“In the UK, the quiet, insidious unravelling of our reproductive rights is well underway”

In this exclusive op-ed for Stylist, Women’s Equality Party leader Mandu Reid reflects on the slow push back against reproductive rights in the UK after leaked government documents showed plans to tighten rules on ‘at-home abortions’.

Nov 26, 3022

By Mandu Reid

Curtailing abortion rights is politically unpopular. We’ve seen that in the recent midterm election outcome in the US, where the so-called Roe Wave saw every single ballot on abortion go in favour of reproductive rights, even in majority-Republican states.

In the UK too, there is no political gain to be had from restricting reproductive rights, because the British public are overwhelmingly in favour of abortion access. Which is why the recently leaked government document outlining plans to curb access to at-home abortions shows how obsessed they are with curtailing women’s rights, even if it comes with substantial political risk.

Continued: https://www.stylist.co.uk/opinion/mandu-reid-uk-abortion-rights/737219

26.11.2022

Featured

Opinion

Mandu Reid

Women's Equality Party

Kenya – Don’t sweep abortion talk under the rug

By Mark Oloo
Nov 19, 2022

There are two undisputed taboo topics in Kenya – gay rights and abortion. We call them ‘non-issues’ and ‘alien’ subjects.

Society bears a natural love for lethal cartels and high priests of corruption but openly detests the gay community and survivors of abortion. At any rate, the abortion talk will raise sneaky questions about contraception and the age of consent. Then there’s the moral and religious ping-pong around it.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001461065/dont-sweep-abortion-talk-under-the-rug

19.11.2022

Featured

Opinion

Centre for Reproductive Rights

Enid Muthoni

Kenya Obstetrical Gynaecological Society

What Poland Tells America About Abortion Politics

Democrats and Republicans alike can learn from the only other country to roll back the legal right to abortion in the last 15 years.

by ELLA CREAMER
11/07/2022

It happened like this: A dogged religious right and a determined set of anti-abortion movers and shakers poured years of work into curbing abortion access. Their efforts swayed conservative politicians, who adopted opposition to abortion as a central ideological goal in a vicious culture war. They appointed conservative judges to the courts, and when the topic of abortion crossed those judges’ dockets, they made a shocking yet predictable ruling that vastly curtailed abortion access.

No, I’m not talking about the U.S. This is what happened in Poland.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/07/poland-america-abortion-politics-00065416

I Write About Post-Roe America Every Day. It’s Worse Than You Think.

Nov. 5, 2022
By Jessica Valenti

Despite Republican‌ assurances that their draconian abortion bans wouldn’t hurt women, a flood of heart-wrenching accounts from across the country prove otherwise. Yet even with that outpouring of stories, plus polls showing broad opposition to the bans and an increase in women registering to vote, it’s still unclear if the issue will be the deciding factor for voters in the midterm elections on Tuesday.

It should be.

05.11.2022

pregnancy complications

Ireland changed when Savita Halappanavar died – it must continue to change

On the ten year anniversary of the death of Savita Halappanavar, Lynn Enright reflects on how she galvanized a nation and how there is more to be done.

by Lynn Enright
27th Oct 2022

Whenever and wherever abortion is illegal, there are horror stories. Stories so grim and so gruesome they make you weep. A tale of a suicidal child forced to carry the foetus of the man who raped her; news reports of a young woman rooting through blood-soaked rubbish before reporting her housemate, who took illegal abortion pills alone, to police. In 2012, came a story so bleak that it changed a nation.

Savita Halappanavar was 31 in October 2012 and she was 17 weeks’ pregnant; it was to be the first baby for her and her husband, Praveen. If you’re carrying a longed-for baby, the 17-week mark is a nice stage of pregnancy. The morning sickness is usually gone and it is around then that you’ll feel the first flutters of movement, a tiny kick here and there.

Continued: https://www.image.ie/agenda/ireland-changed-when-savita-halappanavar-died-it-must-continue-to-change-606207

27.10.2022

When It Comes To Abortion Rights, Canada Can’t Save You

As long as Americans are fighting, again, for their right to choose, they should fight for better than what we have in Canada. Trust me.

by CARLA CICCONE
Oct. 27, 2022

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that Americans are welcome to use the Canadian health care system, and the abortions it provides, I scoffed.

Offering the Canadian health care system to American abortion seekers is a nice sentiment from someone whose country decriminalized abortion in 1988, but the reality is that much of Canadian health care is currently in shambles. As a Canadian woman who has covered the issue, and experienced it personally, I know that abortion care in this country is uneven at best.

Continued: https://www.romper.com/life/midwives-abortion-roe-canada-america

What a landmark ruling on abortion will mean for women in India

Oct 25, 2022
Dhwani Nagpal

A landmark ruling on abortion by India’s Supreme Court could pave the way for economic equality and reduce health inequity for women.

On September 29, 2022, the Indian Supreme Court released a judgment stating that all women, regardless of their marital status, have the right to safe and legal access to abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Previously, single women were limited to 20 weeks.

Continued: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/what-a-landmark-ruling-on-abortion-will-mean-for-women-in-india/

25.10.2022

unmarried women and abortion

Abortion and authoritarianism: Why women’s freedom threatens male supremacy

The notion that men are superior to women is the root of all human inequality. That's why we must fight it

By ROBERT S. MCELVAINE
OCTOBER 23, 2022

Will America's future be one of democracy and women's control over their own bodies or one of authoritarianism and forced pregnancy? The two issues most motivating Americans to vote for Democrats in the rapidly approaching midterm elections are far more intertwined than is generally recognized.

At a time when right-wing extremists are hellbent on making American states — or, as many intend the whole nation — into the fictional Republic of Gilead, it is appropriate to turn to Margaret Atwood. "Tyrants and dictators like Adolf Hitler and Nicolae Ceausescu have often dictated the terms of fertility and criminalized those who did not comply," she pointed out in 2017. "It's no accident that Napoleon banned abortion. He said exactly what he wanted offspring for — cannon fodder. Lovely!"

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2022/10/23/abortion-and-authoritarianism-why-womens-freedom-threatens-male-supremacy/

Ireland: Abortion and science

Science is far from silent on the adverse consequences for women of restrictive abortion laws

Sat Oct 22 2022
Dr. Peter Boylan

Sir, – William Reville argues that science is silent on the ethics of abortion and that leading scientific journals cannot present “science’s position on abortion – science has no position” (“Why science remains silent on the morality of abortion”, Science, October 21st). He suggests that, following the overturning of Roe v Wade by the US supreme court earlier this year, it is a function of democracy that, “For almost 50 years American conservatives lived with universal access to abortion. Now American liberals must live with restricted access to abortion.”

It is American women and girls, both conservative and liberal, who must now live with the dangers of restricted access to safe and legal abortion. Moreover, science, in the form of evidence-based research and data, is far from silent on the adverse consequences for women of restrictive abortion laws. The science is clear that such laws do not result in fewer abortions, but instead put the lives and health of women at greater risk by compelling them to depend on unsafe and illegal abortion.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2022/10/22/abortion-and-science/

22.10.2022

Will Polish police repeat crackdown on anti-abortion protests two years on?

OPINION: The EU should insist that Poland uphold the right to sexual and reproductive health care|

Letta Tayler
21 October 2022

It’s two years since hundreds of thousands of people – mostly women – joined protests in Poland against a near-total ban on legal abortion. Police used violence to disperse rallies and detained thousands of protesters.

On Monday, protesters in Warsaw, at the Constitutional Tribunal, plan to mark the second anniversary of the tribunal’s ruling with another rally, outside the Constitutional Tribunal, which approved the near-total ban. They say they will repeat their demands on the government to decriminalise terminations and to ensure access to safe and legal abortion for all.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/poland-abortion-law-ban-protests-second-anniversary-police/