USA – Everything You Need to Know About the Abortion Pill

Everything You Need to Know About the Abortion Pill

By Rose Minutaglio
Nov 22, 2019

For Nicole, taking the abortion pill was like getting through "an extremely painful poop." It hurt, a lot, and then it was done. She was bartending at the time, lightyears away from thinking about motherhood, and decided on medication abortion. At $585, it was cheaper than a surgical abortion. Plus, Nicole wanted do it in the privacy of her own home. Two pills, four days, and several pairs of bloody underwear later ("it was basically like an extra heavy period for a week," she says), she went back to work at the bar.

Medication abortion or the "abortion pill" is a legal way to end a pregnancy—one that women like Nicole increasingly prefer over surgical abortion for a variety of reasons. It now accounts for more than one-third of all clinic abortions in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Continued: https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a29848937/abortion-pill-what-to-know/

The last taboo: Malta is the last EU country to have a full ban on abortion

The last taboo: Malta is the last EU country to have a full ban on abortion
Pro-choice activists will struggle to overturn it

Jul 27th 2019

POPE PIUS XI, who died in 1939, described Malta as “Malta Cattolicissima”. Today, that is not quite as true as it once was. The first schism with Catholic doctrine came in 2011, when divorce was legalised after a bitterly fought referendum. For the past four years, Malta has retained its top spot in ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Index, a ranking of policy towards LGBT people in 49 European countries. Same-sex couples now have equal marriage and adoption rights.

Yet Malta remains the only European Union member state which bans abortion in all circumstances. Under a law dating to 1724, women who procure an abortion in Malta risk being imprisoned for up to three years. The second-most-stringent EU country, Poland, allows abortion in very limited circumstances (as does Northern Ireland, which is even stricter, though a law passed in Westminster earlier this month could change that).

Continued: https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/07/27/malta-is-the-last-eu-country-to-have-a-full-ban-on-abortion

Life or Death Choices for Women Living Under Honduras’ Abortion Ban

Life or Death Choices for Women Living Under Honduras’ Abortion Ban
Women Tell Their Stories

Amy Braunschweiger, Senior Web Communications Manager
Margaret Wurth, Senior Researcher, Children's Rights Division
June 6, 2019

The calls to La Línea almost always came from panicked women, often crying. “Please answer me!” they begged. “Don’t keep me waiting!” Many said they were calling for a “friend.” All were desperate to know the same thing, forbidden by law in Honduras: how to end an unwanted pregnancy safely.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-choices-women-living-under-honduras-abortion-ban

Poland Is Trying to Make Abortion Dangerous, Illegal, and Impossible.

Poland Is Trying to Make Abortion Dangerous, Illegal, and Impossible.
Ireland voted to liberalize abortion laws. The far-right government in Warsaw is moving in the opposite direction.

By Madeline Roache
January 8, 2019

Everyone knows someone who has had an abortion in Poland. But most of it happens underground.

Under Poland’s draconian abortion law—one of the strictest in the European Union—terminations are permitted only if there is a threat to the mother’s life, if there is a fetal abnormality, or when pregnancy has resulted from rape or incest.

Continued: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/08/poland-is-trying-to-make-abortion-dangerous-illegal-and-impossible/

Ireland – No GP should be allowed opt out of abortions

Newton Emerson: No GP should be allowed opt out of abortions
Conscientious objection amounts to saying ‘We don’t serve your sort around here, love’

Thu, Jun 14, 2018
Newton Emerson

The UK supreme court sat for the first time in Belfast last month, hearing an appeal into the “gay cake” case, among others.

“People will of course not expect an answer any time soon,” the president of the court said upon reserving judgment.

Another thing nobody expects is for the court to let bakers opt into a register of those willing to ice gay cakes, comprising only a handful of bakers in the country, with people obliged to travel to find them.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/newton-emerson-no-gp-should-be-allowed-opt-out-of-abortions-1.3529281

14.06.2018

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Opinion

1967 Abortion Act

abolish conscientious objection

conscientious objection

discrimination against women

Irish GPs providing abortion

Kenya – Lack of information on sex leaves young people vulnerable

Lack of information on sex leaves young people vulnerable

Saturday June 2 2018

Let’s talk about sex.

That is the one statement that makes many parents cringe while others run for holy water and call a priest.

But the reality is that, by the time they turn 19, the majority of Kenyan youth have already had their sexual debut.

Continued: https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/opinion/Lack-of-information-on-sex/440808-4591098-vaqs8p/index.html

USA: Janet Benshoof, lawyer who pursued abortion rights for women, dies at 70

Janet Benshoof, lawyer who pursued abortion rights for women, dies at 70

By Harrison Smith
December 19, 2017

Janet Benshoof, a human rights lawyer who campaigned to expand access to contraceptives and abortion, leading organizations that advocated on behalf of women from the mainland United States to Burma, Iraq and Guam, where she was once arrested for protesting the most restrictive abortion law in America, died Dec. 18 at her home in Manhattan. She was 70.

She was diagnosed in November with uterine serous carcinoma, an endometrial cancer, said her son David Benshoof Klein.

Continued at source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/janet-benshoof-lawyer-who-pursued-abortion-rights-for-women-dies-at-70/2017/12/19/76194422-e4d2-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html

UK: Boots apologises for morning-after pill response

Boots apologises for morning-after pill response

22 July 2017

Boots has said it is "truly sorry" for its response to calls to cut the cost of one of its morning-after pills.

The pharmaceutical company was criticised after telling the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) it was avoiding "incentivising inappropriate use".

It now says it is looking for cheaper alternatives to the Levonelle brand.

Continued at source: BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40689763

22.07.2017

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Clare Murphy

EllaOne

emergency contraception

UK: The morning-after pill is safe. So why is it so difficult to access?

by Laura Bates, The Guardian

Stop the patronising consultations. There is no valid reason to restrict women’s access to emergency contraception – or charge so much for it

Wednesday 30 November 2016

A new campaign from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is calling for emergency contraception, commonly known as the morning-after pill, to be sold directly from pharmacy shelves without a mandatory consultation. The campaign highlights the fact that the pill can cost British women up to £30, as much as five times higher than in other European countries, meaning that it could even be cheaper to fly to France and buy it there than to visit a local pharmacy.

[continued at link]
Source: The Guardian

30.11.2016

Featured

Opinion

Bpas

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

emergency contraception

Family Education Trust

Public health services in Peru to provide free emergency contraception

by Safe Abortion

In an important step for reproductive rights, Peru has, for the first time, given the green light for medical personnel to offer free emergency contraception through the country’s health centres.

Health Minister Patricia Garcia – newly appointed under President Pedro Pablo Kuzcinksy and inaugurated last month – announced the decision Tuesday, saying that the pill will be offered free of charge within 30 days. The move comes in response to a recent court ruling that ordered the Ministry of Health to make the emergency contraceptive pill freely available across the country, especially in Peru’s poorest areas.

[continued at link]

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

05.09.2016