The overturning of Roe v Wade could harm women across the world

The US policies on abortion, whether we like it or not, significantly influence how seriously governments around the world take the issue of unsafe abortions.

Stephanie Musho
19 May 2022

A leaked draft of a United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade, a landmark 1973 decision that gave women the constitutional right to abortion, recently put abortion rights once again on the global agenda.

As a human rights lawyer in Kenya, I too am watching the developments in Washington, DC with worry. This is not only because I feel for American women being forced to fight for their right to bodily autonomy, but also because case law in commonwealth jurisdictions such as Kenya is sometimes influenced by decisions taken in US courtrooms.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/19/the-overturning-of-roe-v-wade-could-harm-women-across-the-world

Why It’s Time to End This Bad Abortion Policy the US Exports Abroad

Why It’s Time to End This Bad Abortion Policy
the US Exports Abroad
Congress can take action right now to permanently repeal the harmful global gag
rule by passing funding bills for FY 2022.

Feb 4, 2022
Vanessa Geffrard, Rewire News

Under the glow of a cell phone flashlight, I watched as the clinician inserted
the last intrauterine device. It was past 8 p.m., and as night stretched out
before us, I reflected on a ten-plus-hour day spent helping well over 100 women
who had waited all day to get an IUD, birth control, or gynecological services
at a rural village health center.

It was July 2015, and I was in Nigeria for three weeks (and Kenya for one week)
as part of the Planned Parenthood Global Youth Ambassador Fellowship Program to
witness some of Planned Parenthood Global’s work expanding sexual and
reproductive health services in communities. Demand for these services—and a
clinic staff dedicated to delivering them—was clear. These women, many of them
with their children, had traveled some distance to spend hours waiting for
sexual and reproductive health care. To provide care to everyone present, the
clinicians skipped their lunches.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/02/04/why-its-time-to-end-this-bad-abortion-policy-the-us-exports-abroad/

What Happens When Women Can’t Get Legal Abortions

Examples from around the world show that restrictions can actually lead to more, not fewer, abortions.

By Neha Wadekar, a Nairobi-based journalist.
SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

In a 5-4 decision late Wednesday night, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to block a Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks, which is before many women even know they’re pregnant. Known as Senate Bill 8, the law does not allow exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, making it the harshest abortion restriction in the country. The law sets the stage for a battle over the future of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision, which states that the Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s right to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

Reduced abortion access in the United States could have catastrophic results. In countries around the world with limited or no access to safe, affordable abortion, people are either forced to keep unwanted pregnancies or dismembered or even killed by unsafe abortions each day.

Continued: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/03/abortion-ban-texas-supreme-court-kenya-uganda-africa/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921

U.S. Politics Push the Global Poor to Unsafe Abortion

8/15/2021
by MARJORIE NEWMAN-WILLIAMS

Dr. Sukesh Sharma has worked as a gynecologist and surgeon for more than 40 years, providing services like safe abortion and tubal ligation to women in India. While he has seen progress in women’s reproductive healthcare since he started more than four decades ago—“At that time there were many untrained people doing abortions,” he said of his early career—he has also seen how U.S. politics have interfered with access to safe abortion and other services for Indian women.

Six times, Sharma has seen the global gag rule instated or repealed,
cutting off funding for his services and others, putting the lives of the women
he serves at risk.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/08/15/global-poor-unsafe-abortion-helms-amendment-global-gag-rule/

Treading Lightly In Abortion Politics, Biden Still Manages To Annoy Both Sides

July 12, 2021
JULIE ROVNER

It took five months for the Biden administration to make a substantive policy change to advance abortion rights. And even that change was buried in a 61-page regulation setting rules for 2022's Affordable Care Act enrollment.

The policy would reverse a Trump administration rule requiring insurers that cover abortion to send separate bills for that coverage. Abortion-rights opponents had hoped the extra paperwork would persuade insurers to stop offering the coverage.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/12/1014806993/treading-lightly-in-abortion-politics-biden-still-manages-to-annoy-both-sides

Over 200 groups in 88 countries call for permanent end to the US Global Gag Rule

International Campaign for Safe Abortion
JUNE 25, 2021

A joint statement signed by over 200
international civil society organizations from 88 countries across six
continents was released on 22 June 2021, organized by Planned Parenthood Global
and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Released as part of a week
of action, it calls for a permanent end to the US Global Gag Rule. The
statement, in Arabic, English, French and Spanish, demonstrates the diversity
of just some of the communities harmed by the policy over the past 37 years.

According to research released by Planned Parenthood in September 2020, 70% of
Americans favored ending the Global Gag Rule so that funding for global health
could resume without restrictions.

Continued: https://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/news/global-gag-rule-over-200-groups-in-88-countries-call-for-permanent-end-to-the-us-global-gag-rule/

25.06.2021

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Mexico City policy

Planned Parenthood Global

Biden urged to end US aid ‘abortion ban’

More than 140 rights groups call for repeal of 1973 Helms amendment widely misinterpreted as total ban on funding abortion services overseas

Liz Ford
Fri 30 Apr 2021

Joe Biden is being urged to clarify a longstanding US law restricting overseas aid that has been misinterpreted by successive administrations as an outright ban on funding abortion for any reason.

As the US president marked his first 100 days in office on Friday, more than 140 human rights and global health organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International US and the Global Justice Center, signed a letter asking him to confirm that US aid can be used for abortion care in cases of rape, incest and when the woman’s life is in danger.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/30/biden-urged-to-repeal-helms-amendment-allow-us-aid-fund-abortion

In Hospitals Across Africa, A Lack Of Post-Abortion Care

March 9, 2021
PATRICK ADAMS

Some of Onikepe Owolabi's most vivid memories of medical school in her native Nigeria are of the teenage girls she saw in the emergency room of a rural hospital with complications from an unsafe abortion — painful infections that, if left untreated, can lead to permanent disability or even death.

Each time, Owolabi, now a senior research scientist with the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit reproductive rights organization in the U.S. that supports abortion rights, assisted doctors in promptly providing the girls with a group of essential obstetric services known collectively as "post-abortion care," or PAC.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/09/936206516/in-hospitals-across-africa-a-lack-of-post-abortion-care

Healthcare providers in Kenya cautiously welcome removal of Global Gag rule

23 February 2021
Sarah Kimani, SABCNews

Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare providers in Kenya have cautiously welcomed the removal of the Global Gag rule, an American policy that prohibits foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who receive US global health assistance from facilitating or promoting abortion.

Also known as the Mexican City policy and first adopted by the then President Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1984, it has been repealed by every Democratic administration and reinstated by every Republican one since then.

Continued: https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/healthcare-providers-in-kenya-cautiously-welcome-removal-of-global-gag-rule/

23.02.2021

Planned Parenthood Global

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

Biden Wants More Stable Diplomacy. An Abortion Fight Is a Test

U.S. funding for overseas health providers that offer abortion services has vacillated with the changing of administrations for decades. Congress is debating whether to settle the policy by law.

By Lara Jakes
Feb. 11, 2021

WASHINGTON — As it reaches out to allies rattled by four years of erratic American diplomacy, the Biden administration wants to enlist Congress in advancing foreign policies that will withstand the whims of any single president.

An early test lies in the fate of what is known as the Mexico City policy.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/biden-abortion-mexico-city-rule.html