50 years after the former Yugoslavia protected abortion rights, that legacy is under threat

By Darko Bandic And Jovana Gec, The Associated Press
Mar 27, 2024

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — With vigils outside clinics, marches drawing thousands and groups of men kneeling to pray in public squares, religious and neo-conservative groups have been ramping up pressure to ban abortions in staunchly Catholic Croatia.

The fierce debate has fueled divisions in the European Union nation of about 3.9 million people where abortion remains legal but access to the procedure is often denied, sending many women to neighboring Slovenia to end a pregnancy.

The movement is in stark contrast to Croatia’s recent past, when it was part of the former Yugoslavia, a Communist-run country that protected abortion rights in its constitution 50 years ago.

Continued: https://halifax.citynews.ca/2024/03/27/50-years-after-the-former-yugoslavia-protected-abortion-rights-that-legacy-is-under-threat/


Europe’s growing abortion nightmare

Even in the absence of a ban, for women in need of abortion access, the overall picture is grim — and the worst is yet to come.

JULY 1, 2023
Reporting for this article was carried out by Akmaljon Akhmedjonov, Bernadeta Barokova, Yijing Chen, Pius Fozan, Timotheus Paul Goldinger, Kristina Kovalska, Leila Lawrence, Hanna Perenyi, Carina Samhaber, Stephanie Songer, Marziyeh Taeb, Tripti and Joseph Scioli, masters and PhD students at the Central European University in Vienna, under the editorship of Professor Marius Dragomir.

When she was 19 years old, Anna Peer had an abortion after her intrauterine device malfunctioned. “I didn’t realize at the time how lucky and privileged I was,” said Peer, now 24. “My gynecologist basically carried me through everything.”

But through her work for the Austrian Family Planning Association (ÖGF), an NGO that provides counseling related to reproductive health, Peer now sees “what the system’s actually like.”

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-growing-abortion-nightmare/


Chile’s abortion rights movement faces uphill battle

Advocates say fight continues despite rejection of new constitution last year that would have enshrined reproductive rights.

By Charis McGowan
10 Mar 2023

Santiago, Chile – Siomara Molina stands on the steps of the Chilean National Library on a busy street in the heart of Chile’s capital.

Waving fists in the air and wearing green scarves, symbolic of the Latin American movement for abortion rights, Molina and the dozens of women around her chant: “Abortion yes, abortion no, that’s my decision”.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/10/chiles-abortion-rights-movement-faces-uphill-battle


Italy’s Prime Minister Meloni Speaks Out on Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

Mar 1, 2023
Chiara Albanese, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Giorgia Meloni has largely refrained from commenting on divisive social issues since becoming Italy’s most right-wing prime minister since Benito Mussolini some three months ago. But this week she spoke out against abortion, same sex marriage and gender self identification.

The government will help women avoid an abortion by providing financial support so that they do “not miss out on the joy of raising a child,” Meloni, 46, said in an interview published in the latest issue of Grazia magazine, without giving details.

Continued: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/italy-s-prime-minister-meloni-speaks-out-on-abortion-same-sex-marriage-1.1889917


Spain approves menstrual leave, teen abortion and trans laws

Measures allow workers suffering period pain to take paid time off, as right to abortions in state hospitals is enshrined.

16 Feb 2023

Madrid has approved legislation expanding abortion and transgender rights for teenagers, while making Spain the first country in Europe that will entitle workers to paid menstrual leave.

The driving force behind the two laws was equality minister Irene Montero, who belongs to the junior member in Spain’s left-wing coalition government, the “United We Can” Party.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/16/spain-approves-menstrual-leave-teen-abortion-and-trans-laws


Outcry in Poland over abortion law

Two Polish hospitals refused to terminate the pregnancy of an underage rape victim. The case has sparked controversy over the country's restrictive legislation, with women's rights activists insisting it must be eased.

Jacek Lepiarz
February 5, 2023

A scandal is raging in Polish politics and in the media, concering the shocking case of a 14-year-old rape victim. The girl, who is from the Podlaskie region in northeastern Poland and has mental disabilities, was raped by her own uncle and became pregnant as a result. She was unaware of her condition, but her aunt noticed it and tried to help her get an abortion.

Although the girl had written confirmation from the public prosecutor that she was pregnant as the result of a crime, which gave her the right to a legal abortion, two hospitals in the region refused to carry out the procedure. The province of Podlaskie on the Belarusian border is a bastion of the right-wing conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), which has been in power in Poland since 2015.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-outcry-over-abortion-law/a-64586531


Italy’s resurgent right takes on a woman’s right to choose

BY JOANNA GILL, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Jan 9, 2023

NAPLES/ROME – If it was hard enough for Beatrice to get an abortion when she had the law on her side, imagine how other women will cope should Italy’s rising right get its way on reproductive rights.

“What I have been through is very painful, but it is even worse knowing that there are other women out there who are going to go through the same thing,” she said. The 24-year-old law student was in a new relationship when she took a pregnancy test in the summer of 2021 after her suspicions were raised by unusual bouts of nausea.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/01/09/world/social-issues-world/italy-resurgent-right-abortion-rights/


Italy – Feminists protest against Meloni over abortion rights

By Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it
 Nov 27, 2022

Feminists protested in Rome against new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling her a fascist and saying her government threatens the right to abortion in the country.

The protest aimed first at decrying the violence perpetrated against women and showing support for Iranian women but turned into denouncing Meloni’s government which protesters claimed threatened the right to abortion.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/feminists-protest-against-meloni-over-abortion-rights/


Four doctors found guilty of manslaughter for the death of Valentina Milluzzo in 2016, who had been 19 weeks pregnant with twins

SOURCE: La Sicilia
28 October 2022   
(translated from Italian)

Three doctors were acquitted, and four were sentenced to six months each for manslaughter, though with suspended sentences. This was the verdict of the Criminal Court of Catania in the trial of seven doctors from the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department of the Cannizzaro Hospital, concerning the death of Valentina Milluzzo, a 32-year-old woman hospitalised in her 19th week of pregnancy, who died on 16 October 2016, after having lost, as a result of two separate miscarriages, the twins she was expecting thanks to assisted fertilisation.

Acquitted, on the grounds that "the facts do not exist" (to find them guilty), were Paolo Scollo, Head Doctor of the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department, Andrea Benedetto Distefano, the ward doctor, and Francesco Paolo Cavallaro, the anesthesiologist.

Sentenced to six months each in prison, suspended, were the doctors Silvana Campione, Giuseppe Maria Alberto Calvo, Alessandra Coffaro and Vincenzo Filippello, who were "on duty in the ward and in the delivery room, on alternating shifts" between 15 and 16 October 2016. The Court also ordered the payment of a provisional amount of € 30,000 to the victim's sister, Angela Maria Milluzzo, who had become a civil party in the suit, assisted by lawyer Salvatore Catania Milluzzo.

According to the prosecution, the four doctors were guilty of "contributing, in cooperation between them, to the death of the pregnant woman" who had been hospitalised because of the serious risk during the miscarriage of her twin pregnancy.

The Public Prosecutor's Office accused the four doctors of "professional negligence" due to "imprudence, negligence and incompetence". In particular, "the failure to implement adequate antibiotic therapy" on both the 14th and 15th of October, "the failure to promptly recognise sepsis in progress", "the failure to collect samples for microbiological examination", "the failure to promptly remove the source of the infection: the fetuses and placentas" and "the failure to administer blood transfusion during surgery".

All the above described events, said the Public Prosecutor of Catania, would have caused the “transformation of sepsis into irreversible septic shock with consequent multiple organ failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation", which caused the death of the patient.

It was not disputed in the trial that the doctors were conscientious objectors. The case was also handled by the Ministry of Health, which sent inspectors to Cannizzaro Hospital.

Source: https://www.lasicilia.it/cronaca/news/catania-3-medici-assolti-e-4-condannati-per-la-morte-di-valentina-alla-19-settimana-di-gravidanza-1934813/


Australia – Inquiry into abortion services in the ACT region hears many find it difficult to access that form of healthcare

By Tahlia Roy
Posted Fri 28 Oct 2022

International student Rylee experienced weeks of stress and fear after she had unprotected sex and realised her period was late.

The Canberra University student from Canada began to research what her options would be to terminate an unplanned pregnancy in the nation's capital in 2020.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-29/act-abortion-inquiry-hears-of-difficulty-in-access/101588636