Moroccan Association Calls for Abortion Law Reform After Death of 14-year-old Girl

The incident reopened the public debate about abortion, with several Moroccan activists and women’s rights associations calling for the decriminalization of abortion in the country.

Sara Zouiten
Sep. 15, 2022

Rabat - Outrage grew in Morocco after a 14-year-old girl lost her life to unsafe abortion, with several associations and activists, including the Spring of Dignity Alliance, calling for reform in the country’s abortion law, as well as access to safe and legal abortion.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Spring of Dignity Alliance said that the teenager, who lived in the town of Midelt, 200 kilometers south of Fez, underwent a “secret abortion.” The abortion was carried out by a midwife who works at the regional hospital in Midelt and a technician from Azrou hospital, who pretended to be a nurse, the statement added.

Continued: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2022/09/351355/moroccan-association-calls-for-abortion-law-reform-after-death-of-14-year-old-girl


USA – What happens to people denied abortions?

Health impacts for pregnant people in post-Roe America

By Yemi Zewdu Yimer, Sara Zargham, Sharon Yuen, Gabriela Marmolejos & Tara Viviani
August 31, 2022

An estimated 138K women per year will be denied abortions in their home states following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This population will have four options, and each carries the risk of adverse health outcomes and behaviors. To effectively adapt their maternal and reproductive health service offerings, stakeholders must understand the forecasted outcomes and volumes for each pathway below:

- Carry the pregnancy to term
- Travel out of state for legal abortion
- Order “extralegal” medication abortion by mail
- Attempt an unsafe abortion

Continued: https://www.advisory.com/topics/womens/2022/08/what-happens-to-people-denied-abortions


The US abortion decision is already having global impacts

OPINION: The reversal of Roe v. Wade is a tragedy not just for the United States, but for women everywhere

By TK Sundari Ravindran, Pascale Allotey, Sofia Gruskin
08.31.2022

The past decades have brought modest improvements to women’s reproductive health around the world. Over the last 30 years, global rates of unintended pregnancies have thankfully declined by almost 20 percent, presumably in part because of better access to education and contraceptives. In 1973, the US Supreme Court, ruling in Roe v. Wade, declared an American woman’s right to an abortion to be fundamental and constitutionally protected. This landmark decision helped inspire many countries around the world to enshrine the individual right to bodily autonomy in law or expand access to abortion services — including Canada and India. Many women have been able to access safe abortions and post-abortion care.

Then the 2022 US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Continued:   https://knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2022/us-abortion-decision-already-having-global-impacts


Ethiopia expanded access to abortions and it saved lives

By Sara Jerving
17 August 2022

As a medical student and then obstetrician-gynecologist resident at the turn of the millennium, Ethiopian Dr. Muir Kassa’s work was bleak. Across the country, delivery and gynecology rooms were overwhelmed with cases of women that had undergone unsafe abortions.

“Lots of women died at my hands because they attempted unsafe abortions at home, by using some unimaginable ways, like inserting umbrella wires. It becomes very difficult to save her once she already has these complications,” he said.

Continued: https://www.devex.com/news/ethiopia-expanded-access-to-abortions-and-it-saved-lives-103397


Abortion rights: history offers a blueprint for how pro-choice campaigners might usefully respond

BMJ 2022; 378
doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o1846
Published 26 July 2022
Agnes Arnold Forster, research fellow

In October 1971, the New York Times reported a decline in maternal death rate.1 Just 15 months earlier, the state had liberalised its abortion law. David Harris, New York’s deputy commissioner of health, speaking to the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, attributed the decline—by more than half—to the replacement of criminal abortions with safe, legal ones. Previously, abortion had been the single leading cause of maternity related deaths, accounting for around a third. A doctor in the audience who said he was from a state “where the abortion law is still archaic,” thanked New York for its “remarkable job” and expressed his gratitude that there was a place he could send his patients and know they would receive “safe, excellent care.” Harris urged other states to follow the example set by New York and liberalise their abortion laws.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o1846


Anna bought abortion pills via social media. Now, like thousands of other Filipinas, she is dead

The case of one 20-year-old from Manila reveals the dangerous role of online sellers of illicit methods in a country where terminations are outlawed

Rebecca Ratcliffe and Guill Ramos
Mon 4 Jul 2022

Shortly before a courier arrived, Anna*, a scared, pregnant young woman from the Philippines, had received instructions on Facebook from the seller about how to proceed when she received her packet of medication containing cytotec, cortal and tablets to prevent bleeding.

She should fast for the day. She must not eat rice but just snack on crackers and drink cola. Anna paid 1,000 pesos (£15) upfront, with a second 1,000 peso due if the abortion was successful.

Continued:  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/04/abortion-pills-facebook-filipina-women-philippines


Death and Suffering: The Story Behind Ireland’s Abortion Ban and its Reversal

The death of Savita Halappanavar in an Irish hospital in 2012 after she was denied an abortion during a miscarriage caused outrage across Ireland.

June 27, 2022
By Gretchen E. Ely

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the U.S., the nation may find itself on a path similar to that trodden by the Irish people from 1983 to 2018.

Abortion was first prohibited in Ireland through what was called the Offenses Against the Person Act of 1861. That law became part of Irish law when Ireland gained independence from the U.K. in 1922. In the early 1980s, some anti-abortion Catholic activists noticed the liberalization of abortion laws in other Western democracies and worried the same might happen in Ireland.

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2022-06-27/the-story-behind-irelands-abortion-ban-and-its-reversal


Poland shows the risks for women when abortion is banned

Katrin Bennhold, Monika Pronczuk
14.06.2022

It was shortly before 11 p.m. when Izabela Sajbor realized the doctors were prepared to let her die. Her doctor had already told her that her fetus had severe abnormalities and would almost certainly die in the womb. If it made it to term, life expectancy was a year, at most. At 22 weeks pregnant, Sajbor had been admitted to a hospital after her water broke prematurely.

She knew that there was a short window to induce birth or surgically remove the fetus to avert infection and potentially fatal sepsis. But even as she developed a fever, vomited and convulsed on the floor, it seemed to be the baby’s heartbeat that the doctors were most concerned about.

Continued: https://www.ekathimerini.com/nytimes/1186635/poland-shows-the-risks-for-women-when-abortion-is-banned/


Irish doctor says “women will die” if Roe v. Wade overturned in U.S.

MAY 23, 2022
CBS NEWS

Dublin, Ireland — Americans are waiting for a final Supreme Court decision that could overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling making abortion legal nationwide. If the justices do overturn the 1973 ruling, it would see the U.S. buck the international trend, as other countries have been making the procedure more widely available.

CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams recently visited Ireland, which is one of those countries, and met Amy Callahan, who shared her own difficult experience.

Continued:  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-law-us-supreme-court-ireland-mothers-doctor-on-life-illegal-abortion/


USA – The New Abortion Restriction No One is Talking About

Anti-abortion laws have traditionally allowed an exception to protect the “life of the mother.” Not anymore.

Opinion by MICHELE DEMARCO
04/28/2022

In 1942, my grandmother lay in a hospital bed in center city Philadelphia waiting to die. She was 26 years old, happily married, and pregnant with her first child. Only something went horribly wrong in the last trimester, and suddenly, both she and the baby were in a fight for life.

My grandfather, distraught but resolved, begged the attending physicians to do whatever it took to save my grandmother’s life, even if that meant the life inside her wouldn’t survive. But in those days that wasn’t always the practice; this was also a Catholic hospital, which forbade such a practice because it was considered tantamount to abortion. My grandfather was told she would be kept comfortable, and they would monitor both mother and baby, but that nothing would be done to privilege her life over that of their unborn child. In the end, my grandmother pulled through — barely — but sadly, the baby did not.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/28/the-new-abortion-restriction-no-one-is-talking-about-00028171