Why South Carolina’s first female sheriff is calling the state’s antiabortion bill ‘absolute insanity’

A provision exempting rape and incest survivors will actually do more to harm them, experts say

Anne Branigin, The Lily
Jan. 30, 2021

Mere weeks into her tenure, South Carolina’s first elected female sheriff, Kristin Graziano, has made clear that she is not one to back down from a fight. Especially not against the state’s male-dominated legislature.

On Wednesday night, Graziano, who is also South Carolina’s first openly gay sheriff, publicly challenged a new amendment to an abortion bill widely expected to pass the state legislature and be signed into law in the next few weeks. The amendment would outlaw most abortions, but provides an exception for survivors of rape and incest. In these cases, however, health-care providers would be required to report the name of the victim to police.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/why-south-carolinas-first-female-sheriff-is-calling-the-states-antiabortion-bill-absolute-insanity/

Poland’s regressive abortion law hits vulnerable women hardest

Posted on 17th November 2020
by Basia Jankowiak

The 22nd of October was one of the worst days for Polish women in 2020. It was decided by Poland’s top court that the law allowing abortion of foetuses with congenital defects is unconstitutional. The decision was backed by the leading party in the Polish government – PiS along with far-right party Konfederacja. The majority of the court’s judges were nominated by PiS, signalling the political nature of the court’s decision.

The abortion law in Poland is one of the strictest in the whole of Europe. Before the 22nd of October, Polish women were able to have an abortion in cases of rape or incest, if the mother’s health was at risk, or if the foetus has congenital defects.

Continued: https://www.thegryphon.co.uk/2020/11/17/polands-regressive-abortion-law-hits-vulnerable-women-hardest/

17.11.2020

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GABON – Therapeutic abortion legalised in Gabon, especially for girls, but criminal sanctions retained

GABON – Therapeutic abortion legalised in Gabon, especially for girls, but criminal sanctions retained

International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Nov 12, 2019

This is a summary of a report, in French, by Gabon Media Time. As part of reforms in the Penal Code, Law No. 042/2018 of 5 July 2019 in the Penal Code says that voluntary interruption of pregnancy is authorised in Gabon on the following grounds: “when it has been proved that the fetus will be born with serious or incurable physical malformations, when the pregnancy seriously compromises the mother’s life, or when the conception has taken place as a result rape or incest, or where a minor is in a state of serious distress”. The state of serious distress can be likened here to the incapacity or the impossibility for the minor to take care of her pregnancy and the child.

The legislation insists on the therapeutic character of the abortion, as provided by Article 378, and must be done “within a period of ten weeks, by a doctor and in a hospital”.

Illegal abortion “is punishable by imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of 1,000,000 plus, or both, and if the woman has obtained an abortion for herself or has attempted to obtain it or has consented to the use of any means provided or administered for this purpose”.

The article concludes: “While welcoming the will of the Parliament to legalise abortion under certain conditions, the fact remains that the provisions of the third paragraph of Article 377, paragraph 2, create a breach of equality between minors and adult women. It grants the right to abortion to girls who are in a “state of serious distress” but not to women.

SOURCE: Gabon Media Time, by Pharel Boukika, 5 November 2019 (en français) ; PHOTO: UNFPA, 2 July 2018

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Source: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/gabon-therapeutic-abortion-legalised-in-gabon/

12.11.2019

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Alabama Senate passes nation’s most restrictive abortion ban, which makes no exceptions for victims of rape and incest

Alabama Senate passes nation’s most restrictive abortion ban, which makes no exceptions for victims of rape and incest

By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux and Chip Brownlee
May 14, 2019

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban virtually all abortions in the state — including for victims of rape and incest — sending the strictest law in the nation to the state’s Republican governor, who is expected to sign it.

The measure permits abortion only when necessary to save a mother’s life, an unyielding standard that runs afoul of federal court rulings. Those who backed the new law said they don’t expect it to take effect, instead intending its passage to be part of a broader strategy by antiabortion activists to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/alabama-senate-passes-nations-most-restrictive-abortion-law-which-makes-no-exceptions-for-victims-of-rape-and-incest/2019/05/14/e3022376-7665-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html

USA – States Flout Abortion Coverage Requirements, Federal Investigators Say

States Flout Abortion Coverage Requirements, Federal Investigators Say

By Robert Pear
Feb. 17, 2019

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials are not enforcing requirements for Medicaid coverage of abortion in the limited circumstances where it is legal, congressional investigators have found.

At least 13 states are flouting a requirement to cover abortion-inducing pills, and one state, South Dakota, has for 25 years failed to provide the required coverage for abortion in cases of rape or incest, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said in a report made public this month.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/us/politics/states-abortion-coverage-medicaid.html