13 November 2023
Finau Fonua, RNZ Pacific Journalist
There's elation among pro-choice advocates in Guam following a decision by the US territory's Supreme Court to debunk an old anti-abortion law.
It dashes attempts by pro-life lawmakers on Guam to lift an injunction on Public Law 20-134, a law which imposes a total ban on abortion in all circumstances.
Guam is a hub for medical services in the region, often the first stop for patients seeking care before coming to Hawaii.
By Anita Hofschneider
Dec 23, 2022
This political moment feels familiar to Anita Arriola. Thirty-two years ago, the attorney filed a lawsuit to stop what would have been the most restrictive ban on abortion in the United States from going into effect in her home island of Guam.
It was a bill sponsored by her mother, then a local senator, and unanimously approved by Guam’s unicameral Legislature. Arriola had been a public interest attorney in San Francisco before returning home to the U.S. territory. She took on the case, despite the family tension and the threat of excommunication by Guam’s archbishop.
"People in Guam were already living in a post-Roe world," an ACLU deputy director said. "This is what we will see again if extremist politicians enact new abortion bans and force women into second-class status."
Aug 10, 2022
By Claire Wang
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had made abortion a constitutionally protected right, could have a chilling effect on reproductive rights in Guam.
Advocates say women have already been living under a de facto ban in the largely Catholic U.S. Pacific Island territory and fear it could get more restrictive.
By Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press
Fri., May 27, 2022
HONOLULU (AP) — Women from the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands will likely have to travel farther than other Americans to terminate a pregnancy if the Supreme Court overturns a precedent that established a national right to abortion in the United States.
Hawaii is the closest U.S. state where abortion is legal under local law. Even so, Honolulu is 3,800 miles (6,100 kilometers) away — about 50% farther than Boston is from Los Angeles.
John O'Connor | The Guam Daily
May 2, 2022
There have been 11 abortions performed in Guam from January through March of this year, all induced via medicine, according to data obtained by The Guam Daily Post. The listed facility is the Queen's University Medical Group Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic in Hawaii.
The data doesn't explicitly state that the abortions were administered via telemedicine but the only women's health providers with the Queen's University Medical Group who hold valid licenses to practice in Guam, are Dr. Shandhini Raidoo and Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro.
The ACLU is suing the US territory over restrictive laws that block people from accessing telemedicine medication abortions
Michelle Broder Van Dyke in Honolulu
Mon 22 Feb 2021
Getting an abortion on Guam, a remote US territory in the Pacific Ocean, has never been simple. Before 2016 there were only two abortion doctors on the entire island, and anti-abortion protesters would often stand outside their clinics with signs.
But since 2018, it has been impossible. That year Guam lost its last abortion provider when Dr William Freeman retired and moved away, and the doctor who took over refused to conduct them. This means that the closest US abortion clinic is now in Hawaiʻi, an eight-hour and $1,000 flight away. The number of abortions on Guam dropped from more than 200 a year in 2017 to zero.
Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/22/guam-abortions-aclu-lawsuit
Abortion is legal in Guam. But the closest provider is a long flight away
By Jay Croft and Chris Boyette, CNN
Fri June 7, 2019
(CNN)As states move to restrict abortion and access to it, women in the US territory of Guam already face a greater burden than crossing state lines for the procedure.
They must fly a long way, with Hawaii -- more than seven hours away by plane -- the closest US destination where they can get the Constitutionally protected medical service.
Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/07/us/guam-abortion-legal-no-provider/index.html
A 12-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated in Guam can't have an abortion because there are no providers in the US territory
Nicole Einbinder
Jun. 6, 2019
A 12-year-old girl in the US territory of Guam who was allegedly raped and impregnated will have no choice but to give birth to the child — due to lack of abortion providers on the island.
Bureau of Women's Affairs Director Jayne Flores shared the girl's story with The Pacific Daily News. "It breaks my heart that the 12-year-old girl who got raped... has to have a baby," Flores said, adding that the man was recently charged in court. "It breaks my heart that that girl will have to go through with her pregnancy because there's no one on island that will help her."
Facebook
Google+
Twitter
LinkedIn