Abortion In India: A Right, A Choice Or Both?

Abortion In India: A Right, A Choice Or Both?

Posted by Stuti Srivastava
August 31, 2018

Many a time, I’ve uninhibitedly, at times vociferously, voiced my opinion in the pro-life versus pro-choice debate. When statistics, opinions, arguments fail, I go back to a classic tweet by noted science fiction writer, Patrick S. Tomlinson, which asks you to choose between saving a 5-year-old child and a 1,000 viable embryos in a fire. As expected, he never got a clear response to this question. While such discussions would be held at a very rudimentary level, whenever I’d think of several other factors, such as the woman’s age, family situation, financial means, and most importantly, her choice, I’d always rest comfortably on the pro-choice side of the debate without a second thought. Until one fine day, I googled some India stats and the bubble burst. The right to abortion in India (there is one, yes) does not remotely consider the idea of choice.

Continued: https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2018/08/abortion-in-india-a-right-a-choice-or-both/


A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Restricting Abortion Access in the Name of Women's Rights

By Suchitra Dalvie
Posted Aug 31, 2018

We need more girls to be born, they say. We need to stop the gendercide that is taking place across the world, they say. For social justice. For women’s rights. For human rights.

This is a compelling argument when taken at face value, and one that is commonly heard in many countries in Asia and among the Asian diaspora elsewhere. But, if we take a moment to examine it more closely, the true nature of the discourse becomes clear. It sounds as though it is for women’s rights but, in reality, it puts restrictions on women using the excuse of sex determination.

Continued: https://consciencemag.org/2018/08/31/a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/


Canada – Doug Ford’s Orwellian ‘Free Speech on Campus’ Policy Calls For Crack Down on Student Protests

Doug Ford’s Orwellian ‘Free Speech on Campus’ Policy Calls For Crack Down on Student Protests
Ford’s new policy policing speech aims to create a safe space on campus for anti-abortion activists and alt-right speakers

August 31, 2018

In a move to appease his social conservative base, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has put forward new measures to police speech on university campuses.

Thursday afternoon, the Premier’s Office issued a directive vowing to strip funding from universities that don’t implement new regulations policing speech on campus, targeting both student unions and individual students with financial penalties and disciplinary action if they protest “offensive” speakers and groups on campus.

Continued: https://pressprogress.ca/doug-fords-orwellian-free-speech-on-campus-policy-calls-for-crack-down-on-student-protests/


USA – How Abortion Rights Will Die a Death by 1,000 Cuts

How Abortion Rights Will Die a Death by 1,000 Cuts
Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court would mean the demise of not just abortion rights but also a century of progressive reforms.

By Serena Mayeri
Aug. 30, 2018

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s voluminous record, his opinion of the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, and his views on legal precedent have deservedly been scrutinized in the lead-up to his confirmation hearings next week. But the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, more than Roe, holds the key to understanding the stakes of Judge Kavanaugh’s potential confirmation.

It is Casey that now protects women’s access to reproductive health care in states whose restrictions on health care providers and patients threaten to close clinics or ban abortions outright. And the political lesson conservatives learned from Casey all but guarantees that a vote for Judge Kavanaugh is a vote not only to endanger abortion rights but to turn back the clock on a century of progressive reforms.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-abortion-rights-roe-casey.html


California closer to making colleges offer abortion drugs

California closer to making colleges offer abortion drugs

Associated Press
August 29, 2018

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A measure that would make California the first state to require all public universities to offer abortion medication at their campus health centers cleared a hurdle Wednesday.

None of the 34 University of California or California State University campuses currently offer abortion services. The California Assembly approved the measure, which returns to the Senate for a final sign-off.

Continued: http://www.startribune.com/california-closer-to-making-colleges-offer-abortion-drugs/492024671/


USA – Want to Protect the Right to Abortion? Train More People to Perform Them

Want to Protect the Right to Abortion? Train More People to Perform Them

By Jody Steinauer
Aug. 29, 2018

When I was in medical school in the 1990s, it was rare to hear abortion mentioned as an option for pregnant women at all — let alone for there to be in-depth training on how to counsel patients on a full range of pregnancy options, including termination. My generation of physicians simply wasn’t prepared to provide basic, comprehensive reproductive health care. Even though it had been 20 years since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide, only 12 percent of obstetrics and gynecology residency programs at the time included abortion training.

Twenty-five years later, the training situation has, fortunately, improved. But there is still work to do: More than a third of ob-gyn residency programs don’t offer routine abortion training. Some programs offer training only on treating someone who is managing a miscarriage, so those residents do not gain skills in counseling and caring for women who want to end their pregnancies. Most family medicine residency programs still have no abortion training at all, even though family physicians are critical for providing high-quality family planning within primary care services.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/opinion/abortion-provider-training-roe.html


A roadmap for research on self-managed abortion in the United States

A roadmap for research on self-managed abortion in the United States
(Posted August 29 2018)

Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), Gynuity Health Projects, and Ibis Reproductive Health. A roadmap for research on self-managed abortion in the United States. August 2018.

Media coverage and research data show a growing awareness of the option to self-manage (or self-induce or self-source) abortion outside of the formal health care system; we are learning more about people’s experiences with self-managed abortion, and how often people choose this option in the United States. Recent evidence indicates between one and seven percent of abortion patients (see below) have taken or done something to try to end their current pregnancy. In addition, in 2015, there were more than 700,000 Google searches using terms related to self-induced abortion in the United States. The reasons women attempt to self-manage an abortion are varied, but they are often related to barriers accessing clinic-based care, as well as a preference for self-care.

Continued: https://ibisreproductivehealth.org/publications/roadmap-research-self-managed-abortion-united-states


Germany – Online abortion ads: Doctors defend right to inform patients

Online abortion ads: Doctors defend right to inform patients
Two gynecologists in Germany could face jail time for listing abortion as one of the medical services offered at their practice. People outside the court argued that providing information to women shouldn't be a crime.

Date 29.08.2018
Author Rebecca Staudenmaier

Dozens of protesters gathered outside a court in the German city of Kassel on Wednesday as the latest trial concerning Germany's ban on abortion "advertising" began.

Gynecologists Natascha Nicklaus and Nora Szasz face charges of posting on their website that they offer abortions. A list detailing the outpatient surgeries the doctors perform includes the legally contentious entry: "Abortion — surgical or medicinal."

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/online-abortion-ads-doctors-defend-right-to-inform-patients/a-45274952


Australia – Archbishop calls for calm over abortion

Archbishop calls for calm over abortion

Jared Owens
August 29, 2018

Brisbane’s Catholic Archbishop has urged his flock to reject ­American-style “ideological warfare” amid an increasingly rancorous debate over Queensland’s push to decriminalise abortion.

Warning against importing the “radical polarisation” seen in the US, Mark Coleridge pledged to campaign “humbly but forcefully” for MPs to reject Labor’s push to legalise abortion on ­request for women up to 22 weeks’ pregnant.

Continued: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/archbishop-calls-for-calm-over-abortion/news-story/a44dda7b024870d0ce83ac0c84f4e67e?nk=d2feef8765d9eded8a6860bac74e0889-1535560244


S. Korea doctors protest over tougher abortion restrictions

S. Korea doctors protest over tougher abortion restrictions

29 August 2018

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea, one of the few industrialised countries where abortion is largely illegal, has introduced tougher regulations on the procedure, prompting nearly 2,000 doctors to refuse to carry out terminations in protest.

Legally, the world's 11th-largest economy only allows abortion in cases of rape -- which must be proved by the woman -- incest and when the mother's health is at risk, in which case the partner's consent is required.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/20180829-korea-doctors-protest-over-tougher-abortion-restrictions