Call for abortion protest ‘exclusion zones’ in Northern Ireland

By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI Political Reporter
March 31, 2021

Exclusion zones should be introduced outside sexual health clinics and pregnancy counselling centres in NI to protect staff and women accessing services, a report has said.

Protests and demonstrations would not be allowed within the zones.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-56578466


India – Set up board to look into plea on abortion, says HC

STAFF REPORTER, NEW DELHI
MARCH 31, 2021

The Delhi High Court has directed the All India Institute Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to constitute a medical board to examine a woman who wanted medical termination of her 24-week pregnancy as her foetus is suffering from facial haemorrhage and hydrocephalus.

Justice Navin Chawla asked the Medical Superintendent of AIIMS here to appoint a Board of Doctors to examine the woman and give a report on the advisability of her undergoing medical termination of pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/set-up-board-to-look-into-plea-on-abortion-says-hc/article34201637.ece


‘Roe v. Wade’ Review: Dreadful Anti-Abortion Drama Has No Use for Facts or Filmmaking Basics

Cathy Allyn and Nick Loeb spew lies about 1973's landmark abortion-rights Supreme Court ruling via inept filmmaking and an amateurish cast.

Mar 31, 2021
by Tomris Laffly

To seriously consider “Roe v. Wade” — that is, writer-directors Cathy Allyn and Nick Loeb’s atrocious anti-abortion propaganda piece and not the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in favor of abortion rights — it is helpful to remember a 2017 quote by journalist Chuck Todd. “Alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods,” Todd succinctly said when confronting Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway on her use of the term. While the Trump era that Conway’s expression sums up is behind us, “Roe v. Wade” has reportedly been in the works for the past three years, so it’s fair to reflect on the baffling film as a product of that period, when right-wing fabrications were routinely presented as truth.

Continued: https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/roe-v-wade-review-1234939966/


USA – The Best Way to Protect Abortion Rights Right Now Is to End a Racist, Classist Federal Budget Amendment

But will Biden do it?

MARCH 31, 2021
BECCA ANDREWS

Abortion advocates are finally on the offensive. Having barely made it through the last four years with Roe intact, the groups battling to protect the right to abortion can now, in theory, help set the agenda for their pro-choice president. And they are putting much of their energy into a single demand: End the ban on using federal funds for abortion care.

That ban, known as the Hyde Amendment, was passed by Congress in 1976 as an amendment to the federal budget. Thanks to Hyde, Medicaid health insurance can’t cover abortions—except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment—forcing low-income women to pay for abortions out of pocket. The amendment was the first major blow to abortion rights after Roe because it essentially cut off access to those who had always struggled to get care before the procedure was legalized.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/abortion-hyde-amendment-medicaid-biden-pro-choice/


Poland: Escalating Threats to Women Activists

Human Rights Watch
March 31, 2021

(Berlin) – Bomb and death threats targeting at least seven groups in Poland for supporting women’s rights and the right to abortion are disturbing reminders of escalating risks to women’s human rights defenders in the country, Human Rights Watch, CIVICUS, and International Planned Parenthood Federation-European Network (IPPF-EN) said today.

The authorities should urgently investigate, protect the women targeted and hold those responsible for the threats accountable. Polish officials should also counter abusive misinformation campaigns targeting activists.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/31/poland-escalating-threats-women-activists


LIVE on April 7: The other health crisis—breaking the taboo on abortion

The webinar will be live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch

Written by Melissa Vida
Posted 31 March 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is not the only health hazard affecting people—there's one that's way more persistent. This World Health Day, let's break the taboo topics of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions.

It is no small feat—in places where it is illegal to terminate a pregnancy, unsafe abortions cause about 30,000 deaths each year, and numerous health complications.

Continued: https://globalvoices.org/2021/03/31/live-on-april-7-the-other-health-crisis-breaking-the-taboo-on-abortion/


Abortion Access Challenges during the Pandemic Highlight Need for EACH Act

March 30, 2021
Anna Berstein

One year into the pandemic, ensuring access to abortion is more critical than ever. Being able to decide whether and when to give birth has always been central to women’s economic security, and is of particular importance now: women—especially women of color—are bearing the brunt of the job loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, because of restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion, abortion services are already inaccessible for many low-income women, including many women insured by Medicaid. The Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, reintroduced in Congress March 25 by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), would take a crucial step in making affordable abortion care a reality for these women.

Continued: https://tcf.org/content/commentary/abortion-access-challenges-pandemic-highlight-need-act/?agreed=1


Lesotho- ‘Let the people decide’

3/30/2021

(MENAFN - The Post) MASERU -BASOTHO will soon have their say on a proposed law that seeks to legalise abortion.

This, after MPs managed to make some headway in their negotiations with a group of church leaders who have been vehemently opposed to the legalisation of abortion.

Continued: https://menafn.com/1101833739/Lesotho-Let-the-people-decide&source=22


In Kenya, abortion focus obscures legislation towards safe reproductive healthcare services

Tagged “the abortion bill”, the Reproductive Healthcare bill of 2019 is, in fact a comprehensive document

Written by Laila Le Guen
Posted 30 March 2021

Reproductive rights in Kenya is an intimate and emotive topic where hard lines have been drawn on both sides. Pro- and anti-abortion campaigners keep cycling through episodes of heightened attention when high-profile cases arise and passions continue to run high. Meanwhile, the country registers numbers of unsafe abortions that are among the highest in Africa. Maternal mortality is high at about 6,000 deaths per year, 17 per cent of them from complications of unsafe abortion.

Limited legal recourse to access termination of pregnancy is a potential compromise that remains contested, leaving the two camps with a status quo that seems hard to shake off. What's at stake on both ends of this fiercely debated issue?

Continued: https://globalvoices.org/2021/03/30/in-kenya-abortion-campaigners-obscure-legislation-towards-safe-reproductive-healthcare-services/


US Catholics funded Malawi opponents of legal abortion in cases of rape

After condemning abortion reform as an imposition of “foreign cultures”, a religious group in Malawi took thousands of dollars in foreign cash

Josephine Chinele
30 March 2021

A Catholic group in Malawi used money from the US to support its campaign against a bill to allow legal abortion in cases of rape – after condemning proposed reforms as an imposition of “foreign cultures”.

The Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), a local assembly of Catholic bishops, received a $30,000 grant from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2019 for “pastoral animation and advocacy of members of parliament and the laity in political leadership”.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/us-catholics-funded-malawi-opponents-legal-abortion-cases-rape/