USA – 10 years after abortion doctor George Tiller’s murder, advocates fear violent rhetoric

10 years after abortion doctor George Tiller's murder, advocates fear violent rhetoric

Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY
Published May 31, 2019

Ten years ago today, George Tiller, a Kansas abortion doctor, was attending Sunday service at his Wichita church when he was fatally shot by an anti-abortion extremist.

"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence," President Barack Obama said in a statement after his death.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/31/george-tillers-murder-abortion-rights-advocates-worry-10-years-later/1300017001/


Ghana – More than three million teenage girls undergo unsafe abortion

More than three million teenage girls undergo unsafe abortion

By Regina Benneh/ Eugene Ohemeng, GNA
Sunyani, May 31, 2019

Research has indicated that more than three million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 go through unsafe abortion globally every year.

Madam Ama Nyankoma Asirifi, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regional Adolescent Heath Focal Person of the Regional Health Directorate, made the disclosure in a presentation on Adolescent Sexually and Reproductive Health Right at a sensitization forum in Sunyani.

Continued: http://www.ghananewsagency.org/health/more-than-three-million-teenage-girls-undergo-unsafe-abortion-150769


USA – 10 years without our friend and colleague, Dr. George Tiller

10 years without our friend and colleague, Dr. George Tiller

May 31, 2019
Taylor Rose Ellsworth, MPH is the Director, Education, Research & Training at Physicians for Reproductive Health.

I was raised in an abortion clinic in the South. After school, I waited to get buzzed in through the side door by the security camera. I did my homework in the recovery room, and remember hearing stories about Dr. George Tiller. He provided compassionate abortion care to women in Wichita, Kansas, many of whom needed an abortion later in pregnancy, traveling long distances to get the health care they needed after exhausting all their social and financial resources. It was stories like these that normalized abortion for me at a very young age as part of regular health care. I also understood that not everyone agreed with a person’s right to abortion. And some of these people committed terrible acts. I was 13 when a fellow abortion clinic in Georgia was bombed by an anti-abortion extremist, killing a police officer and maiming a nurse. I was afraid every morning when my mom left for work, until it just became part of our family’s reality. I never thought I would go on to work in abortion care, but it turns out I would follow in my mom’s footsteps.

Continued: https://prh.org/updates/10-years-without-our-friend-and-colleague-dr-george-tiller/?fbclid=IwAR1jGNUne1kPjFlAnMa2ZNnkjuJauJ1r-o5fV8K0_EcMMSD71fbAIZ78xGo


USA – Ten years after abortion doctor’s murder, one woman carries the fight for reproductive rights

Ten years after abortion doctor's murder, one woman carries the fight for reproductive rights
In 2009, George Tiller was shot dead in Kansas. Today, as America’s discord over abortion reaches fever pitch, Julie Burkhart is keeping the flame alive

Ed Pilkington
Fri 31 May 2019

Julie Burkhart remembers all too vividly the morning of 31 May 2009. It was a Sunday and she was in a meeting in Washington DC when, shortly after 10am, her phone started buzzing incessantly with calls from her home town of Wichita, Kansas.

When she got through to one of her co-workers she thought at first he was making a surreal joke. George Tiller, her mentor with whom she had worked side-by-side for the past eight years at the frontlines of America’s abortion wars, had been accosted at Sunday service in his Wichita church and shot dead.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/30/he-gave-so-much-the-woman-fighting-the-abortion-wars-begun-by-george-tiller


Global Lessons on Abortion: 9 Pieces from Women Journalists Offer Cautionary Tales for the U.S.

Global Lessons on Abortion: 9 Pieces from Women Journalists Offer Cautionary Tales for the U.S.

IWMF
May 30, 2019

America is grappling with a recent surge of restrictive reproductive rights bills in states across the country. The culling of abortion and reproductive care may seem like a new challenge for the U.S., but the impact of these laws in other countries is well known.

Women journalists continue to cover different perspectives on anti-abortion legislation, and its ramifications, around the world. Their coverage creates a cautionary tale of how restriction impacts women, girls, and the communities they inhabit.

Continued: https://medium.com/@IWMF/global-lessons-on-abortion-from-women-journos-a0f4c2e51ee1


USA – Even if Roe is upheld, abortion opponents are winning

Even if Roe is upheld, abortion opponents are winning
A drip, drip, drip of state restrictions has made abortion harder to obtain.

By RACHANA PRADHAN, RENUKA RAYASAM and MOHANA RAVINDRANATH
05/30/2019

Abortion is still legal in the United States, but for women in vast swaths of the country it’s a right in name only.

Six states are down to only one abortion clinic; a court stepped in Friday to stop Missouri’s sole clinic from closing, at least for now. Some women seeking abortions have to travel long distances, and face mandatory waiting periods or examinations. On top of that, a new wave of restrictive laws, or outright bans, is rippling across GOP-led states like Alabama and Georgia.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/30/abortion-opponents-winning-roe-vs-wade-1488818


USA – Clarence Thomas tried to link abortion to eugenics. Seven historians told The Post he’s wrong.

Clarence Thomas tried to link abortion to eugenics. Seven historians told The Post he’s wrong.

By Eli Rosenberg
May 30, 2019

In the opinion he wrote on the Supreme Court’s recent decision about two abortion laws, Justice Clarence Thomas reached back into history.

Thomas argued that the door for abortion rights was opened by the eugenics movement — the now-discredited pseudoscience obsessed with the genetic fitness of white Americans that was popular in the early 20th century — to raise alarm about abortion rights now.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/31/clarence-thomas-tried-link-abortion-eugenics-seven-historians-told-post-hes-wrong/?utm_term=.9554b6ed7982


Is Canadian government cash helping to back El Salvador’s harsh abortion law?

Is Canadian government cash helping to back El Salvador's harsh abortion law?
Federal funding supports prosecutors enforcing what some have called the most draconian abortion law anywhere

Evan Dyer · CBC News
Posted: May 30, 2019

In the end, Imelda Cortez's story was too much even for El Salvador's famously harsh courts. Her case was making news around the world, and DNA had confirmed that the newborn she was accused of attempting to murder was the product of rape by a 70-year-old stepfather who'd abused her throughout her childhood.

Cortez, 20, the daughter of a poor rural family, insisted she didn't know she was pregnant until she entered an outhouse and a child came out.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/el-salvador-abortion-trudeau-ottawa-1.5153265


Denied abortions, Latin American child rape survivors petition UN

Denied abortions, Latin American child rape survivors petition UN
Groups on behalf of young rape survivors from Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua call on region to provide abortion access.

30 May 2019

Reproductive rights groups petitioned a United Nations agency on Wednesday on behalf of four young pregnant rape survivors in Latin America, calling on the region to ease up on its restrictive abortion laws.

Due to the laws, the girls were forced to carry their unwanted pregnancies to term and became "mothers against their will", said the petition by the US-based Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Global and other rights groups in Ecuador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/denied-abortions-latin-american-child-rape-survivors-petition-190530172120887.html


Revealed: women’s fertility app is funded by anti-abortion campaigners

Revealed: women's fertility app is funded by anti-abortion campaigners
The Femm app has users in the US, EU and Africa and sows doubt over the safety of birth control, a Guardian investigation has found

Jessica Glenza in New York
Thu 30 May 2019

A popular women’s health and fertility app sows doubt about birth control, features claims from medical advisers who are not licensed to practice in the US, and is funded and led by anti-abortion, anti-gay Catholic campaigners, a Guardian investigation has found.

The Femm app, which collects personal information about sex and menstruation from users, has been downloaded more than 400,000 times since its launch in 2015, according to developers. It has users in the US, the EU, Africa and Latin America, its operating company claims.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/30/revealed-womens-fertility-app-is-funded-by-anti-abortion-campaigners?wpisrc=nl_lily&wpmm=1