Ghana – Ministry of Education urged to review policy on abstinence

November 10, 2023

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has been called upon to review its policy on abstinence amongst school children to allow for preventive/contraceptive use sessions at school environment to safeguard pupils and students from unintended and teenage pregnancies.

The stakeholders, who made the call, said this would also help to address the increasing cases of unsafe abortion amongst adolescent girls in the country.

Continued: https://newsghana.com.gh/ministry-of-education-urged-to-review-policy-on-abstinence/


Northern Ireland – Sex education: Some schools tell pupils homosexuality is wrong, says report

June 12, 2023
By Robbie Meredith, BBC News NI education correspondent

Some schools in Northern Ireland are teaching pupils that homosexuality is wrong in relationships and sex education (RSE).

A Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) report said "many schools use language that shames and stigmatises young people" who had sex.

Some told pupils that those who "engage in casual sex must bear the consequences of their actions".

Continued:  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65871730


USA – The Left Case for Fertility Awareness

The Left Case for Fertility Awareness
No pill, intrauterine device, or ultra-ribbed piece of rubber could provide the sexual liberation I experience practicing a method associated with anti-choice religious zealots.

By Megan Magray
December 26, 2019

The first time I had sex without a condom, I cried. It wasn’t that I regretted having condomless sex; I regretted not realizing I could have been doing it all along.

I’d opted myself out of hormonal birth control long before: I hated the hollowed-out, fatalistic feeling that enveloped me on the pill, and was perpetually skittish about both the pain that comes with IUD insertion and potential side effects. As a result, I never imagined myself having unprotected sex that I could deem safe. Conventional knowledge holds that medical birth control options—most notably, IUDs, and oral contraceptives—are the best pregnancy prevention tools for responsible women. Outside of condoms, effective alternatives to these medical interventions are generally considered to be nonexistent and are rarely made accessible. A desolate birth control landscape—coupled with the faulty premise that women are constantly at risk of pregnancy—meant that I spent years afflicted with a perpetual low-level anxiety around sex, deprived of the bodily autonomy that I subconsciously craved.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/birth-control-fertility-fam/


Abortion Is a Problem to Be Solved, Not a Moral Issue

Abortion Is a Problem to Be Solved, Not a Moral Issue
Education and birth control are slowly making the politics less relevant

By Michael Shermer | Scientific American, September 2018 Issue (online August 14)

In May of this year the pro-life/pro-choice controversy leapt back into headlines when Ireland overwhelmingly approved a referendum to end its constitutional ban on abortion. Around the same time, the Trump administration proposed that Title X federal funding be withheld from abortion clinics as a tactic to reduce the practice, a strategy similar to that of Texas and other states to shut down clinics by burying them in an avalanche of regulations, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2016 as an undue burden on women for a constitutionally guaranteed right. If the goal is to attenuate abortions, a better strategy is to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Two methods have been proposed: abstinence and birth control.

Abstinence would obviate abortions just as starvation would forestall obesity. There is a reason no one has proposed chastity as a solution to overpopulation. Sexual asceticism doesn't work, because physical desire is nearly as fundamental as food to our survival and flourishing.

Continued: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/abortion-is-a-problem-to-be-solved-not-a-moral-issue/


In Closed-Door UN Meetings, Trump Administration Officials Pushed Abstinence For International Women’s Health Programs

In Closed-Door UN Meetings, Trump Administration Officials Pushed Abstinence For International Women’s Health Programs

Members of HHS, USAID, and the US Mission to the UN asked for references to contraception, abortion, and comprehensive sex education to be struck from a document on international gender equality, calling the US a "pro-life nation."

April 17, 2018
Ema O'Connor, BuzzFeed News Reporter

In closed-door meetings at the United Nations in March, Trump administration officials pushed socially conservative views on women’s rights issues — including abstinence-based policies over information about contraception — that were further to the right than those expressed by most other countries present, including Russia and the representative for the Arab states, UN officials who attended the meetings told BuzzFeed News.

The Trump officials’ approach at the UN meeting makes it clear that the administration intends to extend its views on abortion, contraception, and sexual education beyond US borders to an extent that is unusual even for Republican administrations.

continued: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/un-meeting-trump-administration-abstinence?utm_term=.nyJLW2dpq#.qy9Yw78QE


Taking Stock of Year One of the Trump Administration’s Harmful Agenda Against Reproductive Health and Rights

Taking Stock of Year One of the Trump Administration’s Harmful Agenda Against Reproductive Health and Rights
Jan 18, 2018
Kinsey Hasstedt & Heather Boonstra

From limiting abortion access to destabilizing the family planning safety net, Trump and social conservatives did considerable harm while also signaling their intentions for further attacks in the years ahead.

Throughout President Trump’s first year in office, social conservatives in the administration and Congress mounted an all-out assault on people’s ability to obtain comprehensive reproductive health care in the United States and abroad. Despite coming up short in many respects, policymakers did considerable harm while also signaling their intentions for further attacks in the years ahead.

Continued at source: https://rewire.news/article/2018/01/18/taking-stock-year-one-trump-administrations-harmful-agenda-reproductive-health-rights/