Australia – Victorian doctor suspended amid investigation into woman’s death after abortion

Women’s health clinic boss claims ‘witch hunt’ after Dr Rudolph Lopes suspended in weeks following 30-year-old’s death

Australian Associated Press
Fri 15 Mar 2024

A doctor working at a women’s health clinic in Melbourne has been suspended as a regulator revealed it was aware of concerns about other practitioners there. The facility’s boss claims it is a “witch hunt”.

It follows the death of 30-year-old mother Harjit Kaur, who died in January at the Hampton Park Women’s Clinic after what was described as a “minor procedure”.

It was later identified as a pregnancy termination.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/15/victorian-doctor-suspended-amid-investigation-into-womans-death-after-abortion


Did an Abortion Ban Cost a Young Texas Woman Her Life?

As many conservatives hail the fall of Roe for saving unborn lives, high-risk pregnancy becomes even more perilous.

By Stephania Taladrid
January 8, 2024

Yeniifer Alvarez arrived in central Texas from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in 1998. At three, she was just old enough to have a sense of a world left behind: the fire that warmed the house in the evening, the meat hung to dry outside the door, and la bisabuela, her adored great-grandmother, who had died shortly before Yeni and her mom went north. In Luling, Yeni, her parents, aunts, and grandmother settled into a cramped house with a tin roof that was down the street from her great-uncles, the first members of the family to discover the town’s decent jobs, in the oil fields.

Black gold had been gushing there since the nineteen-twenties, and a sulfurous odor hung in the air. To this day, when the smell drifts fifty miles north, people in Austin call it “the Luling effect.” Yeni’s father worked in oil, too, but it wasn’t long before he was deported. Yeni’s mother, Leticia, stayed and got a job in the kitchen of a local Mexican restaurant, where the pay was modest but no one was asking about papers. Every morning, Yeni and her little brother Michael rode to a red brick schoolhouse in a car overstuffed with other kids. At the wheel was a neighbor who, for a dollar a day, took care of children whose parents’ workdays started well before class did. Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/15/abortion-high-risk-pregnancy-yeni-glick


USA – An illegal abortion killed my great-great-grandmother. A century later, what’s changed?

Opinion: I'm 16 and frightened by what might happen to me if I were to get pregnant against my will.

Sophia Rick Yudell
July 16, 2023

In 1921, my great-great-grandmother Anna died because abortions were illegal. She got pregnant — with her 11th child — when she was 40 years old, a full-time homemaker, married to a produce peddler in New York City.

The family was already poor. I imagine that she feared she couldn’t feed another child.

Continued: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2023/07/16/illegal-abortion-killed-great-great-grandmother-future-roe/70408178007/


“Every woman has right to abortion if health threatened,” says Polish government after latest death

JUN 13, 2023
Notes from Poland

Poland’s health minister, Adam Niedzielski, has announced the creation of a special team to help ensure that pregnant women receive appropriate medical care, including abortions if their health is endangered.

His decision follows the latest death of a pregnant woman in hospital. As in some previous cases, the woman’s family and activists have blamed Poland’s near-total abortion ban for the tragedy. But officials say it was a case of medical malpractice.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/06/13/every-woman-has-right-to-abortion-if-health-threatened-says-polish-government-after-latest-death/


Polish prosecutors and ombudsman investigate death of pregnant woman in hospital

The Canadian Press
Wed, June 7, 2023

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Prosecutors and the patients’ ombudsman in Poland are investigating the death of a pregnant woman at a hospital, amid the family’s accusations that the doctors kept them in the dark as to the danger and didn't take proper steps to save her.

The death last month of the 33-year-old woman was the second such case reported in southern Poland since September and raised questions whether doctors were afraid to perform abortions to save women with complicated pregnancies.

Continued: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/polish-prosecutors-ombudsman-investigate-death-172233152.html


Nigeria’s maternal death rate falls below SDG target’

26th November 2022
By Lara Adejoro

The Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria has lamented the high rate of maternal death in the country, saying Nigeria is nowhere near achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.

The SOGON President, Dr Habi Sadauki, said this, on Saturday, in Abuja at a press conference supported by the Partnership for Advocacy in child and family health At Scale anchored by the Development Research and Projects Centre and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Continued: https://punchng.com/nigerias-maternal-death-rate-falls-below-sdg-target/


Abortion under spotlight in conservative Morocco

Issued on: 13/11/2022
FADEL SENNA, AFP

Rabat (AFP) – The debate over abortion rights has flared in Morocco after a teenager's death following an unsafe termination, but social taboos continue to stall reforms.

"If I spoke out for abortion rights in front of my brothers, I'd be risking my life," said student Leila, 21, adding that she comes from a relatively "modern" family.

In September, a 14-year-old identified as Meriem died following an unsafe procedure in a rural village in the country's centre.

Continued: https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20221113-abortion-under-spotlight-in-conservative-morocco


Ireland changed when Savita Halappanavar died – it must continue to change

On the ten year anniversary of the death of Savita Halappanavar, Lynn Enright reflects on how she galvanized a nation and how there is more to be done.

by Lynn Enright
27th Oct 2022

Whenever and wherever abortion is illegal, there are horror stories. Stories so grim and so gruesome they make you weep. A tale of a suicidal child forced to carry the foetus of the man who raped her; news reports of a young woman rooting through blood-soaked rubbish before reporting her housemate, who took illegal abortion pills alone, to police. In 2012, came a story so bleak that it changed a nation.

Savita Halappanavar was 31 in October 2012 and she was 17 weeks’ pregnant; it was to be the first baby for her and her husband, Praveen. If you’re carrying a longed-for baby, the 17-week mark is a nice stage of pregnancy. The morning sickness is usually gone and it is around then that you’ll feel the first flutters of movement, a tiny kick here and there.

Continued: https://www.image.ie/agenda/ireland-changed-when-savita-halappanavar-died-it-must-continue-to-change-606207


Kenya: The New Cold War Over Access to Safe Abortion in Kenya

22 SEPTEMBER 2022
Inter Press Service

By Stephanie Musho and Ritah Anindo Obonyo

Nairobi — Fatuma is a 24 year old girl from Korogocho, an informal settlement
in Nairobi. She died in December 2021, from complications arising from an
unsafe abortion. Her friend and a few of her neighbors found her bleeding
profusely and unable to move. They rushed her to the hospital. Unfortunately,
she died before she could see the doctor.

Unfortunately, Fatuma's story is common for girls and women in Kenya. In fact,
at least 7 of them die every day from complications arising from unsafe
abortion. Worse still, is that with current trends - where 700 girls between
the ages of 10 and 19 are getting pregnant daily; the harrowing statistics on
abortions are likely to be worse. If Fatuma knew where she could access safe
abortion services, she would not have died.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202209230002.html


Moroccan Association Declares Day of Mourning for Minor Dead After Abortion

The tragic incident has triggered outrage among Moroccan activists and women’s rights groups.

Sara Zouiten
Sep. 20, 2022

Rabat - Moroccan Outlaws 490, a social change organization, has declared Tuesday, September 20 as a day of mourning in the memory of Meriem, a 14-year-old girl who recently lost her life after undergoing a clandestine and unsafe abortion.

The group said in a statement: “Time to grieve … Meriem, 14 years old, raped, died on September 6th following an unsafe abortion, due to the unjust system of law we all know and live under.”

Continued: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2022/09/351440/moroccan-association-declares-day-of-mourning-for-minor-dead-after-abortion