U.S.: Dr. George Tiller was assassinated eight years ago today

Dr. George Tiller was assassinated eight years ago today
By Warren M Hern
Wednesday May 31, 2017

On this morning eight years ago, while having breakfast, I got a phone call from a member of Dr. George Tiller’s family that he had been assassinated two hours before the call. I was devastated, and my family was terrified. George was a dear friend of mine, a medical colleague, my only peer in the work that I do, confidant, and one of the only persons in the world who shared my experience in performing late abortions for desperate women with desired pregnancies complicated by horrible fetal abnormalities. The news was a shock, a drop of bricks on my life, a terrible, painful loss, and a frightening reality — but it was not a surprise. Antiabortion fanatics had been threatening George’s life for decades — as they had mine.

Continued at source: Daily Kos: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/31/1667493/-Dr-George-Tiller-was-assassinated-eight-years-ago-today

31.05.2017

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anti-choice terrorism

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Dominican Republic: Senate faces golden opportunity to decriminalize abortion

Dominican Republic: Senate faces golden opportunity to decriminalize abortion
31 May 2017

Senators in the Dominican Republic must scrap one of the world’s most restrictive laws on abortion and begin to protect the rights of millions of women and girls, Amnesty International said ahead of a vote that could decriminalize abortion in certain circumstances.

“Senators in the Dominican Republic have a golden opportunity to protect the lives of millions of women and girls. They must seize the moment and scrap one of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws contained in a Criminal Code which dates back to the 19th century,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

Continued at source: Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/05/dominican-republic-senate-faces-golden-opportunity-to-decriminalize-abortion/

U.S.: Trump to Blow Up Obamacare’s Birth Control Benefit

Trump to Blow Up Obamacare’s Birth Control Benefit

May 31, 2017
Christine Grimaldi & Jessica Mason Pieklo

The draft interim final rule echoes Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s belief that “there’s not one” woman who can’t afford birth control.

Any business that provides employer-sponsored health insurance can soon claim a religious or moral objection to covering birth control, courtesy of the Trump administration.

That could leave more than 55 million cisgender women and an untold number of transgender and gender nonconforming people who rely on no-copay contraception under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) popular birth control benefit on the hook for the cost of the medication or a device—far beyond the cost of a co-pay.

Continued at source: Rewire: https://rewire.news/article/2017/05/31/trump-blow-up-obamacare-s-birth-control-benefit/

U.S.: How Anti-Abortion Zealots Pose as Medical Professionals to Trick Pregnant Women

How Anti-Abortion Zealots Pose as Medical Professionals to Trick Pregnant Women

Callie Beusman
May 30 2017

Anti-abortion groups are opening fake clinics near actual reproductive health care providers across the country in an attempt to shame and scare women into staying pregnant.

On an overcast Saturday morning in late May, several protesters had gathered outside of Hartford GYN Center, an abortion clinic in Connecticut. Many of them were clutching rosaries, and some bore signs decorated with images of beatific infants, with the implication that similar infants were in immediate danger of being murdered. They were, by their own description, facing down "the Evil One;" later in the day, a protester would tell me that an acquaintance of hers had once seen the devil himself crouched atop a different clinic and mistaken it for a gargoyle.

Continued at source: Broadly/VICE: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/how-anti-abortion-zealots-pose-as-medical-professionals-to-trick-pregnant-women

Malawi: Govt escalates draft abortion Bill

Govt escalates draft abortion Bill

James Chavula
May 30, 2017

Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has finally published the findings of the Special Law Commission on the Review of Abortion Laws.

Not only does it officially bring the proposed amendments of abortion laws to the attention of Cabinet and Parliament, it also escalates the July 2015 report which contains the draft Termination of Pregnancy Bill whose existence government denied when some Christians marched against liberalisation of colonial abortion laws last December.

According to assistant chief law reform officer Edda Chavula, the step puts the law reform firmly on the path to be deliberated by Cabinet.

Continued at source: Malawi Nation: http://mwnation.com/govt-escalates-draft-abortion-bill/

Australia: I’m not giving up my fight to decriminalise abortion in NSW

I'm not giving up my fight to decriminalise abortion in NSW

Mehreen Faruqi
May 30 2017

Earlier this month, the Upper House of NSW Parliament voted down a bill to take abortion offences out of the NSW Crimes Act of 1900.

Reactions from supporters of this reform have ranged from shock to anger and embarrassment. For many in the community, it was hard to believe that in the year 2017 a majority of the members of parliament refused to overturn an archaic, outdated law that criminalises women and doctors for a medical procedure.

Continued at source: Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/opinion/im-not-giving-up-my-fight-to-decriminalise-abortion-in-nsw-20170529-gwfkw0.html

30.05.2017

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Green MLC Mehreen Faruqi

El Salvador: What happens when abortion is illegal in all circumstances

What happens when abortion is illegal in all circumstances

Jeannette Urquilla
May 30, 2017

El Salvador has one of the worst records on reproductive rights in the world. Since 1998, Article 133 of the Penal Code has made abortion illegal in all circumstances, without exception, punishable by up to eight years in prison. Sentences of up to 30 years have been handed down when a judge determined that “homicide” rather than abortion had occurred. The Alliance for Women’s Health and Life has reported that 147 El Salvadorian women were charged with crimes relating to abortion between 2000 and 2014.

Because our laws are so draconian, so tilted in favor of the rights of fetuses over those of living women, pregnant women experiencing difficulties may not feel safe in El Salvador’s hospitals. We’ve all heard about Maria Teresa Rivera, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison after she miscarried. (She was released after serving four.) We are terrified of having medical problems during pregnancy as there is an underlying presumption of guilt. So women often suffer in silence, which causes further complications.

Continued at source: LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-urquilla-el-salvador-abortion-20170530-story.html

I’m an Ob/Gyn and I Never, Ever Want to Be Pregnant

I'm an Ob/Gyn and I Never, Ever Want to Be Pregnant
May 30, 2017
By Leah Torres, M.D.

No, thanks. That looks horrible.

Pregnancy is a miserable experience. At least that’s what some pregnant people tell me. Most of them are my patients. I'm an ob/gyn and a specialist in reproductive health, so I know quite a bit about why pregnancy is terrible. I, fortunately, have never had to suffer through being pregnant (thanks, Planned Parenthood!). Nope, I do not want to give birth. Ever.

The fact that there are people willing to vomit every morning for months on end, deal with hemorrhoids from weeks of constipation, and a myriad of other illness-esque experiences amazes me every time I see them for their prenatal visits.

Continued at source: Self.com: http://www.self.com/story/im-an-obgyn-and-i-never-ever-want-to-be-pregnant

30.05.2017

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Leah Torres

pregnancy complications

Australia: Griffith businesswoman Anne Napoli opposes Greens abortion reform as debate turns ugly

Griffith businesswoman Anne Napoli opposes Greens abortion reform as debate turns ugly

Oliver Jacques
29 May 2017

Prominent Griffith businesswoman Anne Napoli has spoken out against NSW Greens moves to soften the state's abortion laws.

Her comments come after Greens supporters hung NSW MPs' photos attached to coat hangers outside NSW parliament - photos of the 25 members who voted down a Greens abortion reform bill. .

Greens NSW MP Mehreen Faruqi said her bill was about decriminalising abortion.

Continued at source: The Area News: http://www.areanews.com.au/story/4692449/abortion-debate-turns-ugly/

29.05.2017

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Anne Napoli

Australian Medical Association

Canada: Scheer’s election as Conservative leader cheered by anti-abortion groups

Scheer’s election as Conservative leader cheered by anti-abortion groups
Groups say they sold as many as 18,000 party memberships hoping to affect the outcome of the leadership race and grow the social conservative wing of the party.

By Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau reporter
Mon., May 29, 2017

OTTAWA—The election of Andrew Scheer, an avowedly anti-abortion Conservative Party leader, has cheered and emboldened anti-abortion groups who say his victory shows the growing strength of the social conservative wing of the party.

“This is what happens when pro-lifers do politics right,” said Scott Hayward, co-founder of RightNow, on his Facebook page.

Continued at source: Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/05/29/scheers-election-as-conservative-leader-cheered-by-anti-abortion-groups.html

29.05.2017