How the pandemic revolutionised abortion access in the UK

Since patients have been allowed to take pills at home to terminate pregnancies, major medical complications have dropped by two-thirds.

15 DECEMBER 2020
BY KATHARINE SWINDELLS

When national lockdown was imposed at the end of March, and in-person access to healthcare was limited, the government initially flip-flopped over temporary changes to abortion laws.

Yet from the beginning of April, it approved measures to allow patients within the first ten weeks of pregnancy to take abortion pills at home after a telephone call or e-consultation with a clinician. Previously, these would have been face-to-face appointments.

Continued: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2020/12/how-pandemic-revolutionised-abortion-access-uk

Biden Could Expand Abortion Access, Even Without the Senate

The path lies not in legislation but through the deregulation of mifepristone—the only drug the FDA has approved to safely and effectively terminate an early pregnancy.

Nov 28, 2020
Greer Donley

Joe Biden is now poised to become the next president of the United States. His victory, however, is bittersweet for many Democrats, especially those for whom abortion rights are a top issue. Democrats lost seats in the House of Representatives, and their odds for a Senate majority seem to be dwindling. Just eight days before the election, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Without a Senate majority and with a hostile Supreme Court, some may wonder whether any progress on abortion rights can be made in the next four years.

Abortion-rights advocates need not accept that all is lost. They simply need to look outside legislation and the courts for their answer.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/biden-abortion-access/616913/

Legal but not accessible: abortion in Turkey from an ethical perspective

By Gender DSC
23/11/2020

Can abortion just be a medical decision?
As has been reported by Amnesty International, “Around 47,000 women die as a result of unsafe abortions every year.” The testimony of Rajat Khosla, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research and Advocacy shows the peril of the siege over women’s bodies. Although the political authorities try to establish their presence under the subject of religious sensitivity with the slogan that “abortion is murder”, many women have died as a result of the operations carried out under improper conditions.

In countries where abortion is restricted or prohibited, women who are wealthy have the chance to get an abortion abroad and return to their countries, while the poor have to terminate their pregnancy using dangerous methods such as clothes hangers, as in Argentina.

Continued: https://diem25.org/legal-but-not-accessible-abortion-turkey-from-ethical-perspective/

This Is Why Abortions Weren’t Available In South Dakota For The Past 7 Months

ELLY BELLE
NOVEMBER 20, 2020

With the Supreme Court taking a new direction with the addition of Amy Coney Barrett, many are concerned about Roe v. Wade and what will happen to abortion access. But in several states across the U.S., abortion is already largely inaccessible even if it’s technically legal. That’s become even more true during the pandemic, as many providers have had to completely shut down or haven’t had the workers to make carrying out abortions possible. In South Dakota, abortions have been entirely inaccessible in the state since March when the Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls halted all procedures.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/11/10183223/south-dakota-abortion-7-month-stop-covid-pandemic

Women struggle to access abortion as pandemic adds to hurdles in Europe

By Catarina Demony
NOVEMBER 16, 2020

LISBON (Reuters) - Helplines across Europe have reported higher demand for their services as the coronavirus pandemic adds to the hurdles many women face to access abortion.

While abortion is legal in most of Europe, some women have struggled to get appointments in public health systems overwhelmed by the pandemic. Others could not escape abusive partners because of lockdowns, non-governmental organisations and some women who chose to have an abortion told Reuters.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-europe-abortion/women-struggle-to-access-abortion-as-pandemic-adds-to-hurdles-in-europe-idUSKBN27W11P

USA – Surgical Abortion Restriction Did Not Decrease Clinic Visits During Pandemic, Study Shows

Mon, 11/09/2020

LAWRENCE — Abortions have decreased significantly this year, due largely to pandemic-related factors. But other veiled influences stemming from state-related policies have affected this number in surprising ways.

“We found that foot traffic to abortion clinics went down substantially,” said David Slusky, De-Min and Chin-Sha Wu Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Kansas. “And then in states that limited elective medical procedures, it went down even further. But once you account for both of those two things, we do not see a third decrease for the states that said, ‘Abortion counts as elective surgery.’”

Continued: https://today.ku.edu/2020/11/06/surgical-abortion-restriction-did-not-decrease-clinic-visits-during-pandemic

09.11.2020

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Covid-19 and abortion

How The Pandemic Is Limiting Access To Abortion

Across the globe, travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders and shifting health care priorities have combined to make abortion an even more difficult procedure to obtain.

Hannah Steinkopf-Frank
2020-10-19

As hospitals around the globe direct their attention and resources toward helping COVID-19 patients, other medical needs are, inevitably, getting less attention. One of those is women's reproductive health and access, in particular, to abortion, as evidenced in a recent study by the advocacy group Marie Stopes International. In a recent report, the organization noted that between January and June, in 37 countries, nearly two million fewer women received abortions than in the same period last year.

• Travel restrictions and bans have had an impact as well, limiting options for women in places ranging from the United States to Poland, as they are unable to access abortions in other states or countries where it is considered an essential procedure.

Continued: https://worldcrunch.com/coronavirus/how-the-pandemic-is-limiting-access-to-abortion

America must stop using international aid to export anti-abortion ideology

‘US policies have restricted access to comprehensive and often lifesaving, reproductive healthcare.’

Anu Kumar and Patty Skuster, Ipas
15 October 2020

At this moment in US political history, Americans have a chance to rid the United States of its contradictory, confusing, and ideologically driven approach to reproductive health around the world.

The United States is the largest donor to global health and humanitarian assistance. But for decades it has been a case study in contradictions when it comes to aid and foreign policy, and in no area is this more evident than reproductive health and rights, particularly abortion.

Continued: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2020/10/15/US-abortion-sexual-reproductive-health-aid

The pandemic sparked the rise of tele-abortion. Is it here to stay?

After 20 years in the U.S., medication abortion is finally widely accessible through telehealth. But a looming Supreme Court ruling could change all that.

BY RUTH READER
10.02.2020

In April of this year, when some of Minnesota’s already few abortion clinics started to close because of the pandemic, a new organization popped up with a novel idea: It would bring abortion services to Minnesotans using a mobile clinic. Called Just The Pill, its goal was to connect the state’s most rural corners with medication abortion care, a two-pill regimen that can end a pregnancy.

In the past, it’s been hard for sexual health groups to get medication abortion to people in remote areas. The Food and Drug Administration restricts one of the medications, mifepristone, in several ways. Patients must take the pill at a clinic, for example. On top of that, states have their own rules that can further encumber access. However, the medical data overwhelmingly shows the abortion pill is safe, even to take at home alone. Health experts say politics—not data—are informing these rules.

Continued: https://www.fastcompany.com/90550536/telehealth-abortion-pill-supreme-court-ruling

Indonesia – Safe abortion crucial for women’s reproductive health

STEVIE EMILIA, THE JAKARTA POST
Jakarta / Tue, September 29, 2020

Abortion – safe or unsafe, legal or illegal – has existed throughout history. Yet, it continues to be the most sensitive and controversial issue in reproductive health.

The WHO has disclosed that an average of 73.3 million – safe and unsafe – abortions took place worldwide per year between 2015 and 2019, with the rate of abortions being higher in developing regions than in developed ones.

Continued: https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/09/29/safe-abortion-crucial-for-womens-reproductive-health.html