Kenya condemns women to ‘death by unsafe abortion’, campaigners warn

September 5, 2020, Thomson Reuters Foundation
By Nita Bhalla

NAIROBI: Thousands of women are dying every year in Kenya due to botched backstreet abortions, campaigners have warned, 10 years after the introduction of safeguards to abortion access when a woman’s life is in danger.

Kenya’s 2010 constitution broadened access to abortion, permitting it when a woman’s life is at risk or in case of an emergency, and guaranteeing the right to life and reproductive health services.

Continued: https://www.thedispatch.in/kenya-condemns-women-to-death-by-unsafe-abortion-campaigners-warn/


South Africa – Abortion is a regular medical procedure, so why do we need a law for it?

With abortion services becoming available through telemedicine and self-managed abortions increasingly gaining traction globally, the relevance and legality of abortion law should be questioned as women demand reproductive justice, and feminists get organising.

By Marion Stevens
14 August 2020

Abortion has always been legal in South Africa, a fact which may surprise many people. The colonial government introduced Roman-Dutch law, which allowed abortions to take place under certain conditions.

The Abortion and Sterilisation Act 2 of 1975 reserved access to abortion for white women, while increasing control over black women’s bodies – all within a population control framework. Under this act, approximately 1,000 white women accessed abortion every year, while the number of black women seeking abortions was not even recorded.

Continued: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-14-abortion-is-a-regular-medical-procedure-so-why-do-we-need-a-law-for-it/


Sri Lanka’s backstreet abortions: hundreds of women take daily risks with illegal terminations

Sri Lanka’s abortion laws are among the world's most restrictive, yet hundreds of women risk their lives every day with illegal terminations

By Meghan Davidson Ladly

5 August 2020

In an unassuming house in the Sri Lankan city of Negombo, Achala is bravely
breaking a taboo. With poise and calm the 36-year-old is talking about her
abortion, three years previously. While she is hardly alone in terminating a
pregnancy, few Sri Lankan women are willing to openly discuss their experiences
in a country where the issue remains legally and culturally off limits. 

Sri Lanka’s abortion laws are among the most restrictive in the world and
attempts at legal reform are held up in parliament. Yet every day hundreds of
women are thought to obtain illegal abortions, risking their lives and
long-term health.

Continued:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/sri-lankas-backstreet-abortions-hundreds-women-take-daily-risks/


Coca-Cola and quacks

Coca-Cola and quacks
How Kenya's restrictive abortion laws are fuelling infanticide

Kenya is in the grip of an infanticide crisis – driven by poverty, unwanted pregnancies and muddled abortions laws. Adrian Blomfield discovers the deadly consequences of restricting reproductive rights. Pictures by Simon Townsley

November 25, 2019

On the streets of Nairobi, out of official earshot, nurses say there are different ways of killing unwanted babies.

Some young mothers feed them Coca-Cola instead of breast milk to make their organs collapse. Ginger beer is said to work just as well. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of others, are left to die in pit-latrines, rivers and rubbish dumps.

Or there is always the option of getting someone else to do the deed. Quacks on the back streets of urban slums are often only too willing to end a late-term pregnancy by inducing a living infant and then finishing it off with a blow to the head.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/infanticide-in-kenya/


Women being pushed to the margins of society in Guatemala

Women being pushed to the margins of society in Guatemala
Violence and discrimination are routine and many die in childbirth from largely preventable causes

Nov 18, 2019
Aisling Walsh, Naomi Elster, Guatemala City

Guatemala is marketed across the globe as the “Heart of the Mayan World”. Photographs of spectacular jungle pyramids and smiling indigenous women, carried on Piccadilly buses in London and splashed across screens in new York’s Times Square, promote a tourism industry worth almost $3.4 billion (€3 billion) a year.

On arriving in Guatemala, it is easy to recognise the vivid colours of Mayan traditional clothing and the dramatic scenery of imposing volcanoes, shimmering lakes and dense forests sliced into steep hills and sharp ravines.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/women-being-pushed-to-the-margins-of-society-in-guatemala-1.4087198


Madagascar’s ‘angel makers’ flourish in ban on abortion

Madagascar's 'angel makers' flourish in ban on abortion

01 Sep 2019

ANTANANARIVO: Volatiana keeps her secret behind a flimsy wooden gate, tucked along a red brick wall at the back of her vegetable garden in Madagascar's Antananarivo.

"There are around eight foetuses buried here," said the Malagasy mother of six, standing on a narrow patch of land hidden behind a corrugated metal sheet.

Continued: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/madagascar-s--angel-makers--flourish-in-ban-on-abortion-11861910


Podcast: Abortion Wars (Europe)

Abortion Wars

Why are more women from Poland and Croatia seeking pregnancy terminations abroad? (Photo: EU Scream)

By EU Scream
BRUSSELS, July 21, 2019

33-minute podcast on the topic of abortion under attack: "Why are more women from Poland and Croatia seeking pregnancy terminations abroad?" Discusses refusal to treat under “conscientious objection”, the anti-choice movement, how the LGBT community faces the same enemy as the pro-choice movement, also Romania.

Continued: https://euobserver.com/eu-scream/145486


South Africa’s Liberal Abortion Laws Hampered by Widespread Stigma

South Africa’s Liberal Abortion Laws Hampered by Widespread Stigma

March 22, 2019
Anita Powell

RUSTENBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Twenty-six-year-old Precious, as she has asked us to call her to protect her identity, is 16 weeks pregnant. And so is her best friend, also by Precious’ boyfriend. That event turned her life upside down and brought her to the difficult decision to seek an abortion.

She lives in South Africa, where abortion is legal without justification and available through a nurse through 12 weeks of pregnancy, and legal up to 20 weeks, when done by a doctor and with justification.

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-s-liberal-abortion-laws-hampered-by-widespread-stigma/4841297.html


Philippines – How backstreet abortionists terminate 7-month pregnancies

Part 2: How backstreet abortionists terminate 7-month pregnancies
The methods used by backstreet abortionists in the Philippines are barbaric, as told by women who experienced it themselves

By Natashya Gutierrez
August 15, 2018

MANILA, Philippines – The advertisements on the online forum are clear and compelling, vowing painless abortions for pregnant women. They assure Filipinas they can terminate pregnancies at any stage, even up until 7 months, without much pain.

The women believe them.

It's a mix of desperation and a lack of knowledge on safe abortion methods that drives Filipinas to put their faith – and their lives – in the hands of other women they don't know, backstreet abortionists they meet online, who assure them they can help for a low price.

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/209416-ways-backstreet-abortionists-philippines-terminate-late-term-pregnancies


Filipinas buy, sell, rate abortions in online forum

Part 1 of 3: Filipinas buy, sell, rate abortions in online forum
In the Philippines, abortion is illegal and deeply stigmatized, leaving desperate women with no choice but to seek unsafe options online

By Natashya Gutierrez
August 13, 2018

MANILA, Philippines – It was a desperate cry for help.

On the evening of August 2, 2015, a woman with username "aifa2500" posted on an online forum in the Philippines. She had gotten an abortion a day prior, from a backstreet abortionist she referred to as "Miss Shine."

In broken English, she explained that she had gone for her procedure to abort her 6-month-old fetus. Upon arrival, she explained she was made to go to the toilet to pee, before being asked to remove her pants and underwear because “she's going to put the catheter to push the baby out.”

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/208267-online-forum-sells-abortions-in-the-philippines