US abortion rate is lowest in nine years, new data shows

US abortion rate is lowest in nine years, new data shows
CDC examined abortion rate from 2007 to 2016 and found abortions dropped 26% over the period of the study

Jessica Glenza in New York
Wed 27 Nov 2019

Fewer women in the US are having abortions than at any time in the last nine years, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC collects data on abortions by contacting the central health agency for 48 states. The study excludes California, one of the most populous states in the nation. This study examined the abortion rate from 2007 to 2016.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/27/us-abortion-rate-drops-data-shows

27.11.2019

Centers for Disease Control

Birthrates in the U.S. are falling. Abortions have also hit an all-time low

Birthrates in the U.S. are falling. Abortions have also hit an all-time low.

By Marisa Iati
November 27, 2019

Rates of births and abortions in the United States again declined in the most recent years for which data is available, as women experience fewer pregnancies, according to analyses released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The birthrate reached its lowest point in more than three decades, with 3,791,712 births registered in 2018. That total is 2 percent below the number reported in 2017, marking the fourth year in a row that births have declined.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/11/27/birthrates-us-are-falling-abortions-have-also-hit-an-all-time-low/

27.11.2019

Centers for Disease Control

USA – One of Supreme Court’s most important abortion cases has just begun

One of Supreme Court’s most important abortion cases has just begun

By CBS News -
November 26, 2019

The lawsuit that will decide the future of abortion access in Louisiana – and the rest of the country – is officially underway.

A 63-page opening brief was filed late Monday night by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) in a Supreme Court case that could leave Louisiana without access to legal abortion and provide a roadmap for other anti-abortion access states to follow.

Continued: https://www.wcbi.com/one-of-supreme-courts-most-important-abortion-cases-has-just-begun/

India – A pregnant silence on reproductive rights of women

A pregnant silence on reproductive rights of women
The country needs to recognise the wrongs and affirm the rights for advancing women’s sexual and reproductive health

Monday, 25 November 2019
Prabhleen Tuteja

Young women (15-24 years) constitute 11 per cent of India’s population, out of whom 41 per cent have faced sexual violence, 27 per cent are married before the legal age and 7.8 per cent (15-19 years) become mothers or are pregnant. The data on access to information on contraceptives reveals that only 17.7 per cent were informed about family planning by health workers and just 6.9 per cent women in Bihar and 11.6 per cent in Uttar Pradesh (UP) reported using contraceptives within marriage.

The policy level commitments on health, education and gender parity often look in absolute terms of changing certain societal norms through cash transfer based schemes, number of girls reported to be married before the legal age of marriage, status of body mass index and nutrition and sometimes enrollment in school and skill development among women. While evidence in these parameters are significant, this skewed approach to gender equality leaves out a range of issues, including prevalence of sexual violence and status of accessible sexual and reproductive health services. Stigma and fear attached to young women’s sexuality act as a major barrier in achieving gender equality.

Continued: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/columnists/a-pregnant-silence-on-reproductive-rights-of-women.html

USA – What’s It Like to Get an Abortion in Georgia

What’s It Like to Get an Abortion in Georgia

by Kimberly Lawson
Nov 25 2019

Georgia made national headlines in May when Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a bill that would ban abortion after 6 weeks and define fetuses as people. While the law has been blocked as legal challenges proceed against it, the reality is that it's already difficult to get an abortion in the state.

What Georgia state law says about abortion:

People seeking abortions in Georgia face a number of restrictions. Abortions are prohibited after 20 weeks unless the pregnant person's life is in danger, their physical health will be severely compromised, or there's a lethal fetal anomaly.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/8xwyqg/whats-it-like-to-get-an-abortion-in-georgia

Why Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Have Become So Open About Attacking ‘Roe’

Why Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Have Become So Open About Attacking ‘Roe’

Nov 25, 2019
Casey Quinlan

Since Trump entered the presidential race in 2015, anti-abortion advocates and lawmakers "have been emboldened with horrific rhetoric that supports a climate of violence against abortion providers," said Erin Matson, co-founder and co-director of Reproaction. "They’re just going for the jugular."

In late October, Pennsylvania state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton County) and state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin County) introduced a bill banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. During the press conference, Borowicz said the bill could be the “dagger in Roe v. Wade.”

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/11/25/why-anti-abortion-lawmakers-have-become-so-open-about-attacking-roe/

Coca-Cola and quacks

Coca-Cola and quacks
How Kenya's restrictive abortion laws are fuelling infanticide

Kenya is in the grip of an infanticide crisis – driven by poverty, unwanted pregnancies and muddled abortions laws. Adrian Blomfield discovers the deadly consequences of restricting reproductive rights. Pictures by Simon Townsley

November 25, 2019

On the streets of Nairobi, out of official earshot, nurses say there are different ways of killing unwanted babies.

Some young mothers feed them Coca-Cola instead of breast milk to make their organs collapse. Ginger beer is said to work just as well. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of others, are left to die in pit-latrines, rivers and rubbish dumps.

Or there is always the option of getting someone else to do the deed. Quacks on the back streets of urban slums are often only too willing to end a late-term pregnancy by inducing a living infant and then finishing it off with a blow to the head.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/infanticide-in-kenya/

On Abortion Rights, 2020 Democrats Move Past ‘Safe, Legal and Rare’

On Abortion Rights, 2020 Democrats Move Past ‘Safe, Legal and Rare’
The Democratic presidential candidates don’t want to simply defend abortion rights. They want to go on offense.

New York Times
By Maggie Astor
Nov. 25, 2019

The Democratic presidential field has coalesced around an abortion rights agenda more far-reaching than anything past nominees have proposed, according to a New York Times survey of the campaigns. The positions reflect a hugely consequential shift on one of the country’s most politically divisive issues.

Every candidate The Times surveyed supports codifying Roe v. Wade in federal law, allowing Medicaid coverage of abortion by repealing the Hyde Amendment, and removing funding restrictions for organizations that provide abortion referrals. Almost all of them say they would nominate only judges who support abortion rights, an explicit pledge Democrats have long avoided.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/us/politics/abortion-laws-2020-democrats.html

Argentina – Activists: Macri’s revoking of abortion protocol is ‘arbitrary and shameful’

Activists: Macri’s revoking of abortion protocol is ‘arbitrary and shameful’
Frustration boils over on both sides of the aisle after president revokes health secretary’s new protocol for non-punishable abortions.

Carly Graf
Nov 23, 2019

Activists in favour of abortion reform slammed the Mauricio Macri administration on Friday, describing a move to revoke a new protocol offering guidelines for non-punishable procedures as “arbitrary, illegitimate and shameful.”

Another explosive development in the debate over the legality of abortion kicked off Wednesday, when Health Secretary Adolfo Rubinstein updated the protocol for non-punishable abortions, only to have the changes revoked and anulled by President Mauricio Macri just hours later.

Continued; https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/activists-macris-revoking-of-abortion-protocol-is-arbitrary-and-shameful.phtml

Argentina – Health secretary resigns after abortion protocol controversy

Health secretary resigns after abortion protocol controversy
President Macri slams Adolfo Rubinstein for ‘unilateral decision’ and immediately revokes update of guidelines for non-punishable abortions.

Nov 23, 2019

Health Secretary Adolfo Rubinstein presented his “indeclinable” resignation from the government yesterday, ending a week in which the debate over abortion in Argentina again seized national headlines.

Rubinstein’s position had looked untenable ever since it emerged Thursday that he had not sought permission from his superiors before issuing, a day earlier, a new protocol that updated the guidelines for non-punishable abortions in Argentina, a hot-topic issue that fiercely divdes the majority Catholic nation.

Continued: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/health-secretary-resigns-after-abortion-protocol-controversy.phtml