Post-Roe, Native Americans face even more abortion hurdles

By LAURA UNGAR and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Feb 13, 2023

A few months after South Dakota banned abortion last year, April Matson drove more than nine hours to take a friend to a Colorado clinic to get the procedure.

The trip brought back difficult memories of Matson’s own abortion at the same clinic in 2016. The former grocery store worker and parent of two couldn’t afford a hotel and slept in a tent near a horse pasture — bleeding and in pain.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-oklahoma-sd-state-wire-south-dakota-24541ed0e66b5e1e1cd8b84e7e2e3159


Canada – ‘Entire system’ needs to change: Indigenous women encounter unique issues regarding reproductive rights

‘Entire system’ needs to change: Indigenous women encounter unique issues regarding reproductive rights

Jun 26, 2019
Kayla Butler

CALGARY – Access to appropriate healthcare, specifically surrounding a woman’s reproductive choices, varies drastically between communities.

Indigenous women in Canada have faced unique problems throughout history when it comes to reproductive healthcare.

“When we go into a doctor’s office, we are not often asked the usual [pregnancy] questions, like, ‘What are you planning?’ It’s often questions like, ‘How are you raising your child? Are you working? Do you have an education? Where are you living? Are you a drug addict?'”

Continued: https://winnipeg.citynews.ca/2019/06/26/indigenous-women-reproductive-rights/amp/


Canada’s shameful history of sterilizing Indigenous women

Canada’s shameful history of sterilizing Indigenous women
December 5, 2018
Erika Dyck

Indigenous women are murdered, go missing or face abuse at much higher rates than non-Indigenous women in Canada. Recent news stories now report that birthing mothers have also been sterilized (given tubal ligations) without their full and informed consent, as recently as 2017.

These shocking stories describe women being told that they cannot see their newborn babies until they undergo a sexual sterilization surgery. And they describe situations in which women who are in the midst of delivering a child are asked questions about wanting more children, without realizing the consequences of their answers. And there are stories about surgery and abortion without consent.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/canadas-shameful-history-of-sterilizing-indigenous-women-107876


USA – State Department removes reproductive rights indicators from annual country reporting

State Department removes reproductive rights indicators from annual country reporting

By Nancy Northup, opinion contributor
04/26/18

Last Friday’s release of the U.S. Department of State’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices has a gaping hole: the “Reproductive Rights” section has disappeared. This section was previously included for each one of the 195 countries covered by this comprehensive assessment of the state of human rights around the world With his confirmation now settled, Secretary of State Pompeo should understand — and reverse — his predecessor’s dramatic about-face in U.S. efforts to protect the rights of women.

The country reports form a critical body of evidence for capturing human rights conditions. They provide narrative evidence of compliance with human rights norms — an established part of international law — incorporating rights to free press, association, religion, fair trials and conditions of confinement, as well freedom from racial, ethnic and gender-based discrimination.

Continued: http://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/385077-state-department-removes-reproductive-rights-indicators-from-annual