Library archives uncover long-lost history of Colorado women dying trying to get an abortion before it was legal

By John Daley
Mar. 7, 2024

Abortion access —  some states have outlawed it, others have seen scores of patients from out of state —  has been in the news since the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the Constitutional right to an abortion two years ago.  But looking back through history shows that unplanned pregnancies and access to abortions have been in the news for a long, long time.

More than a century ago, readers of the Rocky Mountain News learned about the death of a young woman who worked in a shop named Maude, who was trying to terminate a pregnancy. A woman named Mrs. Proctor, the wife of the manager of a “remedy company,” was charged with manslaughter in Maude’s death.

Continued: https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/07/denver-public-library-history-of-abortion-access-in-colorado/


Ghana – Student in critical condition after abortion attempt destroyed her womb

Saturday, 13 January 2024

The Assin Fosu District Court presided by His  Worship, Abdul Majid Iliasu has fined a 40-year-old hairdresser Gh¢4,800.00 for inducing a 17-year-old girl to commit abortion with a noxious abortion medication.

The convict, Charlotte Asiedu on count one, was charged with illegal abortion contrary to section 58 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act 29.

Continued: https://www.ghanaweb.live/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Student-in-critical-condition-after-abortion-attempt-destroyed-her-womb-1911992


Ursula K. Le Guin on Her Illegal Abortion in 1950

“I beg you to see what it is that we must save, and not to let the bigots and misogynists take it away from us again.”

By Arwen Curry
September 13, 2023

The Journey That Matters is a series of six short videos from Arwen Curry, director and producer of Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, a Hugo Award-nominated 2018 feature documentary about the iconic author. In the first of the series, Elisabeth Le Guin and Caroline Le Guin reflect on “What It Was Like,” in which Ursula reads from her essay of the same name about the illegal abortion she had while studying at Radcliffe.

As young women growing up under the protection of Roe, we never really talked with our mother about her abortion. Elisabeth learned that it had occurred when she went through several abortions of her own in the 1980s; but what we know about the story of Ursula’s necessarily different experience comes to us through her written words, as it does to you.  “The Princess” was her keynote address to NARAL Pro-Choice America in 1982 when Roe was not even a decade old, and this piece, “What It Was Like,” was a talk for Oregon’s NARAL chapter in 2004. These stories are public statements, performances of Ursula’s own life material as a means to inspire and transform. The second of them, which you are about to hear, is also a rather extraordinary public love letter to her own family.

Continued: https://lithub.com/watch-ursula-k-le-guin-on-her-illegal-abortion-in-1950/


3 held for abortion in Manila

Emmanuel Tupas - The Philippine Star
August 14, 2023

MANILA, Philippines — Three suspected abortionists were arrested during an entrapment operation in Sampaloc, Manila on Wednesday, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) reported on Friday.

Analiza Delfin, 52; Loid Ngitngit, 55, and Christian Punzalan, 40, were caught while performing induced abortion in a clandestine clinic in Barangay 406, CIDG director Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr. said.

Continued: https://www.philstar.com/nation/2023/08/14/2288420/3-held-abortion-manila


India – Woman dies after undergoing illegal abortion in Tiruchi

July 30, 2023
THE HINDU BUREAU

An illegal abortion that took place at a house near Thuraiyur in Tiruchi turned fatal with a 30-year-old woman dying of excessive bleeding and complications on Friday.

Police sources said V. Sivakumar, 35, a carpenter, and his wife S. Priya, mother of two girls, had been living at Pudupalayam near Thuraiyur for the past eight years. Meanwhile, Priya allegedly wanted to abort her four-month-old foetus fearing that she would give birth to another girl, according to police sources.

Continued: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/woman-dies-after-undergoing-illegal-abortion-in-tiruchi/article67138860.ece


USA – An illegal abortion killed my great-great-grandmother. A century later, what’s changed?

Opinion: I'm 16 and frightened by what might happen to me if I were to get pregnant against my will.

Sophia Rick Yudell
July 16, 2023

In 1921, my great-great-grandmother Anna died because abortions were illegal. She got pregnant — with her 11th child — when she was 40 years old, a full-time homemaker, married to a produce peddler in New York City.

The family was already poor. I imagine that she feared she couldn’t feed another child.

Continued: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2023/07/16/illegal-abortion-killed-great-great-grandmother-future-roe/70408178007/


UK – Elliot Benham and Sophie Harvey deny illegal abortion

Feb 16, 2023

A man and a woman have pleaded not guilty to illegally aborting a baby and concealing the birth of a child.

Elliot Benham, from Wingfield, Swindon and Sophie Harvey, from St Mary's Road, Cirencester, are also charged with illegally disposing of a baby's body.  The charges relate to alleged actions between September and December in 2018.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-64661344


UK – Pair charged with illegally aborting baby in Gloucestershire

Jan 3, 2023
By Sammy Jenkins, BBC News

A man and a woman have been charged with illegally aborting a baby and concealing the birth of a child.

Elliot Benham from Wingfield, Swindon and Sophie Harvey, from St Mary's Road, Cirencester, were also charged with illegally disposing of a baby's body.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-64155166


Zimbabwe – Cooperation needed in dealing with illegal abortions

9 Sep 2022

The illegal abortion services through online platforms should be put to a stop immediately and individuals behind the practice arrested and prosecuted.

this paper reported on Tuesday that while abortion is illegal in the country, the dodgy individuals demand up to US$100 for pills to induce termination of pregnancies with promises of further treatment to clean the womb.

Continued: https://www.chronicle.co.zw/comment-co-operation-needed-in-dealing-with-illegal-abortions/


Nebraska woman charged with helping daughter have abortion

Investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two allegedly discussed using medication to induce an abortion.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aug 9, 2022

OMAHA, Nebraska — A Nebraska woman has been charged with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy at about 24 weeks after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.

The prosecutor handling the case said it’s the first time he has charged anyone for illegally performing an abortion after 20 weeks, a restriction that was passed in 2010. Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, states weren’t allowed to enforce abortion bans until the point at which a fetus is considered viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/09/nebraska-woman-charged-with-helping-daughter-have-abortion-00050763