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.
10/04/2024
European Union
Commission registration number: ECI(2024)000004
Objectives
The “My Voice, My Choice” campaign offers the people of Europe the chance to make women's lives freer, safer, and better; wherever they live in our union, whatever conditions they may find themselves in.
The lack of access to abortion in many parts of Europe not only puts women at risk of physical harm but also puts undue economic and mental stress on women and families, often on the margins of society that can afford it the least.
…To change this we are asking the European Commission to - in the spirit of solidarity - submit a proposal for financial support to Member States that would be able to perform safe termination of pregnancies for anyone in Europe who still lacks access to safe and legal abortion.
Continued: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000004_en
As the U.S. grapples with abortion limits, British lawmakers propose scrapping all legal penalties.
APRIL 8, 2024
BY ANNABELLE DICKSON
LONDON — England’s abortion laws could be headed for an overhaul. Brits probably won’t be taking to the streets.
As the United States continues to grapple with the divisive fallout of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling which overturned Roe v. Wade and so ended the federal right to abortion, British lawmakers are gearing up to have their own debate on the hot-button issue.
Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/abortion-culture-wars-britain/
Amendment tabled by cross-party group including Stella Creasy is latest plan to modernise abortion law in England and Wales
Eleni Courea, Political correspondent
Mon 8 Apr 2024
A cross-party group of MPs is proposing to make abortion access a human right in England and Wales, putting forward legislation that would decriminalise abortion up to 24 weeks and introduce protections against access being stripped back.
Proposals to modernise abortion law have been made in the form of amendments to the government’s criminal justice bill, which is due to be debated after parliament returns from its Easter recess later this month. The Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, will choose which ones are voted on. MPs are expected to be given a free vote.
Myriam Spiteri Debono will not say whether she would sign an abortion bill
April 7, 2024
Mark Laurence Zammit
A referendum would be the fairest way to decide the contentious issue of abortion, according to Malta’s new president. Myriam Spiteri Debono said she is personally against abortion but would not say whether she would sign an abortion law if it were to land on her desk.
In her first interview with Times of Malta, the 71-year-old president said: “I’m personally against abortion but I won’t speculate further. But let’s not be delusional about this – just like it was introduced in other countries, it will eventually be introduced [here as well]. I speak with many young people, and I’m astonished at how some of them – a few of whom even frequent church – come to believe that abortion is acceptable in certain circumstances.”
Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/article/watch-referendum-decide-abortion-issue-new-president.1090606
Eight years working in abortion provision led the author to make this frank and moving case for safeguarding reproductive freedoms – and ending the culture of secrecy and guilt
Barbara Ellen
Sun 7 Apr 2024
It isn’t long into reading Juno Carey’s book that you realise it also serves as a meditation on women and shame. A former NHS midwife who moved into abortion provision (first in clinics then on aftercare helplines), Carey (not her real name) was asked how she could do both, but in her view: “The gap between helping women deliver babies and helping them terminate unwanted pregnancies no longer seems wide to me.” As the title says, it is “a necessary kindness”, another way of aiding pregnant women. While acknowledging the complexities, Carey seeks to demystify abortion – the fact of it, the need for it, the processes of it – to rid it of the long, painful history of judgment, blame and misogynistic juju, and stress its rightful function in a civilised society. Abortion, she asserts, is healthcare.
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