Nigeria – Don wants end to unsafe abortions

11th April 2024
By Ademola Adegbite

A professor of Demography at the Department of Demography and Social Statistics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Akanni Akinyemi, has called on traditional rulers and religious leaders to collaborate and save young girls from unnecessary death.

He gave this advice in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, in an interview with The PUNCH correspondent, on the sideline of the National Forum on Unintended Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria, organised by the Partnership for Advancing Abortion Research and Reducing Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria.

Continued: https://punchng.com/don-wants-end-to-unsafe-abortions/

11.04.2024

National Forum on Unintended Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion

Partnership for Advancing Abortion Research and Reducing Unsafe Abortion

Population Association of Nigeria

FIGO at 70: Our journey towards improving sexual and reproductive rights with the Advocating for Safe Abortion Project

As FIGO celebrates its 70th anniversary, we mark the vital role the Advocating for Safe Abortion (ASA) Project has had in improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights of people in lower income and lower middle-income countries. Here we reflect on the project's evolution, successes and enduring legacy.

11 April 2024
Jessica Morris

Building on strong foundations
The ASA Project launched in 2019 expanding on the work of the 2007 Prevention of Unsafe Abortion Initiative. A testament to FIGO's continuous commitment to sexual and reproductive rights, the project has become a vital piece of FIGO's efforts to address critical issues surrounding access to safe abortion. The ASA Project’s work focuses on implementing a dual pillar approach which supports societies to become stronger institutions and national leaders of SRHR, as well as implementing multi-pronged strategies to improve access to safe abortion.

Our work with national member societies – driven advocates, catalysing change
Through partnership with 12 national member societies in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, The ASA Project has emphasised the need for intersection of medical expertise and rights-based advocacy in diverse contexts.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/blog/figo-70-our-journey-towards-improving-sexual-and-reproductive-rights-advocating-safe-abortion

‘Forced Motherhood’: Honduras Reported To UN For Abortion Ban

By AFP - Agence France Presse
April 10, 2024

An Indigenous woman has reported her country, Honduras, to the UN Human Rights Committee for denying her an abortion after she was raped, rights groups said Wednesday.

It is the first time the Central American country has been brought before the UN for its absolute abortion ban which has meant "forced motherhood" for countless women and girls, said the Center for Reproductive Rights, an NGO supporting the case brought by the woman identified only as Fausia.

Continued: https://www.barrons.com/news/forced-motherhood-honduras-reported-to-un-for-abortion-ban-b3817b30

10.04.2024

UN Human Rights Committee

Europe – My Voice, My Choice: For Safe And Accessible Abortion

10/04/2024
European Union
Commission registration number: ECI(2024)000004

Objectives
The “My Voice, My Choice” campaign offers the people of Europe the chance to make women's lives freer, safer, and better; wherever they live in our union, whatever conditions they may find themselves in.

The lack of access to abortion in many parts of Europe not only puts women at risk of physical harm but also puts undue economic and mental stress on women and families, often on the margins of society that can afford it the least.

…To change this we are asking the European Commission to - in the spirit of solidarity - submit a proposal for financial support to Member States that would be able to perform safe termination of pregnancies for anyone in Europe who still lacks access to safe and legal abortion.

Continued: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000004_en

10.04.2024

European Citizens' Initiative on abortion

European Commission

European Union

My Voice My Choice campaign

South Africa – Eastern Cape gets SA’s first contraception and HIV kit vending machine

The first-of-its-kind vending machine stocks contraceptives, HIV kits, pregnancy tests, as well as sanitary towels.

By Cornelia Le Roux
10 Apr 2024

The Health Department will be handing over a self-care wellness vending machine in the Eastern Cape at Mthatha Ultra City on Wednesday.

...According to National Health Department spokesperson, Foster Mohale, the vending machine is the first of its kind in South Africa. "This initiative is targeting girls and women of childbearing to increase access to sexual reproductive health and HIV prevention services,” Mohale explained.

Continued: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/eastern-cape-contraception-hiv-kits-vending-machine-helth-department-latest/

10.04.2024

News

contraception vending machine

Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo

Foster Mohale

Nomakhosazana Meth

Sizwe Kupelo

South African Society of Psychiatrists

Florida’s strict laws make Latin America a potential destination to get an abortion

WLRN 91.3 FM | By Helen Acevedo, Sergio R. Bustos
April 9, 2024

With the Florida Supreme Court upholding the state’s new stricter abortion ban, pregnant women in Florida — especially those in South Florida — may soon head to countries in Latin America, where several countries have legalized the procedure, a reproductive health expert told WLRN on Friday.

“We have something unique because we do have a population in South Florida that has a Latin American connection and that has cultural roots, family members and the language,” said Daniela Martins. “So it is very likely that we will see folks that do have that connection with Latin America now start to travel to Colombia, Mexico or Argentina for an abortion.”

Continued: https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-04-09/florida-strict-laws-six-week-ban-latin-america-potential-destination-get-abortion

Recognising the huge gains for all from liberating girls and women

BMJ 2024; 385 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q828
Published 09 April 2024
Richard Smith, chair

Winston Churchill famously said that “there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies”—but perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps the baby might be the eighth child of an exhausted mother who began having children in her teens, or the baby might grow up to become a mother as a teenager and die in childbirth or from an unsafe abortion. Lois Quam, author of the recently published Who Runs the World: Unlocking the Talent and Inventiveness of Women Everywhere, might disagree with Churchill and make a case for investing in women and girls. There is strong evidence that such investment will “bolster good governance, economic growth, community health, and peace and stability.”

We live in an age of “polycrisis”—climate change, environmental destruction, war and impending greater wars, poverty, gross inequality, hunger, and forced migration. A polycrisis, argues Quam, needs a “multifix” and the best one will be to set free the talent, energy, and new ideas of women—half of humanity, who at the moment are largely constrained by lack of education and opportunity, and reproductive burdens.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/385/bmj.q828

09.04.2024

Pathfinder International

Richard Smith

Tabinda Sarosh

Who Runs the World: Unlocking the Talent and Inventiveness of Women Everywhere

USA – How a network of abortion pill providers works together in the wake of new threats

Groups such as Aid Access, Hey Jane and Just the Pill stay in close contact to help women seeking abortions in states with bans.

April 7, 2024
By Abigail Brooks and Dasha Burns

When the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in March about restricting access to the abortion drug mifepristone, Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director of Plan C, was ready. Plan C, an information resource that connects women to abortion pill providers, almost immediately saw a spike in searches for the medication.

With Florida’s Supreme Court paving the way for the state’s six-week abortion ban, Wells says she’s expecting even more search activity and more creative thinking from providers.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/network-abortion-pill-providers-works-together-wake-new-threats-rcna146678

A Necessary Kindness by Juno Carey review – demystifying abortion: an insider’s account of its long and painful history

Eight years working in abortion provision led the author to make this frank and moving case for safeguarding reproductive freedoms – and ending the culture of secrecy and guilt

Barbara Ellen
Sun 7 Apr 2024

It isn’t long into reading Juno Carey’s book that you realise it also serves as a meditation on women and shame. A former NHS midwife who moved into abortion provision (first in clinics then on aftercare helplines), Carey (not her real name) was asked how she could do both, but in her view: “The gap between helping women deliver babies and helping them terminate unwanted pregnancies no longer seems wide to me.” As the title says, it is “a necessary kindness”, another way of aiding pregnant women. While acknowledging the complexities, Carey seeks to demystify abortion – the fact of it, the need for it, the processes of it – to rid it of the long, painful history of judgment, blame and misogynistic juju, and stress its rightful function in a civilised society. Abortion, she asserts, is healthcare.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/07/a-necessary-kindness-by-juno-carey-review-stories-from-frontline-of-abortion-care

07.04.2024

Uganda – UNFPA-Dutch’s ANSWER Programme empowers millions in sexual reproductive health in West Nile, Acholi

NELSON MANDELA | PML Daily Reporter
April 4, 2024

KAMPALA – Over 2.8 million people including young (10-19 years), women of reproductive age (15-49 years), sexually active men, refugees, survivors of gender-based violence and persons living with disability in West Nile and Acholi have been empowered in sexual reproductive health, courtesy of Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ANSWER) Programme.

The four-year programme by the United Nations Population Fund – UNFPA Uganda with funding from The Embassy of the Netherlands in Uganda was aimed to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health, realize reproductive rights, and reduce maternal mortality to improve the lives of women, adolescents and youth, enabled by population dynamics, human rights and gender equality.

Continued: https://www.pmldaily.com/news/2024/04/unfpa-dutchs-answer-programme-empowers-millions-in-sexual-reproductive-health-in-west-nile-acholi.html

04.04.2024