Health Providers Worldwide Welcome Biden Reversal of Anti-Abortion Rule

By restoring funding cut off by his predecessor, President Biden ended four years of what abortion rights advocates called a concerted assault on women’s reproductive health in the developing world.

By Bhadra Sharma, Ruth Maclean, Oscar Lopez and Rick Gladstone
New York Times
Jan. 29, 2021

KATHMANDU, Nepal — When President Donald J. Trump scrapped tens of millions of dollars in aid to women’s health care providers around the world four years ago, the Family Planning Association of Nepal was forced to dismiss more than 200 people and close clinics in at least four parts of the country, one of Asia’s poorest.

Family planning education and birth-control distribution slowed or stopped in Nepal, which relies heavily on American financial assistance for public health programs. While abortion is legal in the country, the options for safe procedures were abruptly narrowed.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/world/asia/gag-rule-abortion.html

Abortion provider changes name over controversial figure’s views on eugenics

By Bianka Farmakis
Nov 16, 2020

A leading global abortion provider has changed it's name in the UK in an effort to distance itself from Marie Stopes, claiming her views on eugenics are in "stark contrast" to the charity's values.

The provider, Marie Stopes International, will be known as MSI Reproductive Choices, severing its connection to the woman who paved the way for family planning.

While the move will occur Tuesday in the UK, the name change will ripple across the 37 countries the charity is located in world wide.

Continued: https://honey.nine.com.au/latest/marie-stopes-abortion-clinic-changes-name-over-eugenics-views/9255ba40-4a84-42a8-9651-6ce6c1831b37

16.11.2020

Marie Stopes International

MSI Reproductive Choices

Simon Cooke

Europe

United Kingdom

Abortion provider changes name over Marie Stopes eugenics link

Nov 16, 2020

A leading abortion provider has changed its name to break ties with Marie Stopes, the controversial birth control pioneer who believed in the creation of a super race.

Marie Stopes International, which provides contraception and abortions to women and girls in 37 countries, is now known as MSI Reproductive Choices.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54970977

16.11.2020

Family Planning Association

history of birth control

Marie Stopes

Marie Stopes International

Married Love

MSI Reproductive Choices

National Birth Control Council

Simon Cooke

Europe

United Kingdom

Blood, sweat and tears of unsafe abortions and the better way out

by NJERI MBUGUA

09 October
2020

We are sitting in her studio apartment, and during the duration of our
conversation, she carefully tucks herself at the corner of her bed.

She had requested me to sit at her study table, just next to the bed on a
wooden chair facing her. Her eyes were swollen and she told me she was yet to
change the sheets in her bed.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/sasa/lifestyle/2020-10-09-blood-sweat-and-tears-of-unsafe-abortions-and-the-better-way-out/

Women in Kenya Are Using Knitting Needles to End Their Pregnancies. Blame Donald Trump.

The president has given fringe anti-abortion groups unprecedented influence.

OCTOBER 8, 2020
By NEHA WADEKAR

On a rainy morning in May 2019, Dr. John Nyamu was attending to patients on the cluttered first floor of an office building in downtown Nairobi when he heard raucous shouts from down the street. A caravan of protesters was winding toward him, a few hundred people teeming in the streets, bellowing through loudspeakers, and stopping traffic.

As the crowd reached his building, Nyamu, a well-known gynecologist who performs abortions in a private clinic, peered through his window at the protesters below to make out what they were saying. It turns out they were targeting him. “Abortion is murder! Abortion must go! Nyamu must go!” Some held signs with photos of mutilated fetuses. Others clutched baby-size cardboard coffins with crosses on them.

Continued: https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2020/10/08/abortion-kenya-knitting-needles-donald-trump/

08.10.2020

anti-choice protesters

Austin Ruse

Bethany Kozma

C-Fam

Center for Family and Human Rights

CitizenGO

Dr John Nyamu

Esther Passaris

Family Health Options Kenya

Global Gag Rule

Human Life international

International Conference on Population and development

John Nyamu

Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops

Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board

Kisumu Medical and Education Trust

sexual and reproductive health

Sophie Hodder

Uhuru Kenyatta

UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund

US Agency for International Development

Uganda – Unsafe Abortion: Less Privileged Girls Risk Succumbing to Complications Due to Exorbitant Post Abortion Treatment Costs

Esther Macula
October 7, 2020

Despite large reductions in pregnancy related deaths in Uganda over the past two decades (the maternal mortality ratio dropped from 684 to 100,000 live births in 1995 to 343 per 100,000 in 2015 as per Ministry of Health records), the high number of maternal deaths remains a public health challenge.

Unsafe abortion continues to contribute significantly
to maternal morbidity and mortality. A 2010 report by the Ministry of Health
estimated that 8% of maternal deaths were due to unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://chimpreports.com/unsafe-abortion-less-privileged-girls-risk-succumbing-to-complications-due-to-exorbitant-post-abortion-treatment-costs/

Anti-abortion activists begin 40-day protest outside clinics across England

'She told me I was a murderer and killing my baby. She then showed me pictures of what it'll look like in a leaflet then said the drugs weren't safe and brought religion into it,' says teenager

Maya Oppenheim, Women’s Correspondent
Sep 23, 2020

Anti-abortion protesters have begun demonstrations outside a dozen abortion clinics across England which will continue for 40 days – risking the health of thousands of women.

40 Days for Life, an American-based anti-abortion group which have stepped up their tactics in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, are known for harassing women who want to have a pregnancy terminated.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anti-abortion-activists-protests-40-days-life-clinics-b551454.html

South Africa – Self-managed abortions set to give women more autonomy

Abortion providers say self-managed abortions can give women more autonomy over their bodies, but access to this form of abortion remains limited in South Africa. Tiyese Jeranji looks at exactly what self-managed abortion entails.

By Tiyese Jeranji for Spotlight
24 August 2020

Though abortion has been legal in South Africa since 1996, many abortions still take place outside of formal health settings.

At a conference on abortion and reproductive justice in Makhanda in 2018, the Department of Social Development said between 52% and 58% of the estimated 260,000 abortions that take place in South Africa every year are illegal. The Guttmacher Institute (a research and policy organisation), estimates that 50% of abortions in South Africa take place in settings not regulated by the health sector.

Continued: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-24-self-managed-abortions-set-to-give-women-more-autonomy/

Getting an Abortion During Lockdown Is Easier Than You Think

Getting an Abortion During Lockdown Is Easier Than You Think
New telemedicine services mean that most people in the UK are now able to perform their own abortions at home.

by Beth Ashley
02 June 2020

When lockdown was introduced in the UK, no one could have predicted its scale or impact. Every aspect of normal life has been affected by it – and those seeking an abortion haven’t been exempt, either.

Ellie*, 22, became pregnant in early April. She knew that she didn’t want to continue the pregnancy but was terrified she wouldn’t be able to get a termination due to COVID-19. “There was so much in the news and on social media through March about delayed and cancelled abortions in England,” she told VICE. “People had been campaigning against the [cancellations] all over Twitter. I was terrified about what might happen to me.”

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/889nz4/how-to-get-abortion-during-coronavirus-lockdown-uk

Abortion providers take private flights to regional Queensland as coronavirus triggers industry collapse

Abortion providers take private flights to regional Queensland as coronavirus triggers industry collapse

By Emilie Gramenz
May 1, 2020

Family planning clinicians have had to charter private planes to deliver surgical abortion services in central and north Queensland, as the collapse of the domestic travel industry bites.

The only surgical abortion provider in Rockhampton and Townsville — Marie Stopes — runs clinics once a week, using a mixture of local staff and clinicians from Brisbane or elsewhere.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-02/abortion-providers-take-private-flights-during-coronavirus/12181846

01.05.2020