El Salvador’s abortion ban jails women for miscarriages and stillbirths – now one woman’s family seeks international justice

Juliet S. Sorensen, Alexandra Tarzikhan, Meredith Heim
March 15, 2021

(THE CONVERSATION) El Salvador outlaws abortion completely, even in circumstances of rape or incest, with penalties ranging from two to 50 years. The abortion ban is so broadly enforced that even women who suffer miscarriages and stillbirths can be prosecuted for murder.

Now an international court will decide for the first time whether these laws violate the human rights of Salvadoran women.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/el-salvadors-abortion-ban-jails-women-for-miscarriages-and-stillbirths-now-one-womans-family-seeks-international-justice-156484


Customary and religious laws are impeding progress towards women’s health in Nigeria

February 11, 2021
Terry McGovern, Monique Baumont, Samantha Garbers

Numerous countries have committed themselves to promoting the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls by ratifying international human rights treaties. These include the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Nigeria ratified the convention on women’s rights in 1985 and the convention on child rights in 1991. But sexual and reproductive health among women and girls in Nigeria remains poor. The country has the second largest HIV epidemic in the world. And the women making up more than half of people living with HIV. It also has persistently high rates of maternal and perinatal mortality.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/customary-and-religious-laws-are-impeding-progress-towards-womens-health-in-nigeria-154221


USA – Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality

Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality
Critics say the bans are "anti-abortion ruses" rooted in an effort to racially profile Asian American and Pacific Islander women.

Oct. 27, 2019
By Safia Samee Ali

When Dr. Colleen McNicholas treats a woman seeking an abortion in Missouri, she must, under penalty of law, ask a series of uncomfortable questions probing why the woman wants the procedure, including if it’s because of the fetus's gender.

That question, which she said patients find “absurd” and “completely inappropriate,” is a requirement that was left intact by a Missouri federal judge who halted several other restrictive measures, such as a ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, in May in an effort to block abortion access.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sex-selective-abortions-reproductive-rights-are-being-pitted-against-gender-n1067886


Pakistan – Bill prohibiting gender disclosure during pregnancies to be tabled to end abortio

Bill prohibiting gender disclosure during pregnancies to be tabled to end abortion

December 9, 2018

LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has announced that a bill prohibiting the disclosure of gender during the pregnancy would be tabled soon to end the trend of sex-selective abortion.

She revealed this while addressing a seminar on “Ending Gender-Based Violence” held under the ambit of the Punjab Government in collaboration with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWOMEN).

continued: https://dailytimes.com.pk/331409/bill-prohibiting-gender-disclosure-during-pregnancies-to-be-tabled-to-end-abortion/


New Zealand’s ‘degrading’ abortion ban breaches human rights, say activists

New Zealand's 'degrading' abortion ban breaches human rights, say activists
Advocacy group lays discrimination complaint with country’s rights commission over criminalisation of terminations

Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin
Mon 8 Oct 2018

An abortion advocacy group in New Zealand has laid a discrimination complaint alleging New Zealand’s strict abortion laws breach the human rights of pregnant people, and subject them to “ritual humiliation”.

As experts prepare to hand down a major review into the country’s controversial abortion laws later this month, ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa has teamed up with five women who have experienced difficulties and emotional pain in accessing abortions in bringing their complaint to the country’s human rights commission.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/08/new-zealands-degrading-abortion-ban-breaches-human-rights-say-activists


A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Restricting Abortion Access in the Name of Women's Rights

By Suchitra Dalvie
Posted Aug 31, 2018

We need more girls to be born, they say. We need to stop the gendercide that is taking place across the world, they say. For social justice. For women’s rights. For human rights.

This is a compelling argument when taken at face value, and one that is commonly heard in many countries in Asia and among the Asian diaspora elsewhere. But, if we take a moment to examine it more closely, the true nature of the discourse becomes clear. It sounds as though it is for women’s rights but, in reality, it puts restrictions on women using the excuse of sex determination.

Continued: https://consciencemag.org/2018/08/31/a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/


U.S.: How Trumpcare Will Hurt Women’s Health

How Trumpcare Will Hurt Women’s Health
Posted by Angela Liu on 06/14/2017

May was not a good month for women’s health care. On May 4, a Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which proposes to tighten existing regulations on contraceptive access and maternity care and to cut Planned Parenthood from the federal budget. On the same day, Trump signed a “religious liberty” executive order that allows organizations to limit their employees’ access to contraception and abortion based on the organization’s faith. Then, on May 23, the administration released its 2018 budget proposal, which Dawn Leguens, the vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called the “worst budget for women and women’s health in a generation.”

Continued at source: The F Bomb: http://thefbomb.org/2017/06/how-trumpcare-will-hurt-womens-health/