USA – Abortion influences everything

By inhibiting drug development, economic growth, and military recruitment, as well as driving doctors away from the places they’re needed most, bans almost certainly harm you — yes, you.

By Keren Landman, MD
Mar 20, 2024

Last year in Texas, federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that, based on his read of some very bad science, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needed to withdraw its approval of the safe and widely used abortion drug mifepristone. He claimed that the FDA hadn’t adequately considered its safety (it had) and that the lack of restrictions on the drug (there were plenty) had led to many deaths and severe adverse events (demonstrably false).

… Restricting abortion means removing women’s control over not only their bodies, but also their futures — and giving that control to someone else. In a nation where sex education and contraception access are already spotty and about half of all pregnancies are unplanned, that act is a population-level assault on women’s autonomy. The result is a psychic wound even to those who aren’t seeking abortions.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/even-better/24106111/abortion-mifepristone-kacsmaryk-fda-economic-military-readiness-mortality-mental-health-poverty

The Red State Brain Drain Isn’t Coming. It’s Happening Right Now.

As conservative states wage total culture war, college-educated workers—physicians, teachers, professors, and more—are packing their bags.

Timothy Noah
November 22, 2023

On Memorial Day weekend in 2022, Kate Arnold and her wife, Caroline Flint, flew from Oklahoma City to Cabo San Lucas for a little R&R. They had five kids, the youngest of them five-year-old twin girls, and demanding jobs as obstetrician-gynecologists. The stresses of all this were mounting. That they were a gay married couple living in a red, socially conservative state was the least of it. Caroline was born in Tulsa, spent much of her childhood in Oklahoma, and was educated at the University of Oklahoma. She cast her first presidential vote for George W. Bush. Kate, the more political of the two, was from Northern California and a lifelong Democrat. But her mother was born in Oklahoma City, and she felt at home here; she’d even given some thought to running for the state legislature.

Continued https://newrepublic.com/article/176854/republican-red-states-brain-drain

Study Finds 16% Increased Infant Mortality in States that Restrict Abortion

The study also found that the mortality rate for Black infants was more than twice that of white infants.

By Zane McNeill , TRUTHOUT
October 18, 2023

States with abortion restrictions suffer a 16 percent increase in infant mortality rate, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“What’s also notable is that the data is pre-Dobbs — it came from 2014–2018. That means these numbers are likely to get much, much worse,” abortion advocate Jessica Valenti said.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/study-finds-16-increased-infant-mortality-in-states-that-restrict-abortion/

6 Stories Show the Human Toll of Poland’s Strict Abortion Laws

By Anna Pamula | Photographs by Kasia Strek for TIME
OCTOBER 13, 2023

Krzysztof Sowinski has cried every day since his wife Marta, who was five months pregnant, died of sepsis in 2022; he believes doctors put Marta’s life in danger by not giving them the option to terminate the pregnancy while the fetus’ heart was still beating. Janusz Kucharski also lost his partner Justyna to sepsis in the fifth month of a pregnancy. She left behind two boys.

It is likely, reproductive-rights advocates say, that these women would be alive if not for Poland's increasingly restrictive abortion laws. Abortion has been illegal in the country since 1993, but a 2020 ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which went into effect the next year, removed one of the exceptions to the law—fetal abnormalities—and imposed a near-total ban on abortion. Now women can terminate a pregnancy only if the women’s life or health is at risk (including mental health risks with a psychiatric diagnosis) or if there is reasonable suspicion that the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

Continued: https://time.com/6320172/poland-abortion-laws-maternal-health-care/

13.10.2023

Commentary

abortion stories

Barbara Zientek

Bartlomiej Chmielowiec

Debski Clinic

Dorota Lalik

Dr. Gizela Jagielska

Dr. Katarzyna Szamotulska

Dr. Krzysztof Preis

European Court of Human Rights

FEDERA

Foundation for Women and Family Planning

Law and Justice party

Mother and Child Institute

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

Poland’s Office for Patients' Rights

total abortion ban

U.N. Committee Against Torture

Venezuelan Women Fight for Sexual and Reproductive Rights Amid a Humanitarian Crisis

The country has one of the most restrictive laws in the region while girls and women are particularly affected by scarcity, inflation and violence

Victoria Capriles
September 29, 2023

In recent years, the Green Wave movement has swept over Latin America, demanding the legalization and decriminalization of abortion. While it started in Argentina in 2018 –when feminists used the white scarfs traditionally worn by the anti-dictatorship Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo as an inspiration, but changing them to green due to the color being nonpartisan– the movement has been pivotal in achieving the decriminalization of abortion to different degrees in countries like Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. In Venezuela, the Green Wave arrived in 2021. Renamed as Ruta Verde (Green Route), it was supported by grassroots-feminist organizations, more than 25 local NGOs and more than a dozen of independent activists.

Continued https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2023/09/29/venezuelan-women-fight-for-sexual-and-reproductive-rights-amid-a-humanitarian-crisis/

Nearly two years after Texas’ six-week abortion ban, more infants are dying

By Isabelle Chapman
Thu July 20, 2023

Texas’ abortion restrictions – some of the strictest in the country – may be fueling a sudden spike in infant mortality as women are forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term.

Some 2,200 infants died in Texas in 2022 – an increase of 227 deaths, or 11.5%, over the previous year, according to preliminary infant mortality data from the Texas Department of State Health Services that CNN obtained through a public records request. Infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects rose by 21.6%. That spike reversed a nearly decade-long decline. Between 2014 and 2021, infant deaths had fallen by nearly 15%.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/20/health/texas-abortion-ban-infant-mortality-invs/index.html

USA – Anti-abortion politicians never intended to support women and children

BY KELLY BADEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
June 8, 2023

It’s been one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and conservative states have had plenty of time to enact the policies to support women, children and families that they promised to prioritize once they reached their goal of banning abortion.

Immediately following the June 24, 2022, decision, politicians assured us that their post-Roe plans included supporting women and children. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said “Being pro-life means being pro-mothers, pro-babies, and pro-healthy futures,” while Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he was “enthusiastically prepared to take on the challenges ahead and to take every step necessary to support mothers and children.” The Tennessee House Republican Caucus declared their “unwavering commitment to fight for families.”

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/4038665-anti-abortion-politicians-never-intended-to-support-women-and-children/

USA – Abortion bans drive off doctors and close clinics, putting other health care at risk

May 23, 2023
By Julie Rovner

The rush in conservative states to ban abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.

Doctors are showing — through their words and actions — that they are reluctant to practice in places where making the best decision for a patient could result in huge fines or even a prison sentence. And when clinics that provide abortions close their doors, all the other services offered there also shut down, including regular exams, breast cancer screenings, and contraception.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/23/1177542605/abortion-bans-drive-off-doctors-and-put-other-health-care-at-risk

How are Wisconsin women doing under the 1849 abortion ban?

Not so well, say doctors
Ruth Conniff
JANUARY 24, 2023

…. In the 13 states including Wisconsin with abortion bans on the books, women are three times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or shortly after giving birth, according to a report by the Gender Equity Institute. “These are preventable deaths,” says Dr. Kristen Lyerly, an obstetrician/gynecologist from Green Bay and a plaintiff in Attorney General Josh Kaul’s lawsuit against the 1849 ban. Babies born in states that have banned abortion are also 30% more likely to die in their first month of life. So much for the “pro-life” utopia.

Continued: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/01/24/how-are-wisconsin-women-doing-under-the-1849-abortion-ban/

24.01.2023

News

Committee to Protect Health Care

Africa’s Progress Against Maternal and Infant Mortality Has ‘Flatlined’

Dec 1, 2022
Kerry Cullinan

In the past decade, Africa’s progress against maternal and infant mortality has flatlined, and it will need to reduce maternal deaths by a massive 86%, and more than halve the deaths of babies to reach global targets by 2030.

This is according to the Atlas of African Health Statistics 2022 released by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa region on Thursday.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/africas-progress-against-maternal-and-infant-mortality-has-flatlined/

01.12.2022