Mozambique – Training Providers on Law and Clinical Norms

Training Providers on Law and Clinical Norms

02.03.2020
FIGO

Mozambique liberalised its abortion law in 2014, granting legal abortion on request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and longer term limits in cases of rape, incest and foetal anomaly. FIGO National Member Society, The Associação Moçambicana de Obstetras e Ginecologistas (AMOG), was proud to support this change in law.

Clinical norms to guide treatment were also made available, and benefitted from AMOG’s technical expertise while being developed. However, barriers that prevent women accessing abortion care remain; although we have the law in place, it is often not being implemented.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/news/training-providers-law-and-clinical-norms-0016330

India – Abortion bill 2020 is good, but not good enough

Abortion bill 2020 is good, but not good enough

Feb 16, 2020
Sanchita Sharma, Hindustantimes

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Amendment Bill, 2020, has got several things right. Raising the upper limit of legal abortions from 20 weeks to 24 weeks for “special categories of women”, including rape and incest survivors, other vulnerable women, and children; and completely removing the upper gestation limit for abortion in the cases of substantial foetal abnormalities will help many more seek safe and legal abortion services.

Other positive inclusions are allowing all women, and not just married ones, to legally seek abortions, and striking out the need for the opinion of a second registered practitioner for aborting pregnancies up to 20 weeks. The draft proposes that the opinion of two practitioners will now be needed only for abortions in the 20-24 weeks period.

Continued; https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/abortion-bill-2020-is-good-but-not-good-enough/story-6KVwb0oEpnK7kad12aRSoI.html

Nepal – Unsafe abortion continues unabated

Unsafe abortion continues unabated

Published: January 05, 2020
Rastriya Samachar Samiti

Abortion has been legalised in Nepal since March 2002 and in normal cases, abortion up to 12 weeks’ gestation, with the consent of pregnant women, is allowed. In special cases, it is allowed up to 28 weeks of pregnancy.

However, abortion is still considered a stigma in Nepali society. Of those women undergoing abortion, 58 per cent chose unsafe procedure, according to data published by various organisations working in the reproductive health rights sector.

Continued: https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/unsafe-abortion-continues-unabated/

India – Comprehensive Abortion Care a Far Cry

Comprehensive Abortion Care a Far Cry
As per the national statistics, only 22 percent abortions are carried out in health facilities while 73 percent are medication-based.

Published: 22nd December 2019
By KG Suresh

At a quiz conducted recently for state-level health communicators in Bihar, it was found that some were not aware that abortions were legal in India while some others thought a woman required the consent of her husband or father for aborting her foetus. In fact, some of them were not even aware of the difference between emergency contraception and abortion drugs. This was significant given the fact that Bihar with 1.25 million abortions annually accounted for a sizeable chunk of the 15.6 million abortions annually estimated in the country by Lancet, an international health journal. Neighbouring Uttar Pradesh reported 3.15 million abortions.

As per the national statistics, only 22 per cent abortions are carried out in health facilities while 73 per cent are medication-based. The national average of unsafe abortions stood at 5 per cent, meaning thereby that about 10 women lose their lives daily because of unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/voices/2019/dec/22/comprehensive-abortion-care-a-far-cry-2078438.html

Why do women still resort to informal sector abortions in countries where abortion is legal?

Why do women still resort to informal sector abortions in countries where abortion is legal?

Giuliano Russo & Sonia Chemlal
25 Apr 2019

Abortion is generally a safe procedure when carried out in the formal healthcare setting in countries where it is legal. However, many women choose to seek abortions outside of the formal healthcare setting, despite the inherent risk. In this blog post, the authors of a recent systematic review of qualitative studies about why women make this choice, published in BMC Women’s Health, discuss their findings.

Continued: http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcseriesblog/2019/04/25/why-do-women-still-resort-to-informal-sector-abortions-in-countries-where-abortion-is-legal/

25.04.2019

Featured

Research

abortion as privacy issue

abortion costs

clandestine abortion

Giuliano Russo

informal sector abortions

lack of knowledge of abortion laws

self-managed abortion

Nepal – Eliminate unsafe abortion

Eliminate unsafe abortion
In Nepal, abortion is legal and provided free of cost in government health centres.

Dr Bal Krishna Shah
Apr 23, 2019

An abortion is the ending of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of the embryo or fetus before it can survive outside the uterus. Nepali women were granted abortion rights in 2002; and in 2004, abortion service was expanded throughout the country. In 2009, medical abortion service was introduced. There were 1,124 government and non-government hospitals and health institutions providing safe abortion services as of 2016-17. Both manual vacuum aspiration and medical abortion services are used for safe abortions in Nepal. All legal provisions need to be fulfilled in order to perform abortions, and the health institution should have the logo of safe abortion service.

Continued: https://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2019-04-23/eliminate-unsafe-abortion.html

How India’s abortion laws are trailing society, technology and the young single women having more sex

How India’s abortion laws are trailing society, technology and the young single women having more sex
Faced with a 20-week limit and cultural and other legal restrictions, millions of Indian women have abortions outside hospitals and clinics, while many others do not even know the procedure is legal because of a lack of public education

Monday, 21 May, 2018
Amrit Dhillon

Using euphemisms, Anita Adhikari, 43, says shyly that her husband wants sexual intercourse almost every day. How they manage to perform the act is a mystery. The chip board partition which separates her room in a slum in Gurgaon, a satellite city of the capital New Delhi, from the family next door is so flimsy you can hear her neighbours talking. With two grown-up married children, Anita is far less interested in sex than her husband, but she has no choice in the matter. Like most Indian women, she has to obey his every whim.

Anaemic and underweight, Adhkari used to miss her periods occasionally. When there was no sign of her period after three months, she assumed her menopause had started. But, feeling anxious one day in February, she went to a doctor who said she was pregnant. She went to a nearby chemist and bought an anti-abortion pill. By now, she was in her 18th week. The pill did not work. The only option was an abortion.

Continued: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2147008/how-indias-abortion-laws-are-trailing-society-technology

India: Attitudes to abortion putting women at risk of exploitation

Attitudes to abortion putting women at risk of exploitation
Though abortions are legal in India, lack of transparency, social taboos and limited awareness are big hurdles for women with unwanted pregnancies

Soumya Gupta and Isha Trivedi
Nov 18, 2017

Mumbai: “Doctor? I never went to a doctor for an abortion,” says the 29-year-old, an advertising industry executive based in New Delhi, who discovered in 2009 that she was pregnant.

Her landlady had told her that pills are available in the market for inducing an abortion and she headed to Delhi’s government-run Safdarjung Hospital and asked for help at the pharmacy.

Continued at source: http://www.livemint.com/Science/Ug7l9ukXqIYZwgWcvhpTQJ/Attitudes-to-abortion-putting-women-at-risk-of-exploitation.html