Women’s bodies being turned into ‘battlegrounds’—UN

Agence France-Presse
April 18, 2024

GENEVA, Switzerland — Women’s bodies have become political “battlegrounds,” putting at risk 30 years of progress on sexual and reproductive health for women and girls, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

Though maternal mortality rates and unwanted pregnancy rates have been steadily falling, progress is now slowing or even flatlining on key measures, said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency.

Continued: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/232388/womens-bodies-being-turned-into-battlegrounds-un

18.04.2024

News

gender-based violence

United Nations Population Fund

USA – Abortion access a lifeline for domestic violence survivors

Abortion bans give abusers the tools to continue to manipulate their partners

Sylvia Ghazarian, American Forum
Oct 29, 2023

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month serves as a sobering reminder of the countless survivors who have endured the horrors of domestic violence. As we stand in solidarity during October, we must recognize that the battle against this extends far beyond this designated month. The voices of survivors, once muffled by fear and shame, must be amplified relentlessly. Accountability must be thrust upon the perpetrators, and the survivors must be liberated from the guilt that they carry.

One in three women and one in four men experience partner physical violence, partner sexual violence and/or partner stalking. On an average day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide. In the end, studies have shown that there is a correlation between intimate partner violence and depression. At WRRAP last year approximately 15% of those we provided funding to were survivors of domestic violence. And, for the first half of this year we have over 16% who have reported they are survivors of DV.

Continued: https://www.news-press.com/story/opinion/2023/10/29/abortion-access-a-lifeline-for-domestic-violence-survivors/71316908007/

29.10.2023

Opinion

abortion bans enable abusers

domestic violence

gender-based violence

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

reproductive coercion

Kenya – Meet the rural champions helping women combat unsafe abortion

By Nathan Ochunge
Oct. 23, 2023

Angela (real name withheld) got married at 19 after sitting her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination in Navakholo, Kakamega County.

A few months later, her husband secured a job in Nairobi, and for five years he never returned home. “I became lonely and got another man who impregnated me after six months of dating,” said Angela.

For the sake of her marriage, Angela sought the services of an elderly midwife to terminate the two-month pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/reproductive-health/article/2001483907/meet-the-rural-champions-helping-women-combat-unsafe-abortion

Thousands of women march in Latin American cities calling for abortion rights

By Megan Janetsky & Debora Rey, The Associated Press
Sep 28, 2023

MEXICO CITY — The streets of cities across Latin America were bathed in green Thursday as tens of thousands of women marched to commemorate International Safe Abortion Day.

Latin American feminists have spent decades fighting to roll back strict prohibitions, although there are still few countries with a total ban, like El Salvador and Dominican Republic.

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/09/28/thousands-of-women-march-in-latin-american-cities-calling-for-abortion-rights/

The Cost of Legalizing Abortion in Haiti

Legalization may occur in June 2024, but advocates say the new penal code would undermine any actual progress if enacted unconstitutionally.

ALMA BEAUVAIS
Aug 8, 2023

Katiana Pierre was about four months pregnant when she discovered that she was expecting. The 24-year-old mother of three said that when her belly started to show, the lady providing her and her children with shelter in exchange for labor kicked them out. The pregnancy meant too many mouths to feed.

A few months earlier, on July 8, 2022, gang members fatally shot Katiana’s husband as the family tried to escape a territory war that erupted in Cite Soleil, a highly impoverished commune in Haiti controlled by armed criminals. The same men then tortured and sexually assaulted Katiana in front of her kids. Two months later, Katiana was yet again sexually assaulted as she roamed the streets begging for money to feed her children.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/abortion-in-haiti-challenges/

Canada has zero pro-choice Conservative MPs, watchdog says

Abortion rights group places remaining 15 Conservatives on list of anti-choice MPs after vote on ‘fetal rights’ bill

Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa
Thu 3 Aug 2023

A vote on a controversial bill meant to expand “fetal rights” in Canada has left the country without a single pro-choice Conservative MP, according to an abortion watchdog organization.

This week, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) placed the last remaining 15 Conservatives on its list of anti-choice MPs after they voted in support of Bill C-311, dubbed the Violence Against Pregnant Women Act.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/03/canada-abortion-rights-pregnancy

Canada announces funding for women and girls’ health and rights, and gender equality at 2023 Women Deliver Conference

20 Jul 2023
Ottawa, Canada - Global Affairs Canada

Canada is committed to working with Canadian and global partners to uphold and promote the health and rights of women and girls, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

Earlier this week, the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, the Honourable Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, and Arielle Kayabaga, Member of Parliament for London West, took part in the 2023 Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda. While at the conference, they participated in many events and had the opportunity to meet with other policy leaders, activists, women’s rights organisations and youth, to highlight Canada’s continued leadership and support for them to advance gender equality and comprehensive SRHR, including support for victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).

Continued: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/canada-announces-funding-women-and-girls-health-and-rights-and-gender-equality-2023-women-deliver-conference

20.07.2023

Arielle Kayabaga

gender-based violence

global funding for abortion

Harjit Sajjan

Marci Ien

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Women Deliver conference

Ghana – 6,000 Adolescents In Volta Region Pregnant – Stakeholders Urged To Address Trend

20-May-2023

According to Ghana Statistical Service data from the 2021 Population and Housing Census, about 79,733 girls in Ghana aged 12 to 17 have been in a union, either married or living together with a man. Out of this number, 25,999 are girls of junior high school-going age (12 to 14 years).

In the Volta Region, it states that one out of four girls are married or are in a union before 18 years. According to the GHS District Health Information Management System (DHIMS), over 6,000 girls got pregnant between 2020 and 2021 alone.

Continued: https://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/local/news/202305/487762.php

20.05.2023

News

adolescent pregnancy

domestic violence

gender-based violence

Ghana Health Service

Hilda Kotoh

Thywill Eyra Kpe

United Nations Fund for Population Activities

Contextualizing the Nigerian Government’s Forced Abortion Program

By Hilary Matfess, Robert Nagel
Sunday, February 12, 2023

In December 2022, Reuters released a shocking report detailing a forced abortion campaign by the Nigerian government that targeted women who were impregnated by members of Boko Haram. The report suggests that the program involved at least five hospitals and five military bases and affected roughly 10,000 women over the course of nearly a decade, which would almost certainly require a degree of oversight and endorsement by senior authorities in the Nigerian government. The accounts from women who were subjected to these forced abortions are harrowing; they reported being given pills or injections to induce abortions without understanding what effect the treatment would have. The program was reportedly justified as a means of eradicating the threat of future insurgents and operated despite Nigeria’s strict regulations on abortion. The Nigerian government has denied these allegations. But in a conflict that has been marked by distressing levels of gender-based violence—including the abduction of women and girls into the ranks of the insurgents—the report added another dimension of systematic state violence against Nigerian women

Continued: https://www.lawfareblog.com/contextualizing-nigerian-governments-forced-abortion-program

Urgent action required to address ‘plague’ of sexual, gender-based violence – Report

In 2022, 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection.

August 27, 2022

A toxic combination of global conflict, COVID-19 and climate change is exacerbating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against vulnerable women, children and adolescents worldwide, including in West Africa.

In a jointly authored commentary published today, three leading advocates for women’s health and rights – the Rt Hon. Helen Clark, PMNCH Board Chair and former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile; and H.E. José Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Spain – call for urgent multi-lateral action to tackle what they have described as a ‘plague’ of rape, or other violent physical or mental abuse, targeting vulnerable women, children and adolescents, especially those living in humanitarian settings.

Continued: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/551027-urgent-action-required-to-address-plague-of-sexual-gender-based-violence-report.html

27.08.2022