Canada – How pro-life bias is limiting reproductive healthcare access in rural Ontario

Right-to-life groups are increasing stigma and barriers to preventing and eliminating pregnancies

By Mary Baxter
August 2, 2023

After the condom broke, Amanda’s* boyfriend hurried to the drugstore to get the morning-after pill. Anxiety eddied as Amanda waited for him to return. The teenage couple had experienced pregnancy scares before but had never resorted to emergency contraception. A baby couldn’t be in the picture yet, Amanda knew.

In 2018, Amanda was 19 years old. The teen from Chatham-Kent, a rural municipality in southwestern Ontario, had dropped out of high school in Grade 11. They struggled with mental health and lived with their parents. They were unemployed. Their boyfriend, the same age, hit them.

Continued: https://broadview.org/abortion-access-rural/


THE PRESS IS FALLING FOR ANTI-ABORTION “FETAL HEARTBEAT” PROPAGANDA

Reporters are parroting — and spreading — sentimental falsehoods.

Judith Levine
May 27 2023

“ONCE A FETAL heartbeat could be detected, typically around the sixth week of pregnancy … ”

When I read this phrase in the New Yorker, referring to Texas’s first abortion ban, I shot off a letter to the editor. “This is misleading,” I wrote. “There is no heartbeat at six weeks because the fetus does not yet have a heart. As San Francisco OB-GYN Dr. Jennifer Kerns told NPR: ‘What we’re really detecting is a grouping of cells that are initiating some electrical activity. In no way is this detecting a functional cardiovascular system or a functional heart.’” I noted that “a six-week fetus is about the size and shape of a baked bean.”

Continued:  https://theintercept.com/2023/05/27/abortion-fetal-heartbeat-propaganda-press-coverage/


Google adverts direct pregnant women to services run by UK anti-abortion groups

The tech giant is carrying adverts styled to look like real internet search results for women seeking pregnancy advice

Shanti Das
Sat 25 Feb 2023

Women seeking online advice about abortions are being directed to pregnancy counselling services run by anti-abortion campaigners, an Observer investigation has found.

Google adverts that are styled to look like real search results and appear above genuine listings are routinely being shown to people searching key terms relating to pregnancy and abortion.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/25/google-adverts-direct-pregnant-women-anti-abortion-groups


UK: Anti-abortion group in tampon tax row removes death penalty comparison

Anti-abortion group in tampon tax row removes death penalty comparison

Charity comes under criticism for receiving £250,000 from government’s tampon tax, but insists support services are unbiased and non-judgemental

by Alice Ross
Monday 3 April 2017

A charity that has been given £250,000 from the government’s so-called tampon tax fund has scrubbed language describing abortion after rape as a “death penalty” from its website after being challenged on it.

The Life charity has now said it will do a full review of its website to remove offensive language, after the Guardian pointed out that the same article referred to abortion in cases of disability as a “death sentence”.

Continued at link: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/03/anti-abortion-group-scrubs-likening-abortion-after-to-death-penalty