Saturday, April 13, 2024
Women Help Women
Abortion Without Borders has spent more than €11.5m (PLN 49,104,011) in time and money to provide abortion access for Polish residents, without help from the government.
Activists from Abortion Without Borders brought the ‘Polish abortion debt’ to the Sejm (Polish parliament) on Thursday (11 April), presenting an invoice to the government for the costs of time and financial assistance to provide abortion access for Polish residents.
Polish lawmakers voted Friday to advance bills that would lift a near-total ban on abortion in place since 2020, reviving an extremely polarising debate in the traditionally Roman Catholic country. But by launching an effort to liberalise abortion laws, Prime Minister Donald Tusk is moving to fulfil a campaign promise.
April 12, 2024
By: Sonya CIESNIK
Members of the Sejm (lower house) voted to advance four separate abortion bills on Friday that would help bring Polish law into line with widespread European standards.
Two of the bills would guarantee access to abortion through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, including the one introduced by Tusk’s Civic Platform party. A third proposes decriminalising offering assistance to a woman in terminating a pregnancy, currently punishable by three years in prison, while a fourth, stricter bill would keep the ban in place but allow abortion in cases of severe foetal defects.
Rob Picheta, CNN
Thu April 11, 2024
Poland is debating changes to its near-total abortion ban on Thursday, re-opening one of the country’s thorniest social and political debates in an effort to overhaul some of the strictest laws on reproductive rights in Europe.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s party has proposed changing the law – which currently prohibits terminations in almost all cases – to allow for abortions up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/11/europe/poland-abortion-debate-tusk-intl/index.html
By Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press
April 11, 2024
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s parliament held a long-awaited debate Thursday on liberalizing the country’s strict abortion law. The traditionally Catholic nation has one of the most restrictive laws in Europe, but many women terminate pregnancies at home with pills mailed from abroad.
Lawmakers in the lower house of parliament considered four proposals and will vote Friday on whether to send them for further work.
Continued: https://apnews.com/article/poland-abortion-law-tusk-b70785a371f16d781906463dbb7ab688
By Euronews
April 11, 2024
The European Parliament has voted in favour of including access to abortion in the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The proposal was approved by 336 votes to 163 against, with support mainly coming from left-wing and centrist members.
Hard-left French MEP Manon Aubry attacked what she called "reactionaries" on the right for voting against the measure.
11th April 2024
By Ademola Adegbite
A professor of Demography at the Department of Demography and Social Statistics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Akanni Akinyemi, has called on traditional rulers and religious leaders to collaborate and save young girls from unnecessary death.
He gave this advice in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, in an interview with The PUNCH correspondent, on the sideline of the National Forum on Unintended Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria, organised by the Partnership for Advancing Abortion Research and Reducing Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria.
Continued: https://punchng.com/don-wants-end-to-unsafe-abortions/
While Mexico City had decriminalized abortion, it remained criminal at the federal level
By Angelica Dino
11 Apr 2024
A group of Mexican senators has initiated legislation to remove abortion from the federal penal code, a significant move following the Supreme Court's decision last autumn to decriminalize abortion at the federal level, the International Bar Association reported.
This legislative effort is a direct response to the Supreme Court's directive, requiring the Mexican Congress to align federal law with this landmark judgment. Historically, Mexico City and several other states had decriminalized abortion, but at the federal level, it remained classified as a criminal offense. The journey towards reform was advanced in 2021 when the Supreme Court, through a series of judgments, decriminalized abortion in the northern state of Coahuila. These rulings set a constitutional precedent, emphasizing that criminal penalties for abortion and restrictive measures like “expansive rights to conscientious objection” used to deny abortion services were unconstitutional.
By AFP - Agence France Presse
April 10, 2024
An Indigenous woman has reported her country, Honduras, to the UN Human Rights Committee for denying her an abortion after she was raped, rights groups said Wednesday.
It is the first time the Central American country has been brought before the UN for its absolute abortion ban which has meant "forced motherhood" for countless women and girls, said the Center for Reproductive Rights, an NGO supporting the case brought by the woman identified only as Fausia.
Continued: https://www.barrons.com/news/forced-motherhood-honduras-reported-to-un-for-abortion-ban-b3817b30
The first-of-its-kind vending machine stocks contraceptives, HIV kits, pregnancy tests, as well as sanitary towels.
By Cornelia Le Roux
10 Apr 2024
The Health Department will be handing over a self-care wellness vending machine in the Eastern Cape at Mthatha Ultra City on Wednesday.
...According to National Health Department spokesperson, Foster Mohale, the vending machine is the first of its kind in South Africa. "This initiative is targeting girls and women of childbearing to increase access to sexual reproductive health and HIV prevention services,” Mohale explained.
Justices rule to hold off on requiring state to enforce ban for 14 days, to allow advocates to ask lower court to pause it again
Carter Sherman
Tue 9 Apr 2024
The Arizona supreme court ruled Tuesday to let a law banning almost all abortions in the state go into effect, a decision that could curtail abortion access in the US south-west and could make Arizona one of the biggest battlefields in the 2024 electoral fight over abortion rights.
The justices said Arizona could enforce a 1864 near-total abortion ban, first passed before Arizona became a state, that went unenforced for decades after the US supreme court legalized abortion nationwide in the 1973 decision Roe v Wade. However, the justices also ruled to hold off on requiring the state to enforce the ban for 14 days, in order to allow advocates to ask a lower court to pause it again.
Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/09/arizona-supreme-court-abortion-decision
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