Never mind America, access to abortion is a ‘nightmare’ for many Australians

Never mind America, access to abortion is a 'nightmare' for many Australians
by Van Badham
Monday 30 January 2017

Despite widespread popular support, legislation around abortion in Australia remains subject to political deal-making, leaving access for regional women shamefully limited.

It was unsurprising to American women that their new president moved so swiftly to limit women’s access to reproductive autonomy. Less than a week into his regime, President Trump has reinstated a Ronald Reagan policy known as the “global gag rule”.

Abortion wars are, of course, a visible hallmark of American politics, where denying a woman’s right to choose has long been used as a wedge by Republicans to chip white voters away from supporting Democrat candidates. But while a thumping majority of Australians support women’s abortion rights – around 80%, according to reliable polls – the gap between what we say we believe in here and what we legislate is larger than many would imagine.

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Source, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/30/never-mind-america-access-to-abortion-is-a-nightmare-for-many-australians

Kenya: More civic education is necessary to protect women in abortion web

More civic education is necessary to protect women in abortion web

Monday January 30 2017

Eyebrows will be raised regarding your religious affiliation if, as a private medical practitioner, you advertise your health facility as a centre offering comprehensive abortion care.

This is because of the stigma associated with abortion.

Unsafe abortion is the leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity.

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Source, The Nation: http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/More-civic-education-is-necessary/440806-3793138-bshm0q/

30.01.2017

reducing abortion stigma

Women Across the World Will Die Thanks to Trump’s Misguided Abortion Policies

Women Across the World Will Die Thanks to Trump’s Misguided Abortion Policies

The Jewish concept of pikuach nefesh instructs us to do everything in our power to save a life, even if it means ignoring biblical law. Why, then, should we sit on our hands while women suffer due to the uninformed and cruel decision of a few white men in America?

by Shira Berman
Jan 29, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump’s first ten days in office were replete with shocking executive orders and fulfilled campaign promises. One action that reverberated across the globe was the reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, or the global gag rule as it’s commonly called.

This policy typically prevents international organizations that receive U.S. family planning funds from providing or even discussing abortion, even if done with their own independent funds, since U.S. funds are already prohibited from covering abortion (both domestically and worldwide).

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Source, Haretz.com: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.768304

Iran: Warning on Unsafe Abortions

Warning on Unsafe Abortions
Saturday, January 28, 2017

From among the 1.7 million pregnancies in a year, 1.5 million lead to live births while 200,000 end in termination of pregnancy, said Muhammad Esmael Motlaq, director general of the Office for Population, Families, and Schools at the Health Ministry.

“This number is the official estimate since illegal abortions are not registered. However, the rate of illegal abortions has tripled over the past 15 years,” he said on the sidelines of the conference ‘Population Policies and Maternal and Child Health’, at Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Khuzestan Province, Wednesday.

According to the Health Ministry, the annual number of legal medical termination of pregnancies (MTP) is around 6,000. During the first half of the current year, 5,720 women sought MTP of which 4,019 were granted approval.

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Source, Financial Tribune: https://financialtribune.com/articles/people/58292/warning-on-unsafe-abortions

28.01.2017

Featured

News

Iranian Society of Embryology and Reproductive Biology

maternal death

Mohammad Mahdi Akhundi

World Health Organization

US abortion funding cuts hit Indian NGOs

By Divya Rajagopal, ET Bureau
Jan 28, 2017

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Source, Economic Times, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/us-abortion-funding-cuts-hit-indian-ngos/articleshow/56820814.cms

How Trump abortion funding cuts could affect Africa

How Trump abortion funding cuts could affect Africa
By Anne Soy, BBC Africa health correspondent

28 January 2017

Donald Trump's pro-abortion funding ban has infuriated many global health organisations as they say it will unintentionally lead to more abortions and more deaths in Africa.

The US president signed the executive order to stop federal money going to international groups which perform or provide information on abortions during his first week in office.

Known as the "Mexico City Policy", or global gag rule by critics, it was no surprise that he reinstated it. First introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, it has been become a game of policy ping pong between Republican and Democrat presidents.

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Source, BBC.com: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38768901

U.S.: What the Anti-Abortion Movement Has Won

What the Anti-Abortion Movement Has Won
By Nora Caplan-Bricker
January 28, 2017

The anti-abortion-rights March for Life rally has occurred every January since 1974—the year after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade established the right to abortion. The first march, according to organizers, ended on the western steps of the U.S. Capitol, and attracted a crowd of roughly twenty thousand. This year, the group had reportedly hoped that their rally on Friday would draw numbers to compete with last weekend’s Women’s March on Washington, which attracted at least half a million protesters. Instead, attendance at the March for Life was estimated in the thousands—a fairly typical turnout, as some attendees told the Washington Post. The Washington, D.C., Metro recorded normal ridership for a Friday. The rally did not ripple the daily rhythms of the city—and, just as Donald Trump has painted a picture of liberal journalists hell-bent on minimizing the size of his Inauguration Day crowd, some conservatives are blaming the media.

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Source, The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-the-anti-abortion-movement-has-won

28.01.2017

Canada to up foreign aid for women’s health in face of U.S. cuts

Canada to up foreign aid for women's health in face of U.S. cuts
By Eric DuVall
Jan. 28, 2017

Canadian leaders said they are prepared to increase international aid for women's health programs in the wake of a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to cut $600 million in funding over his administration's opposition to abortion.

The announcement by Canadian International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau came on Friday, the same day thousands of anti-abortion protesters flooded the National Mall in Washington for the annual March for Life protest. Trump signaled his "full support" for the marchers and dispatched Vice President Mike Pence and adviser Kellyanne Conway to address the gathering.

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Source, UPI: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/01/28/Canada-to-up-foreign-aid-for-womens-health-in-face-of-US-cuts/3631485650539/

Dutch commit $10 million to replace lost U.S. abortion funding

Dutch commit $10 million to replace lost U.S. abortion funding
Sat Jan 28, 2017

The Netherlands has committed $10 million for an initiative to replace funding for abortion services in developing countries that will be lost due to U.S. President Donald Trump's ban on financing foreign groups that provide abortions.

Trump reinstated a policy on Monday requiring overseas organizations that receive U.S. family-planning funds to certify they do not perform abortions or provide abortion advice as a method of family planning.

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Source, Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-dutch-abortion-idUSKBN15C0OW

The cost of “pro-life”? A woman’s life

The cost of “pro-life”? A woman’s life.
01/27/2017

OpenDemocracy
Emma Saloranta Winiecki
Global Coordinator for Digital Development at Plan International and Co-Founder, The Mom Pod

Most people don’t have the time to search for statistics on every issue that hits the news to figure out what is a real grown-up fact and what is an ”alternative fact”. Today, many people who think women should not have access to abortion will be protesting for what they claim to be a “pro-life” stance in Washington D.C., and several people from Trump’s administration, including his VP, will give remarks at this rally. To save you time, I went ahead and put together a list of some real facts about this topic.

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Source, Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-cost-of-pro-life-a-womans-life_us_588b4ad3e4b0da1b94946dba