How the grisly discovery of a ‘foetus mortuary’ re-shaped Thailand’s abortion laws

Years after the country’s abortion legislation shifted, entrenched attitudes still obstruct access in the Buddhist country

Sarah Newey, and Pear Maneechote
15 March 2024

The stench revealed the grisly secret. Wafting through the temple in southern Bangkok, the terrible smell led to the mortuary – and the grim discovery of more than 2,000 foetuses, wrapped in plastic bags and at various stages of decomposition.

The hidden remains were awaiting cremation, the final stage in an underground abortion network in Thailand’s capital. But a broken furnace disrupted the process for months, possibly longer, until the smell grew so potent it was impossible to hide.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/abortion-laws-buddhist-monks-foetus-mortuary-thailand-asia/


USA – Planned Parenthood affiliates train abortion doulas to reduce stress for patients

BY: SOFIA RESNICK
MARCH 15, 2024

A 39-year-old single mother of two got up extra early on a recent Wednesday morning, hoping to be one of the first outside the Planned Parenthood clinic near Phoenix, Arizona.

The upside of not telling anyone about her abortion was that she wasn’t going to have to explain herself. The downside was that she couldn’t receive any pain medication, since she’d have to drive herself home. After scraping together $770 to pay for the procedure — $250 of which she said came from an abortion fund — she couldn’t afford an Uber for the 80-minute round trip. So she was overcome with relief when not only did the busy clinic not turn her away, but a retired nurse named Mary Cross offered to be her abortion doula, free of charge.

Continued: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/03/15/planned-parenthood-affiliates-train-abortion-doulas-to-reduce-stress-for-patients/


Australia – Victorian doctor suspended amid investigation into woman’s death after abortion

Women’s health clinic boss claims ‘witch hunt’ after Dr Rudolph Lopes suspended in weeks following 30-year-old’s death

Australian Associated Press
Fri 15 Mar 2024

A doctor working at a women’s health clinic in Melbourne has been suspended as a regulator revealed it was aware of concerns about other practitioners there. The facility’s boss claims it is a “witch hunt”.

It follows the death of 30-year-old mother Harjit Kaur, who died in January at the Hampton Park Women’s Clinic after what was described as a “minor procedure”.

It was later identified as a pregnancy termination.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/15/victorian-doctor-suspended-amid-investigation-into-womans-death-after-abortion


Kamala Harris puts abortion front and center with visit to Minnesota clinic

Vice-president toured Planned Parenthood facility signaling issue will be key in election

Carter Sherman
Thu 14 Mar 2024

Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on Thursday, becoming what is believed to be the first vice-president ever to do so.

Harris stopped by a clinic in Minnesota, a state where abortion remains legal following the overturning of Roe v Wade, as part of her nationwide tour to highlight the impact of Roe’s downfall. Harris also toured the clinic, which remained open to patients as the nation’s first female vice-president made her historic visit.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/14/kamala-harris-visits-abortion-clinic-minnesota


UK – ‘I’m not judging you’ – midwife Juno Carey on what it’s like to work in an abortion clinic

She’s looked after teenagers, rape survivors and trafficked sex workers – and assisted at terminations while she’s been pregnant herself. Still, she wouldn’t change her job for anything.

Zoe Williams
Thu 14 Mar 2024

Juno Carey, a pseudonym, is a midwife practitioner who has worked in an abortion clinic in the UK for the last eight years. She lives with her wife and their three children – the baby’s at home when I meet her, along with Carey’s sister, who’s looking after him. Carey is tidy and serene, the woman you’d single out in a playground if you needed a tissue, or a hairbrush, or some nice word on a bad day.

She has written a book about abortion that is not at all serene, but deeply knowledgable, full of conviction and not even trying to keep the peace. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book so plain in its thinking and descriptions – of the women and their situations, of what abortion care looks like and the dilemmas, sensitivities and practicalities in a terrain that is discussed so much by those who oppose it, and shrouded in silence by those who support it. I wouldn’t say Carey’s tone was ever celebratory, but what often comes over in her anonymised stories is the sheer blissful relief of no longer having to be pregnant when you didn’t want to be, and the tight bond of gratitude that exists between patients and medics. We probably don’t talk about that enough.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/14/juno-carey-midwife-abortions-terminations-rape-survivors-sex-workers


Idahoans in rural Sandpoint reflect on a year without labor and delivery services

March 11, 2024
By Amanda Sullender

Lauren Sanders could not give birth in her hometown of Sandpoint. With the closure of the local hospitals’ labor and delivery services a year earlier, she had to drive over an hour to Coeur d’Alene to give birth to her son, now 4 months old.

“I was privileged to be able to drive that way for all my appointments and my birth. I was privileged to have the perfect pregnancy with no complications. I’m lucky ’cause that is who the laws of Idaho work for – people with perfect pregnancies,” Sanders said at a rally outside of Bonner General Hospital on Friday. “That is not the case for most people who give birth. Pregnancies are not supposed to be perfect.”

Continued: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/mar/11/amid-pro-abortion-protest-idahoans-in-rural-sandpo/


IWD: Prioritize Women’s Lives, Reinstate Safe Termination Guidelines- Group Tells Govt

By Titilope Joseph
On Mar 6, 2024

In commemoration of the International Women’s day, the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), a non-governmental Organization on Wednesday led  over 500 women groups and communities on a Walk to demand the reinstatement of the repealed Lagos State Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancies.

WARDC and  Over 500 women from various groups, communities and religious backgrounds made the demand during a peaceful walk that  was held On March , 2024 in Ikeja, Lagos.

Continued: https://independent.ng/iwd-prioritize-womens-lives-reinstate-safe-termination-guidelines-group-tells-govt/


What can a Sask. doctor who objects to an abortion tell a patient?

The oversight body for doctors in Saskatchewan alleges Dr. Terence Davids crossed the line with comments he made in December 2023.

Brandon Harder
Mar 06, 2024 

In areas where medicine intersects with personal values, where is the line when it comes to what a physician can say to a patient?

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan (CPSS), the professional body that licences and oversees doctors in the province, recently alleged that one doctor crossed the line.

Continued: https://leaderpost.com/news/what-can-a-sask-doctor-who-objects-to-an-abortion-tell-a-patient


USA – Why Hospitals in Many States With Legal Abortion May Refuse To Perform Them

By Rachana Pradhan
MARCH 5, 2024

Many states that tout themselves as protectors of reproductive health care, including California, Michigan and Pennsylvania, have little-noticed laws on the books protecting hospitals that refuse to provide it.

The laws shield at least some hospitals from liability for not providing care they object to on religious grounds, leaving little recourse for patients. The providers — many of them Catholic hospitals — generally refuse to perform abortions and sterilizations because the services run contrary to their religious beliefs, but their objections can extend to other kinds of care.

Continued: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/health-202-catholic-hospitals-legal-abortion-refusal/


A crucial abortion access lifeline is hanging by a thread

Independent clinics across the US exist precariously in a post-Roe world. Bronx Abortion's sudden closure left a borough of 1.4 million in the lurch.

Trisha Mukherjee
Mar 3, 2024

Around dawn on any given Saturday morning in 2022, the sidewalk in front of the squat building that housed Bronx Abortion transformed into a tense ecosystem of people with signs, masks, rosaries, and colorful vests.

Anti-abortion protestors gathered outside the small, independent clinic in Morris Park to disrupt the women who sought its services. Chelsea, the clinic escort coordinator, would wake up at 4:15 to get to the clinic before it opened. By the time she arrived, the protestors usually had, too.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/independent-abortion-clinic-crucial-endangered-bronx-abortion-2024-3