New website offers US women help to perform their own abortions

New website offers US women help to perform their own abortions

With reproductive rights under threat, Women Help Women gives legal and medical advice to women who may be taking matters into their own hands

Molly Redden

Thursday 27 April 2017

Fearful that Donald Trump’s presidency poses a once-in-a-generation threat to US reproductive rights, an international advocacy group this week is unveiling what is sure to be a controversial response: a web portal dedicated to helping US women terminate their own pregnancies with abortion-inducing drugs they have obtained outside of a medical setting.

The project, launched by Women Help Women, is a nod to the fact that many US women may already be taking matters into their own hands as abortion options in this country contract.

Continued at source: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/27/abortion-website-women-help-women

U.S.: Donald Trump will abolish women’s right to abortion, warns expert US doctor

Donald Trump will abolish women's right to abortion, warns expert US doctor

Exclusive: 'It was criminal once before, and it is their intent to make it criminal again,' says Dr Willie Parker

Maya Oppenheim
Thursday 27 April 2017

A leading abortion doctor has warned the legal right to have an abortion will be abolished across America under Donald Trump.

Dr Willie Parker, a prominent abortion advocate in the deep south of America, said he expected the Trump presidency to succeed in overturning Roe v Wade. President Trump has already pledged to do all he can to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision which legalised abortion nationwide in 1973.

Continued at source: The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-abortion-illegal-dr-willie-parker-planned-parenthood-roe-v-wade-pro-life-choice-neil-a7670496.html

U.S.: Group launches site to help women self-induce abortions at home, citing restrictive U.S. laws

Group launches site to help women self-induce abortions at home, citing restrictive U.S. laws

By Sandhya Somashekhar
April 27, 2017

An international advocacy group concerned about restrictive laws in the United States plans to help women use the abortion pill at home, offering online advice and counseling about how to use medications the Food and Drug Administration says should be taken only by prescription and under medical supervision.

Women Help Women, a three-year-old organization headquartered in the Netherlands, this week launched a website to provide one-on-one counseling services for women early in pregnancy who may have illegally obtained the pill on the Internet or through other means.

Continued at source: Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/website-aims-to-help-women-self-induce-abortions-using-drugs/2017/04/26/119a1ba8-29c4-11e7-be51-b3fc6ff7faee_story.html

U.S.: Spreading Plan C to End Pregnancy

Spreading Plan C to End Pregnancy

Patrick Adams
April 27, 2017

After lunch on a Saturday in late January at her home in Los Angeles, Francine Coeytaux, 63, an abortion rights activist, retrieved a Priority Mail envelope from her office and announced to her guests, a group of young women she had recruited to her cause, the results of a recent experiment. “A couple weeks ago, we Googled ‘abortion pills’ and tried ordering from a few of the sites that came up,” she said.

Continued at source: NY Times: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/opinion/spreading-plan-c-to-end-pregnancy.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170427&nlid=44906087&tntemail0=y&_r=0&referer

Australia: This Chart Shows How Much Abortion Costs In Each State

This Chart Shows How Much Abortion Costs In Each State

Why are you being charged more than $700 to take $40 pills?
Posted on April 27, 2017
Gina Rushton
BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia

And women in Victoria and South Australia can access free surgical abortions provided by a hospital, while women elsewhere can pay up to thousands of dollars for the same procedure.

Get your calculators out because it is time to do the maths and figure out why.

Continued at source: Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/this-is-how-much-abortion-costs-in-australia?

Rubicon crossed in Ireland’s abortion debate

Rubicon crossed in Ireland's abortion debate

Date 26.04.2017
Author Gavan Reilly (Dublin)

There was almost a shocked silence in the room at the Grand Hotel in Malahide on the north side of Dublin when the result was announced. All day long, the members of the Citizens' Assembly had been casting their verdicts on a series of hypothetical scenarios surrounding pregnancy, and whether an abortion should be allowed in those cases. What, for example, if the woman became pregnant through incest? What if the fetus had a serious abnormality, but one which will not limit its lifespan? What if the woman says she simply cannot afford a baby?

Continued at source: Deutsche Welle: http://www.dw.com/en/rubicon-crossed-in-irelands-abortion-debate/a-38596424

26.04.2017

‘I am a criminal. What is my crime?’: the human toll of abortion in Afghanistan

'I am a criminal. What is my crime?': the human toll of abortion in Afghanistan

When Maryam had an abortion, her husband beat and humiliated her. Her story is not unusual in Afghanistan, yet illegal, unsafe terminations are on the rise

Sune Engel Rasmussen and Fatima Faizi in Kabul
Wednesday 26 April 2017

As a newlywed, Maryam’s husband promised to let her finish her university degree. Then she got pregnant, and everything changed.

“For a week, I was in shock. If my husband’s family knew I was pregnant, they would never let me finish university,” Maryam said.

So she acted promptly. She found a midwife willing to perform a surgical abortion, selling jewellery from her dowry to raise the required 250,000 afghanis (£2,900).

Continued at source: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/apr/26/human-toll-abortion-afghanistan

26.04.2017

Commentary

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Afghan Family Guidance Association

Marie Stopes International

Irish people have dared to speak on abortion. Our government must listen

Irish people have dared to speak on abortion. Our government must listen
Grainne Maguire
The story was that abortion could be tolerated in only the most limited of circumstances. Then 99 members of the public were asked what they thought

Wednesday 26 April 2017

In 1916, when revolutionaries were putting the final touches to the proclamation of independence, the manifesto of the Irish state, there was one phrase that kept holding everything up: should it be addressed to the men of Ireland as Pádraig Pearse insisted, or the men and women, as James Connelly argued? Connelly won, but whose revolution it actually was is still up for debate 101 years later.

Last weekend, a national assembly set up by the taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to debate access to abortion in Ireland announced its results.

Continued at source: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/26/irish-people-abortion-law

26.04.2017

Canada: ‘Abortion doulas’ offer support to women with nowhere else to turn

'Abortion doulas' offer support to women with nowhere else to turn
Halifax social worker trains volunteers to support people ending their pregnancies

By Nic Meloney, CBC News
Posted: Apr 26, 2017

Five years ago, Halifax social worker Shannon Hardy began driving women hundreds of kilometres so they could get abortions. They couldn't turn to their families or friends, so they turned to her for kindness and support.

Next month, Hardy will host her second training workshop for "abortion doulas" — volunteers who provide "emotional and practical" support to people who choose to terminate their pregnancies.
Continued at source: CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/abortion-doulas-halifax-maritime-abortion-support-services-1.4084929

26.04.2017

Maritime Abortion Support Services

New studies show benefits of increasing women’s access to medical abortion in South Africa

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Even though abortion is legal in South Africa for a broad range of indications, many women still encounter barriers when trying to access safe abortion care. Medical abortion, or abortion with pills, is not available in all areas of South Africa and has the potential to greatly improve women’s abortion access.

Two new articles by researchers from Ibis Reproductive Health, Ipas, the University of Cape Town, King Dinuzulu Hospital, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal add to the growing body of evidence on abortion in South Africa in support of making medical abortion more accessible.

Continued at source: Ipas: http://www.ipas.org/en/News/2017/April/New-studies-show-benefits-of-increasing-women-s-access-to-medical-abortion-in-South-Africa.aspx