Poland – Denying Access to Abortion Is Femicide

In Poland, a country held ransom by religious fanatics, people don’t want to see more women suffer from denied abortion care.

1/6/2023
by IRENE DONADIO and MARTA LEMPART

It has been just over two years since the imposition of a near-total ban on abortion across Poland. The ban removed almost all conditions in which a woman can access abortion care, leaving millions of women in the dark when it comes to deciding what happens to their bodies.

For some women, continuing to carry their pregnancies is the most dangerous thing they can do. Even though Poland’s rigid laws state that abortion can be performed to save women’s health or life, many doctors refuse to give them to women who desperately need them. 

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/01/06/poland-abortion-ban-women-death-dying/


Will the world abort women’s rights after death of Roe v. Wade?

BY ELLEN WULFHORST, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Nov 24, 2022

PATTAYA CITY, THAILAND – Women and girls around the world will suffer a knock-on effect from the U.S. decision to roll back abortion rights, experts say, predicting a global clampdown on hard-won female freedoms.

From access to abortion to voting rights, equal pay to equal status, women from Africa to Asia to Europe are expected to feel the fallout of the U.S. decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/11/24/world/women-rights-abortion/

BY ELLEN WULFHORST, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Nov 24, 2022

PATTAYA CITY, THAILAND – Women and girls around the world will suffer a knock-on effect from the U.S. decision to roll back abortion rights, experts say, predicting a global clampdown on hard-won female freedoms.

From access to abortion to voting rights, equal pay to equal status, women from Africa to Asia to Europe are expected to feel the fallout of the U.S. decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/11/24/world/women-rights-abortion/


While Abortion Rights Shrink in U.S., This Small Country Expanded Access

The West African nation of Benin adopted one of the continent’s most liberal laws on abortion last year after hearing testimony from gynecologists about women dying from illegal abortions.

By Elian Peltier
Nov. 13, 2022

COTONOU, Benin — When lawmakers in the West African nation of Benin met last year to consider whether to legalize abortion, they heard shocking testimony from Dr. Véronique Tognifode, the country’s minister of social affairs, about what she had seen during her years working as a gynecologist.

She recounted how she and her peers had struggled to save women who had tried to end their pregnancies by ingesting dubious pills or bleach, inserting sharp objects into their bodies or getting illegal abortions from the dangerous hacks known locally as “mechanics.”

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/world/africa/benin-abortions.html


Survey finds dangers of unsafe abortion practices in Solomons

9 November 2022
Susana Suisuiki, RNZ Pacific Journalist

A report on women's health in Solomon Islands has revealed that unsafe abortion practices is a serious public health issue.

The Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association (SIPPA) study surveyed women across the Solomons to gather their personal experiences with abortion and contraception.

Continued: https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/478367/survey-finds-dangers-of-unsafe-abortion-practices-in-solomons


Maternal Mortality: Nigerian experts applaud as IPPF launches free online medical abortion course

October 14, 2022
By Sola Ogundipe

Top Nigerian medical experts have applauded the launch of a free online medical abortion training course by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), aimed at stemming the tide of unsafe abortion and its complications globally.

Welcoming the development, the experts said the course which is specifically designed to equip healthcare workers with the necessary skills to provide care for women seeking medical abortion up to 13 weeks gestation,  would go a long way in correcting the misinterpretation and misconception about safe abortion, legal abortion, medical abortion, and allied issues.

Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/10/maternal-mortality-nigerian-experts-applaud-as-ippf-launches-free-online-medical-abortion-course/


There’s a new surveillance state – and women are the target

Period tracking apps, car licence plate data and pregnancy registers are the latest tools experts warn are being harnessed to monitor women

By Harriet Barber,  GLOBAL HEALTH REPORTER
7 October 2022

Surveillance data and technology are being exploited to stoke fear and prevent abortions in countries including the United States, China, Hungary and Poland.

Period tracking apps, car licence plate data and pregnancy registers are the latest tools activists warn are being harnessed to stop women using legal or geographic loopholes for terminations. All four countries have reversed abortion rights over the past two years.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/new-abortion-surveillance-state-keeping-tabs-women/


Global reproductive and women’s rights groups react to overturn of Roe v. Wade

June 24, 2022
Malaka Gharib

How will the overturn of Roe v. Wade affect abortion rights and access outside the U.S.?

Groups that are opposed to abortion have welcomed the decision, including the Family Resource Council, which has called it "a major victory for life." But many global reproductive and women's rights groups are condemning the decision and warn that the U.S. overturning of the constitutional right to abortion will have far-reaching effects around the globe. Here's a sampling of reactions:

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/06/24/1107370547/global-reproductive-and-womens-rights-groups-react-to-overturn-of-roe-v-wade


Ukraine’s Women Refugees Face the Harsh Reality of Poland’s Abortion Restrictions

BY AMIE FERRIS-ROTMAN
JUNE 21, 2022

In the early days of May, in the third month of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a mother in her early 40s crossed the border into Poland, seeking safety for herself and two teenage children. She also carried with her a secret: as Russians advanced on her hometown, she was raped by Russian soldiers.

She didn’t want anyone to know what happened, according to the Polish NGO that came to her aid. Her husband, who is in the Ukrainian army, was fighting and away from home. Once in Poland, the woman discovered she was pregnant. But getting an abortion in a country with a near-total ban, and navigating this terrain in a new language, was far from simple.

Continued: https://time.com/6188502/ukraine-women-poland-abortion-ban/


US anti-abortion group targets Ukrainian refugees

Heartbeat International is appealing for money to fund its anti-abortion network in Ukraine and eastern Europe

Diana Cariboni
20 June 2022

US anti-abortion group Heartbeat International is taking advantage of Russia’s war in Ukraine to fundraise for ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ targeting refugees, openDemocracy has learnt.

Reproductive health experts fear the group could use its centres in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Romania to gain access to vulnerable people and persuade them to continue with unwanted pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/heartbeat-exploits-ukraine-fundraising-anti-abortion-rape/


US supreme court abortion reversal would be global ‘catastrophe’ for women

If Roe v Wade is overturned, it will encourage anti-choice groups – particularly in the developing world, activists warn

Wed 18 May 2022
The Guardian

The probable demise of abortion as a federal right in the US will be a “catastrophe” for women in low and middle-income countries, with an emboldened anti-choice movement likely to raise renewed pressure on hard-won gains, doctors and activists have warned.

The leak this month of the US supreme court’s draft majority opinion, which argued that the 1973 ruling effectively legalising abortion had been “egregiously wrong from the start”, stunned and enraged many in America.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/18/us-supreme-court-abortion-reversal-would-be-global-catastrophe-for-women