USA – I Learned How to Do an Abortion on a Papaya

I Learned How to Do an Abortion on a Papaya
Papaya workshops have become a popular way to demystify and destigmatize abortion.

by Marie Solis
Jul 24 2019

“This is a 10-week gravid uterus,” Zoey Thill said, holding up a "pregnant" papaya the size of a large fist. “And this,” she added, gesturing to her own pregnant belly, “is a 38-week gravid uterus.”

Thill, a New York City-based abortion provider, was explaining the anatomy of the uterus to a group of about a dozen of us, in Verso Books’ Brooklyn office on a Monday night.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k334w/how-to-do-an-abortion-with-manual-vacuum-aspiration-papaya-workshop

USA – Not Your Grandmother’s Illegal Abortion

Not Your Grandmother’s Illegal Abortion

By Jennifer Block
Book excerpt
July 1, 2019

The sola variety of papaya resembles a pregnant uterus, so much so that around the world, humans use the fruit to learn one method of modern reproductive health care: manual vacuum aspiration, or MVA, a low-risk, low-tech method of first-trimester abortion that requires little or no anesthesia. As one doctor remarked at a conference in 1973, where the technology was introduced to physicians from around the world, “it’s something we will be able to bring practically into the rice paddy.”

This, too, is the fruit I have been given to practice on. I’ve placed it on a table across from me, and I’m focused on the neck, where its stem grew, which evokes the cervical os. The tool I’m using is a large plastic syringe with a bendable plastic strawlike thing, called a cannula, where the needle would be. At the top of the syringe is a bivalve to create one-way suction.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2019/07/excerpt-from-everything-below-the-waist.html

How Bangladesh Made Abortion Safer

How Bangladesh Made Abortion Safer
The government’s effort to help Rohingya victims of wartime rape has lessons for the world.

By Patrick Adams
Dec. 28, 2018

No one knows how many Rohingya became pregnant as a result of rape by the Myanmar military. No one knows how many babies were born to survivors of sexual violence living among the 750,000 Rohingya in camps in Bangladesh.

The systematic sexual violence against the Rohingya reminded many in Bangladesh of their own painful history: During Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, the Pakistani military and local collaborators killed about 300,000 civilians and raped and tortured as many as 400,000 women and girls.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/opinion/rohingya-bangladesh-abortion.html

USA – “Whatever’s your darkest question, you can ask me.”

“Whatever’s your darkest question, you can ask me.”
A secret network of women is working outside the law and the medical establishment to provide safe, cheap home abortions.

March 28, 2018
By Lizzie Presser

On a winter morning, Anna* walked the aisles of an herbal-medicine store, picked up a bottle each of blue cohosh and black cohosh, along with a plastic bag of pennyroyal tea, and drove to the topless bar on the edge of town where she worked. There, she met Jules, another dancer. They performed on a small stage with crystal curtains, the green light of an ATM flashing on their left, until 9 p.m. The women, both in their 20s, then drove to the Motel 6 where Jules lived and entered her dim room on the second floor, which smelled of grape cigars. Anna pulled out the tinctures and tea and explained the plan. She was going to help Jules try to have an abortion.

Continued: https://story.californiasunday.com/abortion-providers

India: Discourse: Returning women their body

Discourse: Returning women their body

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | AMBER SINHA
Published Apr 16, 2017,

India was one of the 15 countries that passed a liberal abortion law in 1971.

The Supreme Court has recently intervened in cases where women have sought abortion because the foetus is deformed, triggering demands to allow women to determine the course of their pregnancies. India was one of the 15 countries that passed a liberal abortion law in 1971. Today, the government must bring it in line with international standards and reflect both medical advances and the rights of women over their own bodies.

Continued at link: Deccan Chronicle: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/op-ed/160417/discourse-returning-women-their-body.html

16.04.2017

Opinion

abortion law reform

Ipas Development Foundation

manual vacuum aspiration

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

MVA

World Health Organization

Malawi: Can incomplete abortion be treated more safely and less expensively?

Can incomplete abortion be treated more safely and less expensively?
March 22, 2017

Incomplete abortion is one of the main causes of obstetric complications in Malawi. Surgical management with curettage is the most common treatment, despite WHO’s recommendation to use manual vacuum aspiration (MVA). Researchers are looking to see whether training health personnel in MVA can increase the use of this method.

In Malawi today, abortion is generally illegal and punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment. Malawi is not alone, as access to abortions is limited in the majority of the world’s nations. In Malawi, abortion is permitted if the pregnancy poses a danger to the mother’s life. However, there is ongoing debate on expanding the law to allow for abortion in cases of rape and incest, if the pregnancy will cause severe psychological or physiological harm to the mother, or if the foetus is severely malformed. Nonetheless, due to conservative forces in Malawian society, general legalisation is not likely to be passed until far into the future.

Continued at source: Health Canal: https://www.healthcanal.com/pregnancy-childbirth/236217-can-incomplete-abortion-treated-safely-less-expensively.html