Abortion rights at issue in European elections

Abortion rights are featuring in this year’s European election campaign in a way we have not seen before.

MAGDALENA FRENNHOFF LARSÉN
15th March 2024

The recent landmark decision in France to inscribe the right to abortion in the constitution serves to protect the law that first legalised abortion in the country in 1975. This law—the so-called Veil law—was championed by Simone Veil, one of France’s most admired and respected political figures, and an icon of the women’s-rights movement.

In 1974, Veil, a magistrate who had been asked by the French president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, to serve as health minister in his government, delivered a momentous speech. She presented the public-health case for the decriminalisation of abortion to the National Assembly, which at the time was composed almost entirely of men.

Continued: https://www.socialeurope.eu/abortion-rights-at-issue-in-european-elections


In France, abortion rights and hijab bans highlight a double standard on women’s rights

March 14, 2024
Roshan Arah Jahangeer

The French parliament recently voted in favour of enshrining the right to abortion into the country’s constitution. While crowds celebrated outside, the slogan “my body my choice” was projected onto the Eiffel Tower in giant letters.

Although concerns about barriers and access still remain, women in France are now guaranteed the right to an abortion up to 14 weeks into their pregnancy, mirroring Spain but still well behind Sweden’s 18 weeks and the 24 weeks allowed in The Netherlands.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/in-france-abortion-rights-and-hijab-bans-highlight-a-double-standard-on-womens-rights-225418


Labour MEP makes plea for abortion to become fundamental right in EU Charter

Cyrus Engerer calls for the introduction of abortion to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in Brussels debate that follows French constitutional enshrinement

14 March 2024
by Matthew Vella

Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer billed himself the first Maltese in Brussels to have spoken in favour of women’s full bodily autonomy, in an impassioned intervention to a debate calling for abortion to become a fundamental right in the European Charter of fundamental rights.

Engerer, who has not yet committed himself to a re-election campaign for the 2024 elections, quoted various experiences of anonymous women who had to carry out illegal abortions in Malta due to domestic violence, rape, or illness.

Continued: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/ewropej/128109/labour_mep_makes_plea_for_abortion_to_become_fundamental_right_in_eu_charter


UK – ‘I’m not judging you’ – midwife Juno Carey on what it’s like to work in an abortion clinic

She’s looked after teenagers, rape survivors and trafficked sex workers – and assisted at terminations while she’s been pregnant herself. Still, she wouldn’t change her job for anything.

Zoe Williams
Thu 14 Mar 2024

Juno Carey, a pseudonym, is a midwife practitioner who has worked in an abortion clinic in the UK for the last eight years. She lives with her wife and their three children – the baby’s at home when I meet her, along with Carey’s sister, who’s looking after him. Carey is tidy and serene, the woman you’d single out in a playground if you needed a tissue, or a hairbrush, or some nice word on a bad day.

She has written a book about abortion that is not at all serene, but deeply knowledgable, full of conviction and not even trying to keep the peace. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book so plain in its thinking and descriptions – of the women and their situations, of what abortion care looks like and the dilemmas, sensitivities and practicalities in a terrain that is discussed so much by those who oppose it, and shrouded in silence by those who support it. I wouldn’t say Carey’s tone was ever celebratory, but what often comes over in her anonymised stories is the sheer blissful relief of no longer having to be pregnant when you didn’t want to be, and the tight bond of gratitude that exists between patients and medics. We probably don’t talk about that enough.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/14/juno-carey-midwife-abortions-terminations-rape-survivors-sex-workers


Abortion rights are featuring in this year’s European election campaign in a way we’ve not seen before

March 13, 2024
Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén

The recent landmark decision in France to inscribe the right to abortion in the constitution serves to protect the law that first legalised abortion in the country in 1975. This law – the so-called Veil law – was championed by Simone Veil, one of France’s most admired and respected political figures, and an icon of the women’s rights movement.

In 1974, Veil, a magistrate who had been asked by French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to serve as health minister in his government, delivered a momentous speech. She presented the public health case for the decriminalisation of abortion to the National Assembly, which at the time was composed almost entirely of men.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/abortion-rights-are-featuring-in-this-years-european-election-campaign-in-a-way-weve-not-seen-before-225714


How To Get An Abortion In Iceland

Published March 11, 2024
Words by Catharine Fulton (The útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done)

Much like wrangling your annual tax return or figuring out how to register your kid for extra-curriculars, navigating the health care system in Iceland can be tricky and frustrating and, sometimes, rage inducing.

But if there is ever a time when you don’t need the extra stress of research or trial and error it’s when you find yourself pregnant. If you are a pregnant person planning on carrying a foetus to term, then your first stop should be your neighbourhood Heilsugæslan, where you will be paired with a midwife to oversee your care. Nota bene: you are in control, so if you don’t like the care you receive from your assigned midwife, it is your right to request another midwife to take over your care.

Continued: https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2024/03/11/how-to-get-an-abortion/


UK – Lower abortion limit from 24 weeks, 700 doctors urge MPs

Reduction ‘long overdue’ because of increased numbers of babies born at 22 or 23 weeks now able to survive

Charles Hymas,
10 March 2024

The abortion time limit should be lowered from 24 to 22 weeks, more than 700 doctors have urged MPs. In a letter to all 650 MPs, the medics have called on them to back an amendment to the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill to reduce the time limit, in what would be the biggest change to the law for a generation.

The medical professionals – ranging from senior consultants to GPs – said a reduction is “long overdue” because of the increased numbers of babies born at 22 or 23 weeks who are now able to survive.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/10/lower-abortion-limit-from-24-weeks-700-doctors-urge-mps/


Europe’s liberals, Greens say abortion must be a right in EU charter

10 Mar, 2024

Senior figures from the Green and liberal factions in the European Parliament have spoken in favour of including the right to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, echoing a call by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Green parliamentary group leader Terry Reintke and Valérie Hayer, who is the leader of the liberal Renew group, spoke to Germany’s RND media group for an interview published on Sunday. “The right to safe abortion belongs in the EU Charter as a fundamental right,” said Reintke, a German politician who has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2014.

Continued; https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3254849/europes-liberals-greens-say-abortion-must-be-right-eu-charter


Why changing the constitution doesn’t guarantee access to abortion in France

As commentators hail France's decision to protect abortion rights within its constitution as a legal milestone, healthcare workers warn that having the right to an abortion and having access to one remain two different things.

March 9, 2024
Jessica Phelan with RFI

"Enshrining this right in the constitution makes it practically untouchable," declared long-time women's rights activist and former leftwing MP Danielle Bousquet, speaking to RFI on the day that both houses of the French parliament approved the move.

Article 34 of the charter now states: "The law determines the conditions by which the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed, is exercised."

Continued: https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20240309-why-changing-the-constitution-doesn-t-guarantee-access-to-abortion-in-france


UK – Retired scientist prosecuted for holding up ‘here to talk’ sign outside abortion clinic

Former medical researcher accused of breaching ‘buffer zone’ and public space protection order when attending clinic

Charles Hymas
9 March 2024

A retired medical scientist is being prosecuted in a free speech test case after holding up a sign near an abortion clinic saying: “Here to talk if you want to.”

Livia Tossici-Bolt, 62, who worked at Southampton’s University Hospital Trust as a medical researcher, has been accused of breaching a “buffer zone” when she attended the abortion clinic in Bournemouth.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/retired-scientist-free-speech-case-abortion-clinic/