights-based approach, ensure a sufficient health budget and full and equal access to health services. They said there was support for strengthening measures to address maternal deaths and ensuring access to reproductive health services, but that abortion law reform was not a priority.

SOURCE: CEHURD Shadow Letter, March 2016 ; Center for Reproductive Rights, 15 November 2016 ; VISUAL

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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion


A story from Spain: “The doctors’ right to object nearly cost me my life”

Nov 25, 2016
by Safe Abortion

The health system in Galicia, northwest Spain, was ordered to compensate a woman who lost her uterus after a hospital refused to do an abortion as an emergency obstetric procedure and sent her 354 miles to Madrid, so that she nearly lost her life. The events happened four years ago. The woman learned that the fetus she was carrying had an anomaly incompatible with life only seven months into her pregnancy, due to errors during antenatal diagnosis.

She was then unable to find anyone who would terminate the pregnancy, either in her own town in Galicia or in any of Galicia’s other public hospitals. Eventually, the Galician public health service, SERGAS, declared that “in order to respect the professionals’ right to objection on moral grounds”, the authorities would pay for termination of the pregnancy in a private clinic in Madrid, by which time she was into her 32nd week of pregnancy.

She had to make the trip by car with her partner. She had been having vaginal pains for some days but was told by the hospital it was just wind. In fact, the pain was due to an irregularity in her uterus, affected by the pregnancy. By the time she arrived at the clinic in Madrid, she was bleeding heavily and had to be transferred to a hospital for an emergency caesarean section to remove the fetus, which died soon after. Her uterus had to be removed to stop the bleeding, so now she is unable to have any more children.

The Galician public health service has been ordered to pay out €270,000 in compensation for negligence. This negligence has caused “physical and psychological damage for which there is no compensation”, according to the magistrate who ordered the payment. The woman has been receiving counselling since her loss. Following the court’s decision, the President of Galicia made a public apology to Paula – not her real name – on behalf of the authorities, while declaring he would looking for a formula that would reconcile the right of Galician women to an abortion with doctors’ rights to object on moral grounds to carrying out an abortion.

Paula’s lawyer, Francisca Fernández, says that her client’s case is by no means an isolated one. She has been involved in two other cases where women are suing the public health services in Galicia on account on consequences of conscientious objection. Objection to performing an abortion on moral grounds is covered by Spain’s 2010 abortion law (Article 19.2) but only as long as it does not affect the patient’s access to care. The 2010 law also says that the termination of pregnancies due to fetal anomaly or incurable illness should preferably be carried out in public health service centres as they are more complicated and often required in later pregnancy.

Yet a report entitled Deficiencias e inequidad en los servicios de salud sexual y reproductiva en España” compiled by 13 organizations and published by Médicos del Mundo, highlights that in 2014, not one abortion was carried out in public hospitals in Aragon, Extremadura, Castile-La Mancha and Murcia: all were referred to private clinics.

The President of the National Federation of Family Planning (FPFE), Luis Enrique Sánchez, believes that one of the main reasons that some public hospitals don’t carry out abortions is that the health authorities have not insisted on it as an obligation, allowing gynaecological units to dodge the issue, citing organizational difficulties, a shortage of surgeons or other resources for doing so. “It’s a lack of political will from those in charge of health,” says Sánchez.

SOURCE: El País (English version), by Cristina Huete (translation Heather Galloway), 9 November 2016 ; PHOTO, Getty Images (segment), Madrid, 2013

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion


Is Bill C-225 a stepping stone to restrict abortion rights in Canada?

November 24, 2016
November-December 2016 issue, THIS Magazine

Behind the controversial bill that, if passed, could add charges to offences committed against pregnant individuals where the fetus is also harmed

Courtney Dickson @dicksoncourtney

Cassandra Kaake was seven months pregnant when she was murdered in 2014, leaving her family and friends to deal with not one, but two tragic losses.

In the wake of Kaake’s death, Jeff Durham, father of the unborn child, whom the parents planned to name Molly, called for a change to the Criminal Code. He demanded that unborn children of assault victims be recognized as people, making it possible to punish assailants for their crimes not only against the adult, but also the fetus.

[Note: Bill C-225 was defeated in Parliament on Oct 19]
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Source: THIS Magazine


US: Chasing Abortion Rights Across the State Line

November 24, 2016, NY Times
by Linda Greenhouse

Half slave and half free. The last time the United States split into two countries, it didn’t work out at all well.

If that sounds like a hyperbolic reaction to the yawning red state, blue state divide, so be it. It’s prompted by the picture that President-elect Donald J. Trump painted the other day of what would happen if he achieved his goal of appointing enough Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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Source: NY Times