USA – Miscarriages Are Awful, and Abortion Politics Make Them Worse

June 22, 2021
New York Times
By Amanda Allen and Cari Sietstra

Up to 26 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. These losses can be as physically painful as they are emotionally wrenching. And yet many patients are not offered the best care for their miscarriages because of abortion politics.

Both of us have had miscarriages. We each visited our doctors for scheduled ultrasounds between eight and 11 weeks of pregnancy, expecting to see a little bean-shaped baby-to-be with a reassuring heartbeat. Unfortunately, all we heard was quiet. No motion. No beautiful pulse. Only stillness.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/opinion/miscarriage-abortion.html

As Passions Flare in Abortion Debate, Many Americans Say ‘It’s Complicated’

As Passions Flare in Abortion Debate, Many Americans Say ‘It’s Complicated’
“It has become so loud, going both ways. And the divide is only getting bigger,” said Jeannie Wallace French, a Democrat who opposes abortion.

By Jeremy W. Peters
June 15, 2019

PITTSBURGH — Abortion is an issue that Lynndora Smith-Holmes goes back and forth on. “Six of one, half dozen of the other,” she said the other day as she finished her lunch break. “Does it go back to people having abortions in back alleys? Haven’t we overcome that?” she asked, questioning the restrictive laws passed recently in states like Alabama and Kentucky.

At the same time, Ms. Smith-Holmes, who works for a day care center in the Allentown neighborhood of Pittsburgh and votes Democratic, said there should be limits. And she is not comfortable with the idea of taxpayer money going to fund abortions — a position that has become almost impossible to hold in the Democratic presidential primary. “Who’s paying for these?” she wondered.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/us/politics/abortion-debate-pennsylvania.html

UK: Weakened Tories forced into Northern Ireland abortion u-turn

Weakened Tories forced into Northern Ireland abortion u-turn

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, Socialist Party national organizer
July 4, 2017

Thursday 29 June 2017 saw a significant step forward for women in Northern Ireland (NI). Funding to cover the financial costs for them to access abortions in England was pledged by the Tory minority government.

The Tories' 'supply and confidence' deal with the ten DUP MPs turned a spotlight on Northern Irish politics. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act that introduced free, legal abortion for women in England, Wales and Scotland within certain limitations. It was understood by those who fought for this legislation that women should have the right to choose when and whether to have children and that the right to an abortion is a life or death issue. But no major party in NI supports extending it there.

Continued at source: Socialist Party: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/955/25805/05-07-2017/weakened-tories-forced-into-northern-ireland-abortion-u-turn

Campaigning for the Right to Safe Abortion: Highlights of the Year

22 December 2016, by Safe Abortion
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE "OFFICIAL" LEVEL

January 2016

– Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma refuses to sign the Safe Abortion Act, despite it being passed unanimously by the national Parliament twice with widespread support countrywide and from across Africa. He cannot veto it so he referred the new law to the Constitutional Review Committee in March. Then in June he called for it to be put to a referendum.

– Peru government compensates young woman almost a decade after she was denied a legal abortion for anencephaly in historic UN Human Rights Committee abortion case, supported by a range of women's rights and abortion rights groups.

– African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights calls for decriminalisation of abortion across Africa in line with the Maputo Protocol.

– European Union 2016 budget requires medical care in humanitarian settings to include access to safe abortion.

– Guyana Madam Justice Roxane George has interpreted the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1995 to permit mid-level providers to deliver medical abortion for pregnancies not more than eight weeks.

[continued at link]

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

22.12.2016