USA – The EACH Act would overturn a “blatantly racist” abortion rule. Will it pass?

By Clare Busch
May 12, 2021

When Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro was 17, she found out she was pregnant. Loraine Piñeiro decided to have an abortion, but because she was Medicaid recipient — like more than 72 million other Americans — her insurance wouldn’t cover the costs of the procedure. So, Loraine Piñeiro picked up extra shifts at her restaurant job, earning $2.17 per hour in base pay, to earn the necessary $450. She was still in high school.

She was in that position thanks to the Hyde Amendment, a policy dating back to 1976 that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except in the case of rape, incest, or if the pregnant person’s life is in danger. “When I learned about the Hyde Amendment, I realized how much it affected my life,” Loraine Piñeiro tells Mic. “I had no idea how I would figure out how to pay for an abortion. Those types of resources aren't easily available.”

Continued: https://www.mic.com/p/the-each-act-would-overturn-a-blatantly-racist-abortion-rule-will-it-pass-77726691

What Facebook Unwittingly Reveals in its Ban of LifeSiteNews for COVID Misinformation

BY REBECCA TODD PETERS
MAY 7, 2021

Facebook’s ban of LifeSiteNews a notoriously
ultraconservative website that regularly spreads disinformation about
abortion—for its COVID violations—puts into sharp relief the tolerance of
misogyny and violence against women on Facebook and in our culture more
broadly.

While many may have missed this decision in the midst of the controversy over
Facebook’s ban of Trump, the rationale for the ban of LifeSiteNews was the
spreading of “false information about COVID-19 that could contribute to
physical harm,” an action that violates Facebook’s COVID-19 policies. The
website was banned from YouTube in February for similar reasons.

Continued: https://religiondispatches.org/what-facebook-unwittingly-reveals-in-its-ban-of-lifesitenews-for-covid-misinformation/

Linking Voter Suppression and Abortion Restrictions: “If We Lose Voting Rights, We Lose Women’s Rights”

A combination of legal restrictions on voting and abortion, physical violence and intimidation tactics have emerged again during a time of renewed challenges to white male supremacy.

5/7/2021
by CARRIE N. BAKER

In the first four months of 2021, Republican lawmakers introduced over 360 bills to restrict voting rights and 536 bills to restrict abortion rights. The defeat of Donald Trump, and Biden’s attempts to dismantle Trump’s white supremacist agenda, have inspired a fevered campaign by state-level Republican lawmakers of voter suppression and abortion restrictions. While at first glance these efforts might appear to be unrelated, they are deeply connected, says Smith College professor Loretta Ross.

“The right-wing has an intersectional agenda. Their whole plan is to maintain a white majority by whatever means possible. So that requires them to try to socially engineer white women into having more babies and to restrict voting rights and immigrant rights,” Ross told Ms.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/05/07/voter-suppression-abortion-restrictions-womens-rights/

Italy’s futile abortion laws

Despite legislation, far-right politicians and religious organisations have entrenched ways to deny women their right to an abortion and shame those who do terminate a pregnancy.

By: Alex Čizmić
5 May 2021

There are laws that are enacted to bring about real-life change. There are others that are pushed through simply to give the illusion of progress. The latter seems to be the case in Italy with Law 194/78.

This legislation from 22 May 1978 decriminalises and regulates the procedure for accessing an abortion but, according to a report by the minister of health published in 2019 on the implementation of the law, conscientious objection among gynaecologists reached 68.4% on average with peaks of 100% in certain hospitals.

Continued: https://www.newframe.com/italys-futile-abortion-laws/

Unprecedented Surge in Anti-Abortion Laws Proposed and Passed Across the U.S.

5/4/2021
by CARRIE N. BAKER

In the first four months of 2021, anti-abortion lawmakers introduced 536 abortion restrictions in 46 states, including 146 abortion bans, according to a report released by the Guttmacher Institute on Friday. They enacted 61 restrictions in 13 states, including eight bans that would go into effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Governors signed 28 restrictions into law in eight states just last week.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/05/04/anti-abortion-laws-texas-arizona-arkansas-indiana-west-virginia-kentucky-oklahoma-south-dakota-wyoming/

Trump’s Supreme Court threatens abortion rights for a lifetime to come

When Trump added three anti-abortion conservatives to the Supreme Court, he pretty much guaranteed a roll-back of women’s rights.

May 4, 2021 By Laura Bassett, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

Until now, 2011 was the most brutal year for abortion rights in recent history. In the 12 months after the “red wave” in the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans enacted 92 abortion restrictions across 24 states, kicking off a so-called “war on women” that shut down dozens of abortion clinics across the country and dominated the national political conversation through 2014.

Then Donald Trump happened, and he distracted the nation with his near daily disasters, stunts and scandals. He also added three anti-abortion conservatives to the Supreme Court, one of them replacing feminist icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, thus pretty much guaranteeing a rollback of women’s rights.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-s-supreme-court-threatens-abortion-rights-lifetime-come-n1266261

Expanding access to safe abortions in Japan

BY MAGDALENA OSUMI, STAFF WRITER, JAPAN TIMES
May 2, 2021

Choosing to get an abortion is not an easy decision to make. But women in Japan who do so, due to a variety of reasons, may soon have a safer alternative to surgical procedures — currently the only option they have.

LinePharma, a British pharmaceutical maker, is planning to seek the Japanese government’s approval for the use of its first oral “abortion pills” in Japan as a safe and affordable method of inducing abortion in early stages of pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/02/national/japan-safe-abortion/

02.05.2021

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USA – 2021 Is on Track to Become the Most Devastating Antiabortion State Legislative Session in Decades

Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher Institute
Lauren Cross, Guttmacher Institute
First published online: April 30, 2021

Right-wing ideologues are engaging in a shock and awe campaign against abortion rights that is largely getting lost against the background of a broader attack on other basic rights, including a wave of voter suppression laws and attacks on LGBTQ people.

The number of
abortion restrictions—and specifically bans on abortion designed to directly
challenge Roe v. Wade and the U.S. constitutional right to abortion—that have
swiftly been enacted over the past four months is unprecedented. If this trend
continues, 2021 will end up as the most damaging antiabortion state legislative
session in a decade—and perhaps ever.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/04/2021-track-become-most-devastating-antiabortion-state-legislative-session-decades

OBGYNs in Mozambique call to strengthen gender equality and access to safe abortion

FIGO
30 April 2021
Eunice Themba, Project Manager, AMOG

In a year that saw access to reproductive health services diminish due to
COVID-19 and associated restrictions, International Women’s Day 2021 provided a
welcome opportunity to reflect on, learn about and advocate for important
women’s health topics, including access to safe abortion. Unsafe abortion
remains a huge cause of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity.

The World Health Organization estimates that around 13% of maternal deaths are
attributable to unsafe abortion, and that around 3 in every 4 abortions in
Africa and Latin America are unsafe. According to the 2011 Demographic Health
Survey, unsafe abortion was a leading cause of preventable maternal death in
Mozambique, one of ten countries in FIGO’s Advocating Safe Abortion Project. In
order to reverse this dramatic situation that affects girls and women, the new
Penal Code of 2014 was approved (law Nr 35/2014 of December 31st), that was
revised in 2019 (Law Nr 24/2019 of December 24th), which included, in Article
168, the modalities that make abortion non-punishable.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/news/obgyns-mozambique-call-strengthen-gender-equality-and-access-safe-abortion

‘Fetal heartbeat’ in U.S. abortion laws taps emotion, not science

Julie Carr Smyth and Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, April 28, 2021

NASHVILLE -- Dr. Michael Cackovic has treated his share of pregnant women. So when Republican lawmakers across the U.S. began passing bans on abortion at what they term "the first detectable fetal heartbeat," he was exasperated.

That's because at the point where advanced technology can detect that first flutter, as early as six weeks, the embryo isn't yet a fetus and it doesn't have a heart.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/fetal-heartbeat-in-u-s-abortion-laws-taps-emotion-not-science-1.5405170