The new anti-abortion tactics of the far right in the Americas

ISABELLA COTASTEPHANIA CORPI
OCT 24, 2021

An EL PAÍS investigation in five Latin American countries has found that a network of centers affiliated with the far-right US organization Heartbeat International (HI) promote themselves online as feminist support groups and use misleading language in favor of abortion, but in reality they work to manipulate and institutionalize women to get them to carry their pregnancy to term.

Five female reporters and one male reporter went undercover to centers in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico between 2019 and 2021, as a follow-up to an OpenDemocracy investigation into HI’s operations in the region.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-10-24/the-new-anti-abortion-tactics-of-the-far-right-in-the-americas.html

24.10.2021

Commentary

Featured

Research

adoption and abortion

anti-choice deception

anti-choice intimidation

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misogyny

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

Centers to Help Women

CLACAI

crisis pregnancy centres

El Pais investigation

Fanny Cordero

Fundación Hogar Margarita

Gretchen Sisson

Heartbeat International

Latin American Consortium against Unsafe Abortion

Miguel Ángel Salazar

National System for the Integral Development of the Family

PANI

Privacy International

Ron Archer

Susana Chávez

Susana Vallina

undercover investigation of CPCs

Vida y Familia A.C.

Women’s Institute of Comprehensive Health

Study shows an abortion ban may lead to a 21% increase in pregnancy-related deaths

September 22, 2021
Amanda Jean Stevenson, The Conversation

A new Texas law bans nearly all abortions, and other states have indicated that they likely will follow suit. But the research is clear that people who want abortions but are unable to get them can suffer a slew of negative consequences for their health and well-being.

As a researcher who measures the effects of contraception and abortion policy on people’s lives, I usually have to wait years for the data to roll in. But sometimes anticipating a policy’s effects before they happen can suggest ways to avoid its worst consequences.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/study-shows-an-abortion-ban-may-lead-to-a-21-increase-in-pregnancy-related-deaths-167610

Europe – Online abortions boomed during the pandemic, and not just because of coronavirus

August 3, 2021

Hazal Atay, Women on Web International Foundation

The coronavirus pandemic changed the way people all over the world accessed abortions. As lockdowns and other restrictions made it difficult to seek in-person terminations of unwanted pregnancies, some countries made at-home abortions more accessible.

In France, the government temporarily changed
the law in April 2020 to allow at-home abortion until seven weeks of pregnancy
(or nine weeks since the last period). Teleconsultation abortions – where
abortion medication is taken at home in consultation with a medical
professional by phone or video call – are currently allowed until September
2021.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/online-abortions-boomed-during-the-pandemic-and-not-just-because-of-coronavirus-165502

Scotland – Telemedicine in abortion care: safe, effective, preferred

Greta Hughson
12 July 2021

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland began providing telemedicine services for medical abortion. In this interview, we spoke to Dr John Reynolds-Wright of the Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, who worked with a team to assess outcomes and acceptability for people using these services in Edinburgh. The study worked with 663 women choosing medical abortion at home between April and July 2020.

The study started in April 2020 – how did it come about so soon after COVID restrictions began?
I usually work as a doctor in sexual and reproductive health but I’m currently doing a PhD and working as a research fellow at the Chalmers Sexual Health Centre in Edinburgh. Before COVID, we were working on a large randomised controlled trial (RCT) called the UTAH study, which stood for ‘Using Telemedicine to improve early medical Abortion at Home’. We were randomising women to have a telephone assessment prior to their abortion versus a standard face-to-face assessment.

Continued: https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2021/telemedicine-abortion-care-safe-effective-preferred

New evidence-based learning on abortions in India

This will not only significantly increase the options for women seeking abortion services but also leverage the potential of medical abortion technology.

By IANS
Published: 10th Jun 2021

New Delhi: Abortion in India continues to face high levels of stigma — this stigma pushes women who seek it away from legal services; curtails free dissemination of information on abortion; and affects the delivery of essential services in the public health system.

Consequently, millions of women prefer not to go to public health facilities for abortion services. It is estimated that 78 per cent of the 15.6 million abortions that take place each year in India occur in non-facility settings, mainly through medical abortion pills.

Continued: https://telanganatoday.com/new-evidence-based-learning-on-abortions-in-india

USA – Cost of care, distance to clinics drives demand for self-managed abortion: Study

The study looked at 57,500 who requested self-managed medication abortions.

By Alexandra Svokos
21 May 2021

The cost of care at clinics is a major factor driving patients to seek self-managed abortion through telemedicine, a new study published Friday found.

Aid Access, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by a Dutch doctor, helps individuals access abortion by arranging to mail mifepristone and misoprostol, the pills that make up a medication abortion, directly to people -- thus, they can have a self-managed abortion, meaning they take care of it outside a traditional medical setting. The study, published in the peer-reviewed JAMA Network Open, used data from the organization.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cost-care-distance-clinics-drives-demand-managed-abortion/story?id=77826875

Abortion opposition related to beliefs about fetal pain perception

Media release from the University of Otago
Thursday 13 May 2021

A person’s stance on abortion is linked to their, often inaccurate, belief about when a fetus can feel pain, a University of Otago study has found.

Lead author Emma Harcourt, PhD candidate in Otago’s Centre for Science Communication, says misinformation about abortion and pregnancy is common and potentially harmful.

Continued: https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/article/abortion-opposition-related-beliefs-about-fetal-pain-perception

13.05.2021

Featured

News

Research

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice propaganda

Study highlights significant concerns about a growing issue of sex-selective abortion in Nepal

Study highlights significant concerns about a
growing issue of sex-selective abortion in Nepal

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.
Mar 19 2021

Detailed, new analysis published this week in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)
Open highlights significant concerns about a growing issue of sex selective
abortion of girls in Nepal.

Drawing on census data from 2011 and follow-on survey data from 2016, the
social scientists estimate that roughly one in 50 girl births were 'missing'
from records (i.e. had been aborted) between 2006-11 (22,540 girl births in
total). In the year before the census (June 2010 - June 2011) this had risen to
one in 38.

Continued: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210319/Study-highlights-significant-concerns-about-a-growing-issue-of-sex-selective-abortion-in-Nepal.aspx

19.03.2021

Featured

Research

Center for Research Environment Health and Population Activities

Dr Mahesh Puri

Dr Melanie Channon

sex ratio imbalance

sex selection abortion

sex-selective abortion

UK – The majority of people want to make at-home abortions legal

It's an issue currently being debated by the government

by JENNIFER SAVIN
FEB 19, 2021

A ground-breaking new study of over 50,000 medical abortions has found that the at-home option (introduced temporarily during the pandemic, for those up to 10 weeks pregnant) was not only safe and effective, but allowed more people to easily access the healthcare they required. The results of the study have been released during an especially poignant time, as the government is currently examining whether or not to make at-home abortions a permanent option in England.

The study looked at abortions carried out in England, Scotland and Wales, both before and after the pandemic, and researchers, from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), MSI Reproductive Choices UK and the University of Texas at Austin, say their aim was to compare the data and see how the telemedicine service compares to the services previously available.

Continued: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a35558873/at-home-abortions-legal-study/

Jamaica – Millions for illegal abortions

Millions for illegal abortions - Taxpayers fork out US$1.4 million annually for thousands of abortion complications; poorest families suffer most, CAPRI study finds

Sunday | January 31, 2021
Corey Robinson - Senior Staff Reporter, Jamaica Gleaner

Some 22,000 pregnancies are aborted annually in Jamaica, and this is only a
rough estimate from research done by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute
(CAPRI), which believes that the figures for the clandestine, criminal acts
could be more.

The data further revealed that Jamaican taxpayers fork out approximately US$1.4
million each year to fund the country’s healthcare system’s struggle with
complications caused from unsafe abortions islandwide.

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20210131/millions-illegal-abortions-taxpayers-fork-out-us14-million-annually