The Terrifying Global Reach of the American Anti-Abortion Movement

Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They’ve been busy imposing their will on other countries, too—with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women.

Jodi Enda
March 18, 2024

Because Editar Ochieng knew the three young men, she didn’t think twice when they beckoned her into a house in an isolated area near the Nairobi River. One was like a brother; the other two were her neighbors in the sprawling Kenyan slum of Kibera.

Ochieng did not know the woman who performed her abortion. She and a friend scoured Nairobi until they found her, an untrained practitioner who worked in the secrecy of her home and charged a fraction of what a medical professional would. Mostly, what Ochieng remembers is the agony when this stranger inserted something into her vagina and “pierced” her womb. “It was really very painful. Really, really, really painful,” she told me. Afterward, Ochieng said, she cut up her mattress to use in place of sanitary pads, which she could not afford. She was 16 years old.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/179485/american-anti-abortion-movement-terrifying-global-reach


Applying global lessons to protect abortion access in the United States

Strategies used in other countries, such as state referendums and strategic litigation, can help restore and protect abortion access in the United States, argue Terry McGovern and colleagues.

BMJ 2024; 384
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073833
Published 03 January 2024

Terry McGovern, Mary Favier, Laura Gil, Bonsitu Kitaba-Gaviglio, Clarisa Bencomo, Ira Memaj, Samantha Garbers, Malia Maier

Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, eliminating the federal constitutional right to an abortion, the introduction of state laws and policies has made the legal and healthcare landscape more challenging. Twenty states have banned or severely restricted abortion care,1 and recent legislation is restricting access to abortion medication as well as abortion services, with Wyoming becoming the first state explicitly to ban the use of abortion medication.2

In response, US abortion rights advocates have pushed to extend federal protections and the federal government has taken important steps to expand and protect access to medication abortion. These efforts have focused on strengthening executive branch rules and guidance because the lack of a pro-abortion majority in Congress prevents legislation being passed to protect abortion. In January 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration eliminated a requirement that mifepristone, the most common form of medication abortion, be dispensed in person.3 In December 2022, the Department of Justice ruled that it was legal to post mifepristone or misoprostol, another drug often used in medication abortion, to anyone seeking an abortion.4 While these efforts are critical, federal level mitigation strategies alone are insufficient to preserve and expand abortion access and are vulnerable to legal challenges, especially if an anti-abortion administration is elected in 2024.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2022-073833


Overturning Roe v Wade would be an unprecedented attack on the bodily autonomy of women, girls, and pregnant people

BMJ 2022; 377 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o1019 (Published 21 April 2022)
Terry McGovern, Harriet and Robert H. Heilbrunn professor and chair

Any erosion of Roe v Wade will have devastating health outcomes that are likely to widen existing healthcare inequalities, says Terry McGovern

This year Americans’ right to access abortion hangs in the balance, but the scales seem tipped against it. The statements put forward by the majority of the US Supreme Court in the Dobbs v Mississippi case, a direct challenge to Roe v Wade, indicate that they are likely to overturn or seriously curtail this almost 50 years’ old legal precedent. In anticipation of this ruling, Oklahoma passed a near total ban of abortion earlier this month, making it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $100 000. Despite the US having majority public support for preserving the rights of pregnant people to seek an abortion,1 the Supreme Court looks likely to revoke this constitutional right in June. Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj.o1019


Take it from an Irish woman: if US abortion rights keep slipping, dark days are coming

In 2018, Ireland finally voted to legalize terminations. Before that condoms, divorce and abortion were illegal and shameful

Maeve Higgins
Tue 2 Nov 2021

I am a woman in America who can bear children, and this means that there are powerful people coming for me, with detailed and strategic plans to control my body. Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? It is dramatic, more so because it’s a straight-up fact. In 2021, state legislatures enacted more abortion restrictions than in any previous year, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy body dedicated to advancing reproductive rights. Last month’s decision by the supreme court to refuse to block a Texas law all but banning abortion signals that the court could well be on the way to overturn Roe v Wade, and soon.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/02/take-it-from-an-irish-woman-if-us-abortion-rights-keep-slipping-dark-days-are-coming


US anti-abortion “gag rule” hits women hard: what we found in Kenya and Madagascar

February 4, 2021
Sara E Casey, Emily A Maistrellis, Terry McGovern

US President Joe Biden has reversed a Trump administration policy that prohibited US funding for nongovernmental groups that provide or refer patients for abortions.

The Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, was enacted in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Since its introduction, the policy has been instated by each Republican president and rescinded by each Democrat president.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/us-anti-abortion-gag-rule-hits-women-hard-what-we-found-in-kenya-and-madagascar-154434


Trump’s anti-abortion limits on foreign aid could have a lasting impact around the world

Joe Biden has pledged to reverse the anti-abortion restrictions on foreign aid. But many changes made in response to the ‘global gag rule’ already may be permanent.

Nov 11, 2020
Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News 

In Ethiopia, health clinics for teenagers once supported by U.S. foreign aid closed down.

In Kenya, a decades-long effort to integrate HIV testing and family planning unraveled.

In Nepal, government workers who once traversed the Himalayas to spread information about reproductive health were halted.

Continued: https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2020/11/11/21559459/abortion-global-gag-rule-trump


African countries are trying to liberalize their abortion laws. Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ is making that difficult.

African countries are trying to liberalize their abortion laws. Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ is making that difficult.
Activists say the policy has forced some countries to take a step backward

Abigail Higgins
March 5, 2020

In 2016, churches in the small southeastern African country of Malawi did something surprising: They backed a law to expand abortion access.

At the time, Reverend Alex Benson Maulana, chair of the Malawi Council of Churches (MCC), said that abortion was still a sin. But Malawi was also facing a crisis: In a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, 18 percent of those deaths were due to unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/african-countries-are-trying-to-liberalize-their-abortion-laws-trumps-global-gag-rule-is-making-that-difficult/