Activists hope Colombia follows Argentina’s lead on reproductive rights

February 28, 2021
Ana Fadul

Bogotá, Colombia – Abortion is a polarizing topic in Colombia, where it is against the law in most cases, but the legalization of the procedure in another South American nation has women’s rights activists here also hoping for a change.

In late December, Argentinian lawmakers voted 38 to 29 to make abortion legal until the 14th week of pregnancy. It was the first Latin American nation to fully legalize abortion, leading advocates to hope the decision will create a wave throughout the continent.

Continued: https://youthjournalism.org/activists-hope-colombia-follows-argentinas-lead-on-reproductive-rights/

SCOTUS quietly banned the abortion pill from mail — the only mail-in medication barred during the pandemic

Julia Naftulin
Feb 27, 2021

Last month, the Supreme Court voted to ban the abortion pill, which is used to induce a miscarriage in people who are up to 11 weeks pregnant, from mail order during the pandemic.

The move makes the abortion pill the only prescription medication to have such restrictions.

Continued: https://www.insider.com/scotus-ban-abortion-pill-mail-omen-for-roe-v-wade-2021-2

UK – Will At-Home Abortions Be Available As Coronavirus Restrictions Ease?

Alice Broster
Feb 27, 2021

At the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, the UK government announced that early abortion care would be available at home, via telemedicine. The government is now debating whether to continue this as lockdown eases or go back to only administering abortions within a medical setting. Medical professionals from MSI Reproductive Choices UK and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service have argued for increased access to abortions as a matter of essential healthcare throughout the pandemic and research has found that at-home early medical abortions are no riskier and have cut down waiting periods which is essential when people are wanting to have a termination.

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicebroster/2021/02/27/will-at-home-abortions-be-available-as-coronavirus-restrictions-ease/?sh=686aaf192add

Europe’s underground abortion network

When terminations are banned in Poland, Polish women buy train tickets

Feb 27th 2021
The Economist

Wander around any Polish city and the same phone number pops up on an array of unlikely surfaces. It is scrawled on bus stops and billboards. It can be daubed on the side of a church. Head online and the same number (+48 222 922 597) appears in people’s usernames. Those who dial it are put through to Kobiety w Sieci (“Women on the Net”), a group that offers women information on how to get abortions. In a country where providing terminations is now, in effect, illegal, it is a useful number to have.

In October Poland’s constitutional court struck down a law allowing abortion in cases of fetal abnormality. Of the 1,000 or so legal abortions in Poland per year before the ban, nearly all were in this category. Now, abortion is limited to cases of rape or to save a mother’s life. This fulfils a long-held dream of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party to clamp down on abortions. Activists responded by turning cities into a gonzo Yellow Pages.

Continued: https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/02/27/europes-underground-abortion-network

Unsafe abortion causing maternal mortality in Punjab

Women face agonising barriers to accessing quality healthcare, consultation

Muhammad Shahzad
February 26, 2021

LAHORE: The recent incidents of deaths of women during abortion in Lahore need to be looked beyond the moral implications.

These women lost their lives not because of the suspicions over their character or their relations but due to the absence of the needed healthcare facilities.

Continued: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2286311/unsafe-abortion-causing-maternal-mortality-in-punjab

26.02.2021

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Malawi MPs debate bill to liberalise abortion laws as churches oppose

Law would widen strict rules in country where thousands suffer complications from unsafe terminations

Charles Pensulo in Lilongwe
Thu 25 Feb 2021

A bill to liberalise Malawi’s abortion laws will be debated by MPs on Thursday in the face of opposition from faith groups.

If passed, the termination of pregnancy bill would allow abortions when a woman’s mental or physical health is in danger, in cases of rape and incest, and when there are serious foetal abnormalities.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/25/malawi-mps-debate-bill-to-liberalise-abortion-laws-as-churches-oppose

Coalition of NGOs in Health want abortion laws

Thursday, 25 February 2021

The Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health want abortion laws of the country to be amended to ensure safe abortions for citizens.

National Vice Chairman of the Coalition, Ninsau Kwesi Darku-Alazar, in an interview with Nana Abena Serwaa on Morning Update on TV XYZ noted that most youth are likely to have bad experience with abortion because of the laws of the country.

Continued: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Coalition-of-NGOs-in-Health-want-abortion-laws-amended-1189576

25.02.2021

Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health

Health Facility Regulatory Agency

Nana Abena Serwaa

Ninsau Kwesi Darku-Alazar

‘It’s a Minefield’: Biden’s Pick For Health Secretary Faces Abortion Politics

February 24, 2021
NOAM LEVEY, RACHEL BLUTH

As President Joe Biden works to overhaul U.S. health care policy, few challenges will loom larger for his health secretary than restoring access to family planning while parrying legal challenges to abortion proliferating across the country.

Physicians, clinics and women's health advocates are looking to Xavier Becerra, Biden's nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, to help swiftly unwind Trump-era funding cuts and rules that have decimated the nation's network of reproductive health providers over the past four years.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/23/970756510/-it-s-a-minefield-bidens-pick-for-health-secretary-must-navigate-abortion-politi

Healthcare providers in Kenya cautiously welcome removal of Global Gag rule

23 February 2021
Sarah Kimani, SABCNews

Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare providers in Kenya have cautiously welcomed the removal of the Global Gag rule, an American policy that prohibits foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who receive US global health assistance from facilitating or promoting abortion.

Also known as the Mexican City policy and first adopted by the then President Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1984, it has been repealed by every Democratic administration and reinstated by every Republican one since then.

Continued: https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/healthcare-providers-in-kenya-cautiously-welcome-removal-of-global-gag-rule/

23.02.2021

Planned Parenthood Global

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

Fukuoka man accused of tricking pregnant girlfriend into taking abortion drug

February 23, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)

FUKUOKA -- A man in this west Japan city who allegedly gave his teenage girlfriend abortion medication to try to induce a termination was arrested on Feb. 22, police said.

Jin Mimae, a 21-year-old company employee from the city of Fukuoka's Nishi Ward, was arrested by Fukuoka Prefectural Police's Nishi Police Station on suspicion of attempted abortion without consent. He has reportedly admitted to the allegations, and told police, "I didn't want to marry her."

Continued: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210223/p2a/00m/0na/002000c

23.02.2021

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