Ireland’s first report on abortion shows huge progress, but some women still forced to travel

Amnesty International
30th June 2020

In response to the publication today of the 2019 Annual report on abortion statistics by the outgoing Minister for Health, Amnesty welcomes the progress made for the 6,666 pregnant people who were able to access free, safe and legal abortion care in this country.

“Last year, 6,666 women and girls were able to receive abortion care within our own health system. To go from a country that exiled women seeking abortions two years ago, to one that is caring for them at home is such an important step forward. There are some wide variations in the numbers across counties, though. The new government must ensure abortion services are available and accessible to all pregnant people in the state,” said Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.ie/irelands-first-report-on-abortion-shows-huge-progress-but-some-women-still-forced-to-travel/


‘I Can’t Focus on Abortion Access if My People Are Dying’

Some Gen Z and millennial women said they viewed abortion rights as important but less urgent than other social justice causes. Others said racial disparities in reproductive health must be a focus.

By Emma Goldberg
June 30, 2020

Like many young Americans, Brea Baker experienced her first moment of political outrage after the killing of a Black man. She was 18 when Trayvon Martin was shot. When she saw his photo on the news, she thought of her younger brother, and the boundary between her politics and her sense of survival collapsed.

In college she volunteered for the N.A.A.C.P. and as a national organizer for the Women’s March. But when conversations among campus activists turned to abortion access, she didn’t feel the same sense of personal rage.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/us/politics/abortion-supreme-court-gen-z.html


I run a Louisiana abortion clinic. Despite Supreme Court win, I’m nervous for our future.

States have passed hundreds of anti-abortion laws in the last few years. At the Supreme Court, we were successful in striking down just one.

Kathaleen Pittman, Opinion contributor
June 30, 2020

For six years, my lawyers have been fighting a law that would have shut down the abortion clinic I run in Shreveport, Louisiana — Hope Medical Group for Women. On Monday, we won in the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down the law, meaning we can stay open for our patients. I am relieved that the court saw through Louisiana’s deceitful attempts to shut us down, but I'm still deeply worried.

I wish the relentless attempts by politicians to shut down our clinic would finally stop. I know they won’t.

Continued:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/06/30/supreme-court-june-medical-services-abortion-rights-access-column/3283212001/


Nnennaya Amuchie on Defunding the Police to Fund a Reproductively Just World

Nnennaya Amuchie on Defunding the Police to Fund a Reproductively Just World

Interview: Nnennaya Amuchie
June 30, 2020

Over the past few weeks, many of us have been called to take stock of the ways anti-Blackness impacts our communities, workplaces, and lives, and are thinking about how we can make changes to save the lives of Black people and end the system of policing that is killing them. The movement for Black lives is demanding systemic change for our nation and the world, and one of those calls for change is to defund the police. Some people are left unsure of what that all means and how this intersects with our work in reproductive health and rights. We spoke to reproductive justice activist, lawyer, and Black Live Matter organizer Nnennaya Amuchie about their work and what defunding the police might look like in the reproductive rights space.

ReproJobs: You’ve been an instrumental activist in the Black Lives Matter movement and reproductive justice movement, particularly working on local issues in Washington, DC like decriminalizing sex work, abortion funding, and defunding the police. Can you tell us how you came to this work and why these intersections are the core to your activism?

Continued: https://www.reprojobs.org/blog/defundthepolice


China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization


By The Associated Press
June 30, 2020

The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country’s Han majority to have more children.

While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control, the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known, according to an AP investigation based on government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor. The campaign over the past four years in the far west region of Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of “demographic genocide.”

Continued: https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c


Ireland – Abortion data shows progress made in abortion care but way to go to universal access

Press release, Abortion Rights Campaign
June 30, 2020

“The release of Ireland’s first abortion figures demonstrates a reality we have long known to be true: Irish people get abortions. They always have, they always will. Now, for the first time in the country’s history, free, safe, legal abortion is possible; the repeal of the 8th has brought an end to forced travel overseas or importing pills illegally for many in Ireland,” said Cathie Shiels, Co-convener of the Abortion Rights Campaign.

These figures, which showed that 6,666 people had an abortion in Ireland in 2019, are not comparable to statistics used in the past. Previously, we have relied on UK data which we always knew to be an undercount that failed to capture Irish residents who gave UK addresses, travelled to other destinations overseas or imported pills illegally.

Continued: https://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/2020/06/30/press-release-abortion-data-shows-progress-made-in-abortion-care-but-way-to-go-to-universal-access/


US top court strikes down law limiting abortions

US top court strikes down law limiting abortions

29 June 2020

The US Supreme Court has ruled that a law restricting abortions in Louisiana is
unconstitutional.

In a landmark decision, the justices said a law requiring that doctors who
provide abortions have the right to admit patients at a local hospital placed
an undue burden on women.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53224443


The Supreme Court’s abortion decision seems pulled from the ‘Casey’ playbook

The Supreme Court’s
abortion decision seems pulled from the ‘Casey’ playbook

Opinion by Melissa Murray
June 29, 2020

Depicted as a serpent or a dragon eating its own tail, the ouroboros in Greek
mythology was interpreted as a symbol of eternal renewal — the infinite cycle
of life, death and rebirth. Now, the ouroboros lives on in the Supreme Court’s
abortion jurisprudence and in the court’s invocation of the doctrine of stare
decisis.

Latin for “let the decision stand,” stare decisis has shaped the court’s
abortion jurisprudence — and the public debate over abortion rights. Consider
the calls to overrule Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that
recognized a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Although abortion opponents
insist that Roe is both morally abhorrent and constitutionally unprincipled,
the court, citing deference to precedent, has declined multiple invitations to
overrule the decision.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/29/problem-with-relying-precedent-protect-abortion-rights/


She tried to get an abortion during the pandemic. Her state wouldn’t allow it

She tried to get an abortion during the
pandemic. Her state wouldn’t allow it

(Interactive) Photographs by Glenna Gordon

Story by Kyle Almond and Benazir Wehelie, CNN
June 29, 2020

In the early days of the coronavirus
pandemic, many states put a temporary ban on elective surgeries and medical
procedures deemed nonessential. For several states, that included abortion.

It didn’t take long for abortion providers to
challenge the new restrictions. In some states, several judges blocked the
bans. Others were eventually lifted by the states themselves. But for weeks,
many women were left in limbo.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/06/health/abortion-access-coronavirus-cnnphotos/


Access to emergency contraceptive pills is a woman’s right, not a luxury

Pharmacies price the pill at Rwf 10,000, Rwf 15,000, or even Rwf 25,000 instead of Rwf 4,200
By Dr Aflodis Kagaba
Published : June 29, 2020

During an unexpected and often dangerous situation, a person is required to take immediate action, the same applies to the prevention of an unwanted pregnancy.

The ever-increasing access to birth control for Rwandan women is a sign of progress in supporting them to take more control of their bodies.

Continued: https://www.newtimes.co.rw/opinions/access-emergency-contraceptive-pills-womans-right-not-luxury