By María Teresa Hernández, The Associated Press
Saturday, December 16, 2023
MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a corner of their Mexico City office, activists from Catholics for the Right to Decide keep an image of the Virgin Mary close to a green scarf that reads: “Mary was consulted to be mother of God.”
For these Catholic women, prayer does not conflict with their fight for abortion access nor does their devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe prevent them from supporting LGBTQ+ rights.
By Lee Hockstader, Washington Post
November 29, 2023
WARSAW — A right-wing government in Poland, in league with the Catholic Church and legitimately worried about plummeting birthrates, pushed for the toughest abortion law of any major European country three years ago. The results are now in, providing a telling lesson in unintended consequences.
Across broad swaths of Europe that are graying, antiabortion politicians should think twice if they believe tighter abortion restrictions will help reverse population decline.
Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/29/poland-abortion-ban-birth-fertility/ (Or https://wapo.st/3Gjq7fU)
The Globe and Mail (BC Edition)
4 Nov 2023
PAUL WALDIE, EUROPE CORRESPONDENT OLESNICA, POLAND
Anyone driving into the Polish town of Olesnica would have a hard time missing the gory message splashed across a billboard near a small church. The sign features a giant image of a bloody, mutilated fetus next to a photograph of the local hospital.
“Dr. Gizela Jagielska on abortions in Olesnica hospital: Yes, that’s right. I do abortions,” reads the stark lettering across the top of the photos.
Continued: https://globe2go.pressreader.com/article/281818583536901
Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide in September, but reproductive rights advocates grapple with the challenge of “social decriminalization.”
Nov. 2, 2023
By Isabela Espadas Barros Leal
MEXICO CITY — Every recovery room at Fundación ILE, an abortion clinic in Mexico City’s Roma Sur neighborhood, is equipped with a small bed, blankets, sanitary pads and a turquoise journal.
The journals are filled with letters written by women minutes after having had abortions.
Some of them detail the reasons they chose to undergo the procedure. Others have messages of encouragement for the next women who will be in their position.
Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-abortion-legal-social-cultural-stigma-remains-rcna123029
SEP 5, 2023
Notes from Poland
Poland’s Catholic church has declared that it is not legal, ethical or beneficial to women to allow abortion on the grounds that the mother suffers from a mental health problem. Permitting this would effectively mean “the relegalisation of abortion on demand”, warn the bishops.
Their position – which is contradicted by leading medical bodies – has been rejected by reproductive rights organisations in Poland, who also argue that the church has misinterpreted or misrepresented the law.
The case of a humiliating police operation in response to a woman who’d taken an abortion pill has intensified debate over whether Poland’s abortion laws have gone too far.
Jacek Lepiarz
July 23, 2023
The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, likes to surround himself with women at campaign events. He courts them in the old Polish manner with a kiss on the hand, but such gestures belie the fact that his right-wing nationalist party is actually at war with the country's women.
An ever closer alliance between the Polish government and the Catholic Church has led to a radical tightening of abortion laws in recent years. In 2020, the PiS-controlled Constitutional Court removed the risk of serious fetal malformation as a condition allowing for legal abortion, creating a climate of fear and mistrust among doctors and women.
Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/police-at-the-hospital-abortion-battle-heats-up-in-poland/a-66319325
Maya Yang
Mon 3 Jul 2023
Since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade a year ago, reproductive rights have become an even more contentious issue in an already polarized landscape. With more than 1,500 politicians – mostly men – helping ban abortions since Roe fell, Catholic and pro-choice organizations are increasingly trying to carve out space for themselves in the nationwide dialogue to center their own messaging: that being Catholic and pro-choice are not mutually exclusive.
One organization trying to dismantle religious stigma surrounding abortions is Catholics For Choice, a Washington-DC based Catholic abortion rights advocacy group. For CFC, the belief in individual reproductive rights comes as a result of the Catholic faith, not in spite of.
Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/03/pro-choice-catholics-us
JUN 22, 2023
Notes from Poland
Members of parliament who vote to allow abortion are “committing a grave sin and thus cannot receive holy communion”, the head of the Catholic church in Poland has warned.
His remarks come after all of Poland’s main opposition parties – most of whom have leaders who are practising Catholics – have expressed support for ending the current near-total ban on abortion, which is supported by the church.
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
On a political level, there was very little to cling to as an abortion activist in the 80s and 90s, she says, and religion of course played a large part in that.
May 27, 2023
LABOUR LEADER IVANA Bacik spoke to The Journal about how the route to abortion rights went from being a “desperately lonely” movement on the periphery of society to becoming a mainstream political issue.
The subject of access to abortion stills holds the public’s attention today with a recent review finding that issues such as geographic location, the three-day waiting period and other obstacles still impede women’s access to abortion services.
Continued: https://www.thejournal.ie/ivana-bacik-interview-abortion-rights-ireland-6077186-May2023/
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