Swaziland needs to talk about illegal abortions

Because pregnancies can only be terminated legally in extreme instances such as rape, many women find other ways. And many do not survive the process.

By: Cebelihle Mbuyisa
27 Oct 2020

On 22 May 2000, Elizabeth Matimba and Joyce Mdluli sat on benches in the High Court of Swaziland (eSwatini) in Mbabane and heard Judge Thomas Masuku denounce them for the crime of abortion. Matimba had, in 1998, taken her pregnant daughter to Mdluli, then a nurse at Mbabane Government Hospital, and asked that she terminate the pregnancy. Mdluli obliged. For this crime, the women were both sentenced to five years in jail.

The case later went to the appeal court, where Judge Jules Browde spoke out strongly against abortion. He nevertheless reduced Matimba’s sentence to three years. The nurse’s conviction and sentence were set aside on the grounds that the crown had failed to prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Continued: https://www.newframe.com/eswatini-needs-to-talk-about-illegal-abortions/


Trump’s global gag rule goes far beyond abortion, groups say

Trump's global gag rule goes far beyond abortion, groups say
The Associated Press
Cara Anna
January 23, 2018

JOHANNESBURG — President Donald Trump’s dramatic expansion of a ban on U.S. funding to foreign organizations that promote or provide abortions has left impoverished women around the world without treatment for HIV, malaria and other diseases, health groups say, calling it “devastating” because Trump went where no administration had gone before.

Trump in his first working day in office revived the so-called global gag rule. He expanded on previous versions so that for the first time foreign NGOs that even discuss abortion as an option are barred not only from about $575 million in U.S. family planning funds but also an estimated $8.8 billion in U.S. global health aid. And they must certify that none of their non-U.S. funding goes for abortion-related activities.

Continued: http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/trumps-global-gag-rule-goes-far-beyond-abortion-groups-say