Failed by Indonesia: the girl, 15, raped by her brother and jailed for abortion

Failed by Indonesia: the girl, 15, raped by her brother and jailed for abortion
The grisly truth behind a baby’s death has caused an outcry in a country where abortion laws take scant heed of circumstance

Kate Lamb in Jambi
Thu 16 Aug 2018

Fika* gave birth alone in her room at night. The baby came out alive.

According to her testimony, the 15-year-old from Sumatra cut the umbilical cord with a razor and then the baby went limp and died. She held it up, but it didn’t cry.

After that she wrapped the tiny body in a tablecloth and hid it under her bed, she told her lawyer. At dawn she buried it in a shallow grave next to a palm tree by her house.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/16/15-year-old-girl-failed-indonesia-rape-brother-jailed-abortion


Compounding Trauma: Indonesia’s Abortion Law

Compounding Trauma: Indonesia’s Abortion Law
“The abortion law in Indonesia makes it almost impossible to protect women.”

By Aisyah Llewellyn
August 14, 2018

In July 2018, the news broke that a 15-year-old Indonesian teenager in Jambi, Sumatra had been sentenced to six months in prison. Her crime: undergoing an abortion after she was raped by her own brother.

The case provoked widespread outrage, and sparked protests by women’s rights and child protection groups after the teenager was charged under the child protection law when a male fetus was found in a palm oil plantation close to her village.

Continued: https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/compounding-trauma-indonesias-abortion-law/


Indonesia – Police investigate alleged incest, abortion in Jambi village

Police investigate alleged incest, abortion in Jambi village

Jon Afrizal
The Jakarta Post
Sun, June 10, 2018

Batanghari Police have arrested a woman and her two children after an investigation connected them to the recent discovery of a badly decomposed male fetus that was found on an oil palm plantation near Pulau village, Muara Tembesi district, Batanghari regency, Jambi.

The suspects, AD, 38, AS, 18, and WA, 15, are being held under the Child Protection Law and the Criminal Code (KUHP). AS is accused of raping his sister, WA, while she and her mother have been charged with aborting the 8-month-old fetus. AS could face 15 years in prison if found guilty and AD and WA 10 years.

Continued: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/06/09/police-investigate-alleged-incest-abortion-in-jambi-village.html


Ireland’s opposition leader wants to liberalise abortion law

Ireland's opposition leader wants to liberalise abortion law
Micheál Martin stuns sections of Fianna Fáil party by changing his mind over the contentious issue

Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Sun 11 Feb 2018

Ireland’s opposition leader has revealed he changed his mind in favour of liberalising the Republic’s strict anti-abortion laws after meeting women forced to travel to Britain to end their pregnancies after learning they had no hope their babies would be born alive.

Micheál Martin has stunned conservative sections of his Fianna Fáil party by backing the repeal of the eighth amendment to the Irish Republic’s constitution, which prohibits abortion, in a nationwide referendum in May.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/11/micheal-martin-ireland-opposition-leader-wants-to-liberalise-abortion-law


India: Court rejects abortion plea of minor’s parents

Court rejects abortion plea of minor’s parents

The court of additional district and sessions judge Roonam R Joshi passed the orders on the basis of medical report submitted by the doctors of Gynecology Department of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32.

By: Express News Service | Chandigarh | Published:July 19, 2017

Disposing the application moved by the parents of a 10-year-old rape victim in which they had sought permission for abortion, a local court observed that girl cannot undergo abortion as it can pose serious health issues.

The court of additional district and sessions judge Roonam R Joshi passed the orders on the basis of medical report submitted by the doctors of Gynecology Department of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32.

Continued at source: Indian Express: http://indianexpress.com/article/chandigarh/court-rejects-abortion-plea-of-minors-parents-chandigarh-4757232/


Dominican vote opens door to possible easing of total abortion ban

Dominican vote opens door to possible easing of total abortion ban

Anastasia Moloney
July 13, 2017

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Congress in the Dominican Republic rejected upholding the nation's total ban on abortion this week, approving a step that would allow the procedure for ending life-threatening pregnancies and those resulting from rape or incest.

The lawmakers in the lower house voted against a decision in May by the Dominican Senate, which turned down recommendations made by President Danilo Medina to amend the criminal code and ease the nation's abortion ban.

Continued at source: Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dominican-abortion-women-idUSKBN19Y2I5


India 10-year-old child rape victim in abortion plea

India 10-year-old child rape victim in abortion plea

15 May 2017

A panel of doctors has met in India to discuss the case of a 10-year-old rape victim who is seeking an abortion.

The girl was repeatedly raped by her stepfather and is due to give birth in about four months, police in the northern town of Rohtak told the BBC.

He has been arrested and detained pending a full police investigation.

Indian law does not allow terminations after 20 weeks unless the woman's life is in danger. The girl's request for an abortion is for the courts to decide.

Continued at link: BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-39921371


Honduras Should Give Women More Access to Abortion

Honduras Should Give Women More Access to Abortion
Lawmakers Set to Discuss Loosening Notoriously Strict Anti-Abortion Law

April 24, 2017
Sarah Taylor
Women, Peace and Security Advocate, Women's Rights Division

This week, lawmakers in Honduras will have the chance to allow some women access to abortion, reversing restrictions first imposed more than 30 years ago. Under the current law, terminating a pregnancy is illegal and carries a heavy prison sentence, unless the woman’s life is in danger. But Congress is reportedly considering loosening abortion restrictions, although any proposed text is not yet public.

Continued at source: Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/24/honduras-should-give-women-more-access-abortion


Incest Case Attests That, In Costa Rica, Abortion Is Legal In Name Only

Incest Case Attests That, In Costa Rica, Abortion Is Legal In Name Only
04/11/2017

Larissa Arroyo Navarrete, University of Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, women have had the right to abortion since 1970. Well, more or less.

The concept of the “unpunished abortion”, established in article 121 of the penal code, permits the termination of a pregnancy as long the procedure is consensual, performed by a doctor (or, if necessary, by an authorised obstetrician), and is the only way to protect the life or health of the woman.

This is commonly called a “therapeutic abortion”. And while it may be technically permissible, in practice the public hospitals where most Costa Ricans receive care refuse to offer the procedure except when a woman’s life is in imminent danger. As in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, for instance.

Continued at source: Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/incest-case-attests-that-in-costa-rica-abortion-is_us_58ecc8d0e4b0ea028d568cc6


The Association of Women Jurists of Senegal Pressure Government

The Association of Women Jurists of Senegal Pressure Government
by Safe Abortion
Feb 10, 2017

The Association of Women Jurists of Senegal continue to put pressure on the government for abortion to be legalised following rape and incest. Some 250 cases of rape of girls aged 13 to 18 years which led to a pregnancy in 52 cases  were reported in the first 11 months of 2016 in Senegal. Of those, at least 25 were cases of incest followed by pregnancy, yet abortion on the grounds of rape and incest is not permitted. “This situation is grave,” said the President of the Association, Mme Fanta Ndiaye Gueye. She called on the government to reconsider its position without delay by implementing a change in the law. She pointed out that Senegal signed the Maputo Protocol  in 2014, which also calls for abortion to be made legal and safe on a number of grounds, including following rape and incest. The Association of Women Jurists has made it a goal to convince the whole society of the justice of this cause, but the road is a long one, not least due to the conservative opposition from both Muslim and Christian religious figures.

SOURCE: Le 360 Afrique.com,  by Mar Bassine, 4 February 2017 ; PHOTO

SEE ALSO: Senegal: avec plus de 50.000 avortements clandestins par an, faut-il autoriser l’IVG?, 20 October 2016

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Source: International Campaign for women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/the-association-of-women-jurists-of-senegal-pressure-government/