USA – ‘I Came to Put My Body On the Line’: Both Inside and Outside Hearing, Women Lead Fight Against Kavanaugh Confirmation

'I Came to Put My Body On the Line': Both Inside and Outside Hearing, Women Lead Fight Against Kavanaugh Confirmation
"Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I can't be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away."

by Julia Conley, staff writer
Sep 4, 2018

As the Senate Judiciary Committee proceeded with its confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Tuesday—whose appointment Planned Parenthood has said "would determine the health and freedom of countless women's lives"— it was women both inside and outside the hearing who led the charge against Kavanaugh's ascension to the highest court in the land.

NARAL Pro-Choice America shared that its Missouri and Washington chapters' executive directors, Alison Dreith and Tiffany Hankins, were among the more than 30 protesters who were arrested for demonstrating inside the hearing room.

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/04/i-came-put-my-body-line-both-inside-and-outside-hearing-women-lead-fight-against

No going back: The two sides in Argentina’s abortion debate

No going back: The two sides in Argentina's abortion debate

By Katy Watson, BBC South America correspondent, Buenos Aires
7 August 2018

It is the middle of winter in Buenos Aires, but a spring-like green has blossomed in the city in recent months.

Everywhere you go, you see women wearing emerald pañuelos (bandanas) around their necks, wrapped around their wrists, or tied to their bags.

The bandanas are the symbol of the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion which started in 2005.

Continued: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-45096704

Tensions flare in Brazil as supreme court considers loosening abortion restrictions

Tensions flare in Brazil as supreme court considers loosening abortion restrictions

by Marina Lopes
August 6 2018

SAO PAULO — Brazil’s supreme court is considering decriminalizing abortion through the 12th week of pregnancy, stoking activists' hopes that the country could follow other Latin American nations in loosening abortion restrictions.

Hearings on the issue, which began Friday and continued on Monday, included testimony from dozens of doctors, specialists and religious leaders. Tensions flared in the days leading up to the hearings, with activists on both sides speaking out. Outside the supreme court on Friday, women donned red robes resembling those worn on the hit TV show, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in favor of decriminalization. Meanwhile, #AbortionisaCrime trended on Twitter, and churches sounded their bells in protest.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/06/tensions-flare-brazil-supreme-court-considers-loosening-abortion-restrictions/?utm_term=.b55e1952e7f8

How the handmaid became an international protest symbol

How the handmaid became an international protest symbol

By Chris Bell BBC News
27 July 2018

Dozens of women march in silence through a rainy cityscape. Heads bowed, dressed in red cloaks and white bonnets, it looks like a scene from Gilead, the theocratic patriarchy Margaret Atwood created in dystopian 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale.

But this is Buenos Aires. It is Wednesday, and the women involved are calling for abortion to be decriminalised in a country where complications arising from illegal abortion are a leading cause of maternal death.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-44965210

‘Handmaid’s Tale’ march for Argentine abortion rights

‘Handmaid’s Tale’ march for Argentine abortion rights

by Debora Rey
AP July 25 2018

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Dozens of demonstrators wearing red cloaks and white bonnets like the characters from the novel-turned-TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” demonstrated Wednesday in Argentina in favor of legalizing abortion.

The demonstrators marched in silence with their heads bowed through the streets of the Argentine capital until they reached the Congress building. Under a heavy rain, one of them read a letter by “Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood, who supports the effort led by Argentine feminist groups.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/handmaids-tale-march-for-argentine-abortion-rights/2018/07/25/5029a4fc-9042-11e8-ae59-01880eac5f1d_story.html?utm_term=.c4d867b85164