Compounding Trauma: Indonesia’s Abortion Law

Compounding Trauma: Indonesia’s Abortion Law
“The abortion law in Indonesia makes it almost impossible to protect women.”

By Aisyah Llewellyn
August 14, 2018

In July 2018, the news broke that a 15-year-old Indonesian teenager in Jambi, Sumatra had been sentenced to six months in prison. Her crime: undergoing an abortion after she was raped by her own brother.

The case provoked widespread outrage, and sparked protests by women’s rights and child protection groups after the teenager was charged under the child protection law when a male fetus was found in a palm oil plantation close to her village.

Continued: https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/compounding-trauma-indonesias-abortion-law/


Filipinas buy, sell, rate abortions in online forum

Part 1 of 3: Filipinas buy, sell, rate abortions in online forum
In the Philippines, abortion is illegal and deeply stigmatized, leaving desperate women with no choice but to seek unsafe options online

By Natashya Gutierrez
August 13, 2018

MANILA, Philippines – It was a desperate cry for help.

On the evening of August 2, 2015, a woman with username "aifa2500" posted on an online forum in the Philippines. She had gotten an abortion a day prior, from a backstreet abortionist she referred to as "Miss Shine."

In broken English, she explained that she had gone for her procedure to abort her 6-month-old fetus. Upon arrival, she explained she was made to go to the toilet to pee, before being asked to remove her pants and underwear because “she's going to put the catheter to push the baby out.”

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/208267-online-forum-sells-abortions-in-the-philippines


Philippines: Group welcomes President Duterte’s vow for full Reproductive Health law implementation

07:50 PM July 25th, 2016

A GROUP that advances women’s rights welcomed President Duterte’s announcement on the full implementation of the Republic Act 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (RH Law).Atty. Clara Rita Padilla, executive director of the non-government organization EnGendeRights, in a statement said it is about time that the RH Law be fully implemented.

The President, in his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) announced that the RH Law must be implemented to curb the population growth and assist the poor in family planning.

“The implementation of the Reproductive Health Law must be put in full force and effect so that couples especially the poor will have freedom of informed choice on the number and spacing of children,” Duterte said.

The RH Law guarantees universal access to methods of contraception, fertility control, sexual education and maternal care.

“We really need the provisions of the RH Law to be implemented fully. We badly need the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) should implement a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum from elementary through college,” Padilla said.

She noted that one out of every 10 adolescent women aged 15-19 is already a mother and there are 25 new HIV cases a day while the unintended pregnancy is high with three in ten births unwanted or mistimed and only 38 percent of women aged 15-49 use modern contraceptives.

Due to high unintended pregnancy, she said “high incidence of rape with one woman raped every 71 minutes, unavailability of emergency contraception, lack of access to safe and legal abortion and even lack of access to humane, nonjudgmental, compassionate post-abortion care, we have three women dying every day from complications from unsafe abortion.”

“That’s why we are hopeful that under President Duterte’s administration, we will have access to the full range of comprehensive methods including emergency contraception, comprehensive sexuality education, and access to humane, nonjudgmental, and compassionate post-abortion care,” she added.

Source: Inquirer.net (Philippines)