Northern Irish women win access to free abortions as May averts rebellion

Northern Irish women win access to free abortions as May averts rebellion

Ministers announce funding for NI women to have abortions in England, in attempt to head off Tory revolt in Queen’s speech vote
Stella Creasy

Jessica Elgot and Henry McDonald
Thursday 29 June 2017

A decades-long struggle to give Northern Irish women access to terminations on the NHS in mainland Britain was unexpectedly won in the space of 24 hours on Thursday, as the UK government dramatically changed its policy in an attempt to head off a damaging Tory rebellion on the Queen’s speech.

Dozens of Conservative MPs were understood to have expressed to Tory whips their support for an amendment by the Labour MP Stella Creasy to allow Northern Irish women access to NHS-funded abortions in Great Britain.

Continued at link: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/29/rebel-tories-could-back-northern-ireland-abortion-amendment

United Kingdom doctors’ union calls for change in abortion law

United Kingdom doctors' union calls for change in abortion law
Posted on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 by Jared Roy
British Medical Association Votes to Decriminalise Abortion After 24 Weeks

Hundreds of doctors at the BMA's annual conference voted Tuesday to back changing the law.

A motion by the City and Hackney division called on the BMA to adopt a policy of total decriminalisation of abortion in the United Kingdom, as was done successfully by Canada in 1988.

The current law states that a woman can abort her baby up to 24 weeks as long as two doctors agree that continuing the pregnancy is harmful for her or the unborn child. There is no time limit for high-risk cases.

The decision was met with anger by anti-abortion groups, which accused doctors of furthering an "extremist agenda".

Continued at source: Leicester Post: http://leicesterpost.com/2017/06/28/united-kingdom-doctors-union-calls-for-change-in-abortion/

28.06.2017

British Medical Association

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Clare Gerada

decriminalisation of abortion

News, Ireland: Anti-abortion protests planned at Dublin and Cork airports told they don’t have permission

Anti-abortion protests planned at Dublin and Cork airports told they don't have permission

Pro-choice campaigners have called the plans 'despicable'

Rachel Hosie
Tuesday 27 June 2017

Pro-life campaigners are planning to try and stop Irish women travelling abroad for abortions by protesting at airports with graphic images of aborted foetuses.

However Cork and Dublin airports have said the organisation will not get permission to go ahead.

Continued at source: The INdependent: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/anti-abortion-protests-dublin-airport-cork-no-permission-pro-choice-plan-graphic-icbr-ireland-a7810786.html

U.S.: Why Did Contraception Stop Being Common Ground In The Abortion Wars?

Why Did Contraception Stop Being Common Ground In The Abortion Wars?
An administration firmly opposed to abortion is taking steps that will only assure more unintended pregnancies.

Carole Joffe, Contributor Professor, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, University of California, San Francisco
June 27, 2017

Many Americans are puzzled by the all-out attacks by the Trump administration on contraceptive services: the administration has signaled its intention to take contraception out of the list of no co-pay preventive services authorized by Obamacare; it has made clear its eagerness to defund Planned Parenthood; and it has appointed longtime ideological opponents of contraception to positions of power in the federal bureaucracy, including direct oversight of family planning programs. The question becomes, why is an administration firmly opposed to abortion taking steps that will only assure more unintended pregnancies, some of which in turn will lead to an increased demand for abortions? What became of that short-lived moment in American politics when contraception was viewed as the main point of “common ground” between supporters and opponents of abortion? The answer, simply put, lies in the ascendancy of the religious right as a dominant force in the Republican party.

Continued at source: Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-did-contraception-stop-being-common-ground-in-the_us_5952bd3ce4b0f078efd98594

27.06.2017

religious right and contraception

UK: Theresa May urged to give Tory MPs free vote on scrapping abortion charges for Northern Irish women coming to Britain

Theresa May urged to give Tory MPs free vote on scrapping abortion charges for Northern Irish women coming to Britain

Conservative MPs are expected to be whipped to vote against free terminations – despite abortion issues being a 'matter of conscience'

Rob Merrick Deputy Political Editor
Tuesday 27 June 2017

Theresa May is being challenged to give Conservative MPs a free vote on scrapping charges for Northern Irish women forced to travel to Britain for an abortion.

Scores of MPs will try to secure free NHS terminations for many hundreds of women who make the journey every year – typically paying £1,400 for a private operation – in a showdown vote expected on Thursday.

Continued at source: The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-tory-mp-free-vote-northern-ireland-women-abortions-forced-travel-britain-uk-supreme-a7810981.html

UK: Doctors back decriminalisation of abortion

Doctors back decriminalisation of abortion
27 June 2017

Doctors have backed calls for the decriminalisation of abortion – supporting the removal of criminal sanctions associated with the procedure.

The move, which was voted for by doctors’ representatives at the BMA annual representative meeting comes 50 years after the enactment of the Abortion Act.

The policy does not call for an absence of regulation and limits could still be set, but they would be subject to professional and regulatory, rather than criminal, sanctions.

Continued at source: BMA: https://www.bma.org.uk/news/2017/june/doctors-back-decriminalisation-of-abortion

27.06.2017

British Medical Association

decriminalisation of abortion

Abortion Is Health Care – End of Story

Abortion Is Health Care — End of Story

June 27, 2017|
By Leah Torres, M.D.

Abortion legislation is reproductive coercion.

Pregnancy is a medical condition. Call it what you will—miracle, blessing, burden, number one fear—it’s a health condition for which people seek medical and/or health care. But people, and our government, treat it like some special exception. People often say to me, “It’s not a disease, it’s a natural part of life.” Yes, well, so are bacteria, yet we call having an infection a “disease.” We cannot ignore that pregnancy alters one’s physiology and puts one’s health and life at risk due to these changes. We must accept this truth to be self evident, that pregnancy, while natural, is a condition that requires medical attention.

To say otherwise is to engage in reproductive coercion.

Continued at source: Self: http://www.self.com/story/abortion-is-health-care-end-of-story

27.06.2017

Featured

Opinion

abortion funding

abortion is healthcare

healthcare insurance for abortion

Leah Torres

reproductive coercion

UK: Abortion should not be crime, says doctors’ union

Abortion should not be crime, says doctors' union

By Nick Triggle Health correspondent
27 June 2017

Doctors have backed decriminalising abortion, as momentum gathers to overhaul the 1967 Abortion Act.

Currently women in England and Wales have to prove to a doctor that carrying on with the pregnancy is detrimental to health or wellbeing to get permission for a termination.

Without permission, abortion is a criminal offence. But medics at the British Medical Association's annual conference voted to scrap that rule.

Continued at source: BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40418986

27.06.2017

Featured

News

abortion law reform

British Medical Association

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Clare Gerada

decriminalisation of abortion

UK: Doctors call for abortion on demand as BMA votes to decriminalise terminations for first time ever

Doctors call for abortion on demand as BMA votes to decriminalise terminations for first time ever

Henry Bodkin
27 June 2017

The UK’s largest doctors union has called for the complete decriminalisation of abortion and for women to have access to terminations on demand.

The British Medical Association (BMA) formally agreed on Tuesday to lobby the Government to abandon the current legal framework, which requires an expectant mother to convince two doctors an abortion is necessary to protect her long-term health.

Continued at source: The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/27/abortion-should-decriminalised-say-doctors-back-call-law-change/

El Salvador Appeal court to decide whether to release Evelyn Beatriz, one of “Las 17”

Appeal court to decide whether to release Evelyn Beatriz, one of “Las 17”

June 27, 2017
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

“Las 17” are women in prison in El Salvador who had a miscarriage or a stillbirth but were sent to prison for illegal abortion and even for aggravated homicide in trials where the evidence base was very compromised. In a press release on 23 June, the Agrupacion de Ciudadana reported that the appeal against a sentence of aggravated homicide by one of the women, Evelyn Beatriz, would be heard in the Central Court of Cojutepeque on 23 June.
Evelyn, we are with you; Freedom for Evelyn, Stop criminalising women – outside the court, 26 June

The case was opened that day but originally deferred until 26 June. The hearing will now continue on 5 July.

At the age of 18, Evelyn Beatriz had a miscarriage, but she had not even realised that she was pregnant. When she went to the hospital for care, it was reported as suspicious and she taken to prison and charged. She had fallen pregnant as a result of rape in the community where she was living with her family. She was so frightened by everything that happened that she did not report the rape to anyone.

She is now supported by the many groups in the country involved in trying to get women released from prison who, like her, have not committed any crime at all.

SOURCE/PHOTOS: Las 17 El Salvador, 23 June 2017 ; 26 June 2017

----------------------

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/appeal-court-to-decide-whether-to-release-evelyn-beatriz-one-of-las-17/

27.06.2017