USA – These Anti-Abortion Women Say They’re the Real Feminists: ‘Feminism Includes Women Who Aren’t Born Yet’

These Anti-Abortion Women Say They're the Real Feminists: ‘Feminism Includes Women Who Aren’t Born Yet’
Many protesters at the March for Life wore a lilac beanie with a defiant slogan: “Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.”

by Carter Sherman
Jan 31 2020

WASHINGTON — When tens of thousands of people poured through the streets of Washington D.C. last week at the nation’s largest annual anti-abortion gathering, numerous protesters wore a lilac beanie with a defiant slogan: “Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.”

Many outside the American anti-abortion movement still associate it with bloody images of supposedly aborted fetuses, or with people calling women who walk into abortion clinics “baby killers.” But in recent years, many of the movement’s leaders and youngest followers have increasingly adopted the imagery and lingo of progressive social justice, focusing not only on the supposed rights of the fetus but also on the woman who carries it.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/dyg39w/these-anti-abortion-women-say-theyre-the-real-feminists-feminism-includes-women-who-arent-born-yet


Is India’s Abortion Law Going To Get Better With 24 Weeks Upper Limit?

Is India’s Abortion Law Going To Get Better With 24 Weeks Upper Limit?

January 31, 2020
by Poorvi Gupta

This week on Wednesday, centre backed a bill that seeks to increase the upper limit of termination of pregnancy from 20 weeks to 24 weeks in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 will be tabled in the upcoming session of parliament that opens on Friday, January 31.

The bill focuses on increasing access to safe and legal abortion to women on therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarian or social grounds. It is looking at boosting the upper gestation limit for abortion and to bolster access to comprehensive abortion care, under strict conditions, without compromising service and quality of safe abortion.

Continued: https://www.shethepeople.tv/news/indias-abortion-law-24-weeks-upper-limit


Colombia: Uphold Women’s Rights in Abortion Case

Colombia: Uphold Women’s Rights in Abortion Case
Human Rights Watch Submits Brief to Constitutional Court

Jan 31, 2020

(Washington, DC) – Colombia’s Constitutional Court should uphold women’s rights in deciding a case regarding access to abortion, Human Rights Watch today. Human Rights Watch submitted an amicus brief in the case to the court on January 30, 2020.

In 2006, the Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling that decriminalized abortion when the life or health of the pregnant woman is at risk, when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, and when the fetus has a serious condition incompatible with life outside the womb. But today, access to legal abortion still faces many barriers. The case currently pending before the court seeks to prohibit abortion altogether.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/31/colombia-uphold-womens-rights-abortion-case


USA – Abortion advice should be as safe as abortion itself

Abortion advice should be as safe as abortion itself

By Tracey Allyson Wilkinson
January 31, 2020

It’s completely reasonable for people to disagree about the morality of abortion. It’s completely unreasonable — and unethical — for medical professionals and those masquerading as them to give potentially life-endangering misinformation about it.

Abortion by medication has been available in the United States since 2000, when it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The regimen consists of two pills taken 24 to 48 hours apart. The first pill, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone, which is required for pregnancy. The second pill, misoprostol, causes the uterus to empty. This two-pill approach is currently used in 39% of all abortions in the U.S., a proportion that has been increasing over time.

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2020/01/31/abortion-advice-should-be-as-safe-as-abortion-itself/


USA – Why Democrats who oppose abortion rights are finding it harder to remain in the party

Why Democrats who oppose abortion rights are finding it harder to remain in the party

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Jan. 31, 2020

President Bill Clinton famously wanted to make abortion “safe, legal and rare.” Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used that same phrase and added, “and by rare, I mean rare.” And President Barack Obama invited voters across the aisle to work to reduce the number of abortions.

But those kinds of rhetorical olive branches to voters who oppose abortion rights have been mostly absent from the 2020 Democratic campaign.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/01/31/why-democrats-who-oppose-abortion-rights-are-finding-it-harder-remain-party/


India – A deliverance: On pregnancy termination bill

A deliverance: On pregnancy termination bill

January 31, 2020

Extending the period of medical termination of pregnancy to 24 weeks is a boon for many

The borders of viability of a particular process are often only as restrictive as the technology on which it rides. In some cases, as science advances, the elastic borders of viability will weave out to accommodate much more than they did in the past. The Centre’s move to extend the limit of medical termination of pregnancy to 24 weeks is a sagacious recognition of this, and needs to be feted. The extension is significant, the government reasoned, because in the first five months of pregnancy, some women realise the need for an abortion very late. Usually, the foetal anomaly scan is done during the 20th-21st week of pregnancy. If there is a delay in doing this scan, and it reveals a lethal anomaly in the foetus, 20 weeks is limiting. Obstetricians argue that this has also spurred a cottage industry of places providing unsafe abortion services, even leading, in the worst of cases, to the death of the mother.

Continued: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/a-deliverance-the-hindu-editorial-on-pregnancy-termination-bill/article30695656.ece


Pakistan – More investment in family planning programmes stressed

More investment in family planning programmes stressed

Myra Imran
January 31, 2020

Islamabad : Increased investment in family planning programmes could accelerate Pakistan’s progress across social, economic and environmental areas of sustainable development.

This was discussed at a meeting held with media persons on Pakistan’s population challenge, hosted by the Population Council in Islamabad with the support of United Nations Population Fund.

Continued: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/606792-more-investment-in-family-planning-programmes-stressed


India – The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Posted on 30 January, 2020
by Suchitra Dalvie, Asia Safe Abortion Partnership

Many of us greeted the news with cautious optimism when we heard that yesterday the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister had approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. The Bill will be introduced in the ensuing session of the Parliament. But on reading the details of the amendments proposed one is forced to wonder if this is just fussing around over minor details while continuing to ignore the larger issues of women’s autonomy and agency?

For these amendments to truly bring about wide ranging change we must remember one crucial thing about true change—it happens only with a shift in power. Until the archaic patriarchal notions of the need to criminalize various sexual and reproductive aspects of our lives (such as Section 377 in the Indian Penal Code) are done away with, any legislation like the MTP Act which is mainly meant to protect the doctors and not the women involved, is not likely to result in genuine change.

Continued: https://asap-asia.org/blog/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same/


Anti-abortion protests anger Cardiff students

Anti-abortion protests anger Cardiff students
University has been targeted after students’ union adopted official pro-choice stance

Sally Weale, Education correspondent
Thu 30 Jan 2020

Students at Cardiff University have expressed anger after anti-abortion activists returned on the first day of the new term to protest outside the students’ union.

It was the fourth demonstration to be held at the university in recent weeks and again featured large-scale graphic images, which students say cause “undue distress and trauma”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/30/anti-abortion-protests-anger-cardiff-students


USA – Faith Leaders Can Support Your Abortion — 3 People Who’ve Been There Explain

Faith Leaders Can Support Your Abortion — 3 People Who’ve Been There Explain

By Paige Alexandria
Jan 29, 2020

In Boston, Massachusetts, a few hours before Kol Nidre in September 2017, Tara found out the fetus she was carrying had a life-threatening condition. Although her previous two pregnancies had been met with concerns about growth, she tells Bustle they went on to develop without issue. But at her 28-week scan, the 34-year-old learned this time was different. She knew immediately she’d have to terminate the pregnancy. For traditionally observant Jews like Tara, it’s standard practice to discuss a decision like this with your rabbi beforehand. But because of the date — Kol Nidre is the evening service before Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism — her rabbi was unavailable. “By the time I could talk to her,” Tara says, “I was on a plane to Colorado,” one of the only states where you can get an abortion up to 34 weeks. They couldn’t connect until after she’d landed.

Continued: https://www.bustle.com/p/faith-leaders-can-support-your-abortion-3-people-whove-been-there-explain-21125814