Nigeria: Unsafe abortion: Taming a leading, silent killer

Yinka Adeniran, Ibadan
March 18, 2024

There have been complaints about the rate at which women and girls die as a result of unsafe abortions. To tame this silent killer, experts and stakeholders in the Sexual Reproductive Health sector converged on Ibadan, the Oyo State capital to ruminate on how to do more for women and girls. YINKA ADENIRAN looks at the issue and efforts to tame the menace of unsafe abortion among women and girls.

For months, Sola Oduwole (pseudonym) could not forgive herself. She felt guilty as she felt she had a role to play in what had befallen her family. She just lost a sister (Olawunmi) who underwent surgery to cut off one of her breasts after she was diagnosed of breast cancer. Painfully, she died weeks after the surgery.

Continued: https://thenationonlineng.net/unsafe-abortion-taming-a-leading-silent-killer/


From Sunset to a New Dawn: Sustaining Civil Society’s Voice on Safe Motherhood

March 13, 2024
By Jay Gribble & Rebecca Levine

Maternal mortality continues to be one of the scourges in global health. The fact that women die as part of bringing life is an indictment against the overall status of women around the world, and underscores the failure to prioritize women, mothers, and children. Efforts to draw attention to the causes of maternal death and the solutions to maternal mortality abound, but they fail to get enough attention from the decisionmakers who establish health priorities and allocate resources that could actually make a difference.

Global advocacy efforts—such as those led by the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA)—have made progress in drawing attention to maternal mortality, as well as the need to improve maternal health services and outcomes. While improvements in these areas continue to take place, there is still much to achieve through advocacy to improve services and outcomes. 

Continued: https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2024/03/from-sunset-to-a-new-dawn-sustaining-civil-societys-voice-on-safe-motherhood/


Malawi Activists Lobby for Abortion Law Reforms

March 10, 2024
By Chimwemwe Padatha
Video: 2:48 minutes

In Malawi, 35,000 backstreet abortions were carried out in 2022 and 2023, according to its Ministry of Health. These unsafe procedures are just one reason support for abortion rights has increased in recent years. Chimwemwe Padatha has more from Lilongwe.

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-activists-lobby-for-abortion-law-reforms/7521799.html


The Dark State Of Abortion Rights In El Salvador, And First Signs Of Light

Although the last Salvadorian woman imprisoned on charges linked to abortion was released in December, 11 similar cases are currently pending in the country. Human rights activists acknowledge the progress made, and the work that remains to be done to overturn strict anti-abortion laws.

Mariana Escobar Bernoske
March 09, 2024

BOGOTÁ — In December 2023, Lilian was the last Salvadoran woman to regain her freedom after spending seven years in prison for an obstetric emergency. In 2015, the courts found her guilty of "murdering" her unborn baby by planning an abortion, when in fact, a tear in her uterus had caused the death. Medics had to give her three blood transfusions to stabilize her.

El Salvador is one of Latin America's most restrictive states in terms of women's sexual and reproductive rights. Abortion is banned as the state considers persons to exist from the moment of conception, contrary to the advice of international human rights groups. Under this strict ban, women who have had pregnancy complications, miscarriages or prenatal deaths to be charged with premeditating abortion.

Continued: https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/abortion-righs-el-salvador


Ugandan Women Risk Their Lives to Access Abortion

“Many girls are dying because we have chosen to ignore them.”

Friday, 8 March, 2024
Culton Scovia Nakamya

For Jovia (not her real name), 2023 was the worst year of her life. The 20-year-old business student was gang-raped at a drunken house party in the Kampala suburb of Kansanga and six weeks later realised that she was pregnant.

“I wondered what I am going to tell my parents. For God’s sake, I am just in my second semester of year one, and I didn’t know who did it,” she said.

Her options were limited, as abortion is illegal in Uganda except under rare circumstances. She confided in a female friend, who suggested they visit the Kampala suburb of Nakulabye, an area known as a hub of clinics that administer clandestine abortions, mostly to students.

Continued: https://iwpr.net/global-voices/ugandan-women-risk-their-lives-access-abortion


‘I can’t bear the pain’: grieving the lives lost to the Dominican Republic’s abortion ban

A decade after Rossa Nelly Aquino died aged 20 in an illegal clinic, her family are still struggling to find answers. And campaigners are still fighting to update the 140-year-old law

Sarah Johnson in Santo Domingo
Mon 4 Mar 2024

One of the walls in Alba Nely Peña’s front room is adorned with graduation photos of her children. She gave birth to three boys and three girls, but only five smiling faces are on display in her house on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

“My youngest one died. I took her photo down because I can’t bear the pain,” she says, before going into a back room and digging out a framed collage of photos of her daughter. On it are written the words: “We will always remember you, Rossa.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/04/i-cant-bear-the-pain-grieving-the-lives-lost-to-the-dominican-republics-abortion-ban


Empowering mothers, securing futures: The quest for safe motherhood in the Philippines

March 01, 2024
By Gelaine Louise Gutierrez

Bringing a child into the world should be a joyous milestone, not a mortal risk. Yet in the Philippines, over 2,000 women lost their lives while giving birth in 2021 - more than double the number in 2019.

These preventable deaths underscore the urgent need to secure safe motherhood through robust healthcare access and empowerment of Filipino women. Giving birth remains one of the most dangerous moments for women in underserved communities lacking proper medical facilities and prenatal care.

Continued: https://pia.gov.ph/features/2024/03/01/empowering-mothers-securing-futures-the-quest-for-safe-motherhood-in-the-philippines


By bus, car and plane, women journey across Latin America for abortions

By Marina Dias and Terrence McCoy
February 23, 2024

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — She’d taken an overnight bus from the countryside, then a train across the urban sprawl of São Paulo, and now she was staring out the plane window, head full of worry. There was a pink rosary in her pocket. But she didn’t see the point of praying. She feared she was a sinner, a criminal, and this trip, her first time out of Brazil, would be a secret she’d carry for the rest of her life.

Cristina was 35 years old. She was 11 weeks pregnant. She came from a conservative Christian family in a conservative Christian nation where abortion was largely illegal, so she’d decided to travel to a country where it was not and bring an end to the pregnancy she didn’t want.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/23/brazil-latin-america-abortion-restrictions/


States That Restrict Abortion Have Higher Rates of Intimate Partner Homicide

“[T]here’s an epidemic of preventable violence that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations,” one study finds.

By Zane McNeill , TRUTHOUT
February 13, 2024

According to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS), pregnant women who live in states that restrict abortion are more likely to experience intimate partner homicide. Researchers also found that the risk of intimate partner homicide is higher for young women under the age of 30, Black women, and women with lower education levels.

“This study reveals that in the United States, there’s an epidemic of preventable violence that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, including peripartum people,” said Grace Keegan, lead author of the study and third-year medical student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/states-that-restrict-abortion-have-higher-rates-of-intimate-partner-homicide/


Our Abortion Stories: ‘I’m a Registered Nurse, a Wife and a Mother. This Story Is Personal and Painful.’

Feb 13, 2024
by AMY ROGERS

My name is Amy Rogers; I’m a registered nurse, a wife and a mother.  I am writing this in support of House Bill 12, the Women’s Health Protection Act. This story is personal and painful. I am sharing this for myself, my daughters, and the 25 million women of childbearing age living in states with abortion bans or restrictions.

In 2011, my husband and I were newlyweds. We had primary custody of his 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. I had just turned 43 and was shocked and delighted to discover that I was pregnant. Due to my age, I assumed my chances of conceiving without fertility treatments were slim to none.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2024/02/13/dobbs-abortion-story-healthcare-genetic-testing-abnormality-womens-health-protection-act/