Why the American abortion debate is affecting access in Kenya

Oct 31, 2024
By Neha Wadekar, Joe Mwihia, Job Wander, Associated Press
Video: 8:42 minutes (with transcript)

Abortion is a closely watched issue in this year's election, and not just in the U.S. As president, Trump cut funding for international groups that offer and counsel on abortion services. With support from The Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Neha Wadekar reports from Kenya where advocates are watching for who wins. A warning, this story contains accounts of sexual and gender-based violence.

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-american-abortion-debate-is-affecting-access-in-kenya

UK – Man poisoned pregnant woman with abortion drugs

Oct 30, 2024
Clare Worden, BBC News

A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a pregnant woman and giving her medication to cause a miscarriage. Stuart Worby administered the drugs in a glass of orange juice and also while the victim was blindfolded under the guise of "kinky sex".

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a miscarriage in hospital within hours of the assault - which happened in 2022. The 40-year-old, of Malthouse Court in Dereham, Norfolk, was convicted of two counts of sexual assault against the woman and a charge of administering a poison or using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage.

Continued https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly2x7z744yo

31.10.2024

Anti-abortion advocate Joanna Howe banned from South Australia’s upper house for alleged ‘threatening’ tactics towards politicians

Upper house president Terry Stephens says of ‘highest concern’ is suggestion Howe attempted to ‘improperly influence the free performance’ of MLCs’ duties

Tory Shepherd
Thu 31 Oct 2024

The anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe has been banned from South Australia’s upper house after its president revealed in parliament that he had received several complaints from MLCs alleging she had used “insults and threatening and intimidating tactics” towards politicians during a debate about the state’s controversial “forced birth” legislation.

The legislation, if passed, would have meant any South Australian seeking an abortion after 27 weeks and six days, would instead be induced, give birth, then either keep or adopt out the child.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/31/anti-abortion-advocate-joanna-howe-banned-from-south-australias-upper-house-for-alleged-threatening-tactics-ntwnfb

31.10.2024

News

anti-choice assholes

anti-choice immorality

UK – Safe zones outside abortion clinics come into effect

It will be a criminal offence to intentionally or recklessly obstruct anyone from accessing abortion services immediately outside of clinics.

Serena Barker-Singh, Sky News
Thursday 31 October 2024

From today, "safe access zones" will be introduced to create a 150m-wide area outside clinics to stop anti-abortion campaigners from handing out leaflets, holding vigils and showing graphic images to women near the sites.

The protection areas will be introduced outside all abortion clinics in England and Wales to ensure women seeking abortion services will be better protected from harassment or distress.

Continued: https://news.sky.com/story/safe-zones-outside-abortion-clinics-come-into-effect-13245090

UK – Anti-abortion activists undeterred by law change

Oct 31, 2024
Steve Jones, BBC News, West Yorkshire

Anti-abortion activists have said a new law banning them from demonstrating outside a Leeds clinic will not stop them campaigning on the issue. About 40 Christians have taken it in turns to campaign outside the MSI Reproductive Choices clinic for 12 hours a day since 25 September.

However, from Thursday it will become illegal to protest within a 150-metre radius of abortion clinics in England and Wales. Ailish McEntee, a safeguarding midwife for MSI, said any "anti-choice activity" outside clinics could have a "significant impact" on service users and staff.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce89nkg54xyo

31.10.2024

anti-choice protesters

buffer zones

MSI Reproductive Choices

UK – As protest ban starts, I spent day at abortion clinic

Oct 30, 2024
Emma Barnett, BBC Radio 4

When I arrive at an abortion clinic in south London, four protesters - three women and one man - are gathered on the opposite side of the road alongside a picture of the Virgin Mary, which is draped in rosary beads. They are silently mouthing prayers, and ask not to be interrupted.

Protesters outside abortion clinics, standing with signs - sometimes featuring graphic images of foetuses - have become a norm. This can be worrying and upsetting for some of the women going in for their procedure, who are sometimes approached by these individuals. The same is true for the healthcare staff working at the clinics.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7v3dlld58qo

30.10.2024

Opinion

1967 Abortion Act

Ailish McEntee

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice intimidation

anti-choice protesters

buffer zones

Emma Barnett

MSI Reproductive Choices

A Woman Died After Being Told It Would Be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage at a Texas Hospital

Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She’d told her husband that the medical team said it couldn’t act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.

by Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana
Oct. 30, 2024

Josseli Barnica grieved the news as she lay in a Houston hospital bed on Sept. 3, 2021: The sibling she’d dreamt of giving her daughter would not survive this pregnancy.

The fetus was on the verge of coming out, its head pressed against her dilated cervix; she was 17 weeks pregnant and a miscarriage was “in progress,” doctors noted in hospital records. At that point, they should have offered to speed up the delivery or empty her uterus to stave off a deadly infection, more than a dozen medical experts told ProPublica.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban

Abortion access is dwindling in Milei’s Argentina, three years after legalization

By Betiana Fernández Martino, CNN en Español
October 29, 2024

Montecarlo is a small city in the province of Misiones, Argentina, with just under 20,000 inhabitants. Those who walk through its neighborhoods can find cobblestone streets, but most of the roads are made of dirt. Anyone who wants to travel from this town to Posadas, the provincial capital, has to drive for about three hours.

María (who asked not to be identified by her real name to avoid being recognized in her city) says that in Montecarlo, all the neighbors know each other. She has four children: the oldest is 13 years old, and the youngest is just over a year old.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/29/americas/argentina-abortion-access-javier-milei-intl-latam/index.html

New legislation would make ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ disclose whether they provide abortion support

Crisis pregnancy centres that fail to follow proposed rules would risk losing their charitable status

Darren Major · CBC News
Oct 29, 2024

The federal government has introduced legislation that would require charities providing reproductive health services to state clearly whether they offer abortion or abortion referrals.

Organizations that fail to clearly tell their clients whether they provide these services could risk losing their charitable status.

Marci Ien, the minister for women and gender equality, said Tuesday the legislation is meant to combat the spread of "misinformation" by some charities that operate crisis pregnancy centres.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/abortion-services-charitable-status-1.7366854

Abortion is legal in Australia, but doctors say an ‘unspoken ban’ is robbing women in regional and rural areas of the right to choose

By Lucy Barbour, with illustrations by Emma Machan
Tuesday 29 October

A mother of two is browsing the racks of kids' clothing to pass time before her scheduled surgery, when she receives the call that almost breaks her.

"I'm really sorry, but we can't do the procedure today," an apologetic voice tells her.

Her lips tremble as she puts a hand to her mouth, struggling to take in the information. She hangs up the phone and stops still, frozen in shock.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-30/abortion-access-regional-australia-denying-women-health-care/104387416