Philippines – Why we need to decriminalize abortion

SEP 28, 2020
CLAIRE PADILLA

The restrictive, colonial, and archaic 1930 Revised Penal Code abortion law has never reduced the number of women inducing abortion. It has only endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of Filipino women who have made personal decisions to induce abortion for various reasons (economic - 75%; too young, under 25 years old - 46%; health reasons - one-third; rape - 13%) but are unable to access safe abortion services.

No restrictive law nor religious dogma has stopped these Filipino women, especially poor women with at least 3 children, to end their unintended or unwanted pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/opinion-why-we-need-decriminalize-abortion

Why is the woman missing from the abortion debate

September 28, 2020
Vinoj and Anisha in Voices

The whole world except for the woman
continues to debate the politics of abortion, the legality and morality of
abortion. Let us pause and think about the woman who deserves a respectful
termination if she chooses not to continue her pregnancy.

Even after 15 years of working in this field, we often find it difficult to
explain the need for what we do. We work to reduce deaths and disabilities due
to unsafe abortions; in other words, we work to increase access to safe
abortions. But the word abortion and its associations are so loaded that it is
assumed that indeed all those who die or suffer morbidities due to an unsafe
abortion deserve them. Isn’t it a sin to have sex outside of marriage or to not
want a child in marriage? It is these opinions and many more that push millions
of women in India every year to resort to unsafe methods of abortions.

Continued: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/why-is-the-woman-missing-from-the-abortion-debate/

28.09.2020

Featured

Opinion

International Safe Abortion Day

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

20 years later, the FDA must lift restrictions on medication abortion care

BY REPS. DIANA DEGETTE (D-COLO.), BARBARA LEE (D-CALIF.), JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-ILL.) AND AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MASS.), OPINION CONTRIBUTORS
09/28/20

Over the years, there have been numerous challenges in the way the United States has approached reproductive health. We rely on our public health institutions to make decisions using the best data to get the best outcomes. Twenty years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved mifepristone, the pill for medication abortion with numerous restrictions on who could prescribe the medication, where it could be taken and where it could be dispensed.

Now, 20 years later, medication abortion care has been used by more than 4 million women and has proven to be a safe and effective option to end an early pregnancy. Mifepristone has long had the potential to transform health care access — yet, the same restrictions the FDA first placed on medication abortion needlessly remain in place to this day. This must change.

Continued: https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/518609-20-years-later-the-fda-must-lift-restrictions-on-medication

Kenya – Act fast to end deaths from unsafe abortions

By EVELYNE ODHIAMBO
September 25th 2020

Without a doubt, abortion is a controversial subject in this country. It evokes a lot of emotion and receives opposition from religious leaders, conservative pockets of society and anti-choice groups.

Yet no matter how much we may try to moralise abortion, women and girls’ lives remain at risk. An estimated 2,600 Kenyan women die from unsafe abortions annually (approximately seven every day), according to a joint 2016 report by the Ministry of Health and the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC).

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/commentary/article/2001387625/act-fast-to-end-deaths-from-unsafe-abortions

25.09.2020

The FDA approved the abortion pill 20 years ago. It’s time to make it available via telehealth

By USHMA D. UPADHYAY
SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

Twenty years ago this month, the Food and Drug Administration approved a medication destined to become known as the abortion pill. Mifepristone, then called RU486, was going to change everything about abortion — it would expand access and remove the stigma.

I remember devouring the news because this little pill was going to give women reproductive autonomy and let them control if and when they have children. At the time, I was just starting my Ph.D. in public health. The news inspired and exhilarated me, and I knew that the abortion pill is what I wanted to focus my career on.

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/24/make-abortion-pill-available-via-telehealth/

We Need to Save Abortion Rights. But Roe Isn’t Enough—and RBG Knew It.

The justice was famously critical of the landmark decision and wanted more for women.

Sept 21, 2020
BECCA ANDREWS

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wanted more for women.

While everyone has been screaming about Roe v. Wade since her death Friday night, it’s worth remembering that the beloved justice was famously critical of the landmark ruling, which was based on the right to privacy rather than a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. She was also frustrated that subsequent judicial decisions put the right to an abortion in the hands of lawmakers and (mostly male) physicians, rather than the women who needed care. Ginsburg, simply put, cut through the bullshit from the get-go; she would never be satisfied with anything less than complete, perfect equity.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/ruth-bader-ginsburg-abortion-rights-roe/

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy Would Be Destroyed by Amy Coney Barrett

And that’s exactly why President Trump would nominate her

Christine Grimaldi
Sept 19, 2020

For nearly two years, I’ve made doomsday predictions about federal judge Amy Coney Barrett assuming Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Well, doomsday is here. Barrett’s name began circulating as a top contender for the lifetime job within hours of Ginsburg’s death on Friday. By Saturday afternoon, Trump said that his nominee would “most likely” be a woman.

Barrett is one of the 216 and counting Trump-appointed federal judges the Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed to lifetime seats, many of which Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held open through the Obama years. She fit into the new generation of overwhelmingly white, mostly male, extremely conservative, and comparatively young lifetime federal judges transforming the courts for the next generation.

Continued: https://gen.medium.com/the-nomination-of-amy-coney-barrett-would-destroy-the-legacy-of-ruth-bader-ginsburg-f0829a0ec76b

19.09.2020

Abortion Is Suddenly the Biggest Issue in the Presidential Election

Kevin Drum Sep 18, 2020

Rarely have I been so close and yet so far away in a prediction. This was me yesterday:

Abortion May Be the Sleeper Issue of 2020

With the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today, Republicans now have the opportunity to replace her with a nominee whose anti-abortion credentials are impeccable. This means that everything has changed and Roe v. Wade is no longer a sleeper. It’s now the primary issue of the 2020 election. If a new justice, as part of a 6-3 conservative majority, leads to Roe’s overturning, abortion will return to being a state issue and at least half of all states will probably ban it outright. Another dozen will likely put additional restrictions on it. Millions of women will find it all but impossible to get abortions if this happens.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/09/abortion-is-suddenly-the-biggest-issue-in-the-presidential-election/

18.09.2020

overturning Roe v. Wade

public support for abortion

Uganda – Unwanted pregnancy? Who is to blame?

September 18, 2020
Doreen N Kyampeire, RedPepper Editorial

Growing up in a typical African home, girls are usually told not to bring home a pre-marital pregnancy and boys not to impregnate someone’s daughter out of wedlock. This threat by parents and guardians poses a mystery to the African child of how exactly this said “evil” happens.

They are never given the full detail on how pregnancy actually happens. This points to a very large gap in sexuality education. The little information got is from the senior women and men teachers in schools which is usually not comprehensive.

Continued: http://redpepper.co.ug/2020/09/doreen-n-kyamp-oped/

18.09.2020

World Health Organization

USA – Abortion May Be the Sleeper Issue of 2020

Kevin Drum, Political Blogger
Sept 17, 2020

Over at Politico, Tim Alberta takes the pulse of the very white, very leafy, very affluent suburb of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. It’s massively pro-Trump, of course, but when Alberta asks people why they like the guy he gets the same answer over and over: abortion. “The Democrats are so far to the left on abortion now that it’s impossible to vote for them,” says one resident. “I’m pretty close to a one-issue voter,” says another. “Abortion is the thing I care about most.” Half a dozen others followed suit.

Before you scoff at this as just the product of chance, check out the most recent Gallup poll on abortion as a voting issue:

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/09/abortion-may-be-the-sleeper-issue-of-2020/

17.09.2020