International Leaders Join Call for End to All Legal Barriers to Abortion

"Women must have the right to decide about their own bodies—that is a human right."

JULIA CONLEY, Common Dreams
June 9, 2021

Several international lawmakers and leaders joined rights activists Wednesday in a call for all legal barriers to abortion care to be removed worldwide, demanding clinics that were shut down during the pandemic be reopened and for a "global campaign of factual and unbiased information" to counter well-funded anti-choice groups.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was among the signatories of the letter organized by the SheDecides movement, as well as equality ministers from France, Canada, and Norway; Parliament members from Belgium and Zimbabwe; and international development ministers from Sweden and the Netherlands.

Continued: https://www.laprogressive.com/legal-barriers-to-abortion/

09.06.2021

Alexander De Croo

Covid-19 and abortion

decriminalisation of abortion

Global Anti-Abortion Coalition Targets the Organization of American States

The conservative backlash against efforts to expand sexual and reproductive rights in the Americas threatens a dangerous regression in human rights.

Lynn M. Morgan
June 4, 2021

It has been a good year for Latin American sexual and reproductive rights movements. Costa Rica became the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage in May 2020, and Argentina legalized abortion in December 2020. The Biden-Harris administration moved quickly in 2021 to rescind former President Trump’s Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule; disband former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights; and renounce the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which included the assertion that there is “no international right to abortion.” Optimists note a wave of support for sexual and reproductive rights in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and elsewhere in the hemisphere.

Continued: https://nacla.org/news/2021/06/04/global-anti-abortion-coalition-targets-organization-american-states

Ireland – Legal abortion: Why are women still travelling to the UK every day?

Three years after Ireland vote, women are still being forced to travel to access terminations

May 22, 2021
Lynn Enright

A pregnant woman attends her 20-week scan excited and intrigued: will the baby be a boy or a girl? Will the baby be measuring small or large? The atmosphere in the room is tense, and then suddenly the sonographer turns silent, concentrating hard on the screen as she presses the ultrasound wand into the pregnant woman’s belly.

She pauses and phones a colleague. After they examine the grainy black and white imagery together, they turn to the pregnant woman and explain that there is a problem with the baby’s brain, and further tests will be required.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/legal-abortion-why-are-women-still-travelling-to-the-uk-every-day-1.4569213

23.05.2021

These Hawaii Doctors Are Fighting Guam’s Abortion Law

Abortions are legal in Guam, but women have no access to them because of a lack of local providers and rules requiring in-person consultations for the procedures.

By Eleni Avendaño
May 9, 2021

Women in Guam who want an abortion are being forced to come to Hawaii or travel elsewhere for the procedure since the island’s only abortion provider left a few years ago.

But two Hawaii physicians and the American Civil Liberties Union are trying to convince a Guam court that women in the U.S. territory should be able to get abortions using medication prescribed remotely instead of having to travel for an in-person appointment. A Guam judge denied a preliminary injunction last week and the case is now pending in District Court.

Continued: https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/05/these-hawaii-doctors-are-fighting-guams-abortion-law/

09.05.2021

Alexa Kolbi-Molinas

American Civil Liberties Union

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Dr. Reni Soon

Guam abortion law

Gynuity Health Projects

Heather Kennedy

Reproductive Freedom Project

telemedicine abortion

Sixth of Irish doctors who perform abortions have been threatened

Colin Coyle
Sunday April 25 2021

More than one in six doctors providing termination services say they have experienced a “verbal threat or attack” since abortion was introduced in Ireland in 2019. The finding is from a study of 156 hospital doctors and GPs by researchers in the National Maternity Hospital and the Coombe.

The researchers found that while Irish doctors suffered fewer verbal or physical attacks than their American counterparts, they were more likely to be alienated by family, friends or acquaintances due to their abortion work.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/irish-doctors-perform-abortions-threatened-murder-study-x3nxtnc2h

27.04.2021

abortion stigma

anti-choice hatred

anti-choice misogny

anti-choice terrorism

National Maternity Hospital

Abortion Without Borders helps more than 17,000 with abortion in six months after Polish constitutional court ruling

Published on April 22, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Exactly six months ago – on the 22nd October 2020 – the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland ruled that the performing abortion due to foetal defects in Polish hospitals is unconstitutional. Even though the decision came into force only at the end of January 2021, in practice the change worked immediately. Already on the 23rd October 2020 the first four people who had been refused abortion in Polish hospitals called Abortion Without Borders.

In the last 6 months the groups that make up Abortion Without Borders have helped thousands of people from Poland to access abortion. 597 people were able to terminate their pregnancy abroad in the second trimester. The financial support exceeded 420,000 PLN (£79,500)

Continued: https://www.asn.org.uk/press-release-abortion-without-borders-helps-more-than-17000-with-abortion-in-six-months-after-polish-constitutional-court-ruling/

The link between America’s rising maternal mortality rates and abortion

It's not a coincidence that maternal mortality rates began rising as abortion became harder to get

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
APRIL 19, 2021

Last week was Black Maternal Health Week, which reproductive justice activists started in 2018 to raise awareness of the grim fact that maternal mortality rates for Black women are up to three times higher than they are for white women. For the first time ever, the White House also joined in, with President Joe Biden issuing a proclamation noting that "America's maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the developed world" and calling on "all Americans to recognize the importance of addressing the crisis of Black maternal mortality and morbidity in this country."

The reasons for this crisis are multifaceted. As Vice President Kamala Harris explained in an interview with STAT, "systemic disparities and implicit bias" in health care are major contributors.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2021/04/19/the-link-between-americas-rising-maternal-mortality-rates-and-abortion/

Venezeula – The Only Ones Arrested After a Child’s Rape: The Women Who Helped Her

The assault of a 13-year-old girl in Venezuela and the arrest of her mother and a teacher who helped her end the pregnancy have forced a national debate about legalizing abortion.

By Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera
Photographs by Meridith Kohut
April 13, 2021

MÉRIDA, Venezuela — She wore a ponytail and a red T-shirt, the words “Glitter Girl” sketched across the front.

Gripping her mother’s hand, she spoke softly, describing how she had been forced out of school by Venezuela’s economic crisis, and then was raped at least six times by a neighborhood predator who threatened to harm her family if she spoke out. At just 13, she became pregnant.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/world/americas/venezuela-abortion-assault.html

US Catholics funded Malawi opponents of legal abortion in cases of rape

After condemning abortion reform as an imposition of “foreign cultures”, a religious group in Malawi took thousands of dollars in foreign cash

Josephine Chinele
30 March 2021

A Catholic group in Malawi used money from the US to support its campaign against a bill to allow legal abortion in cases of rape – after condemning proposed reforms as an imposition of “foreign cultures”.

The Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), a local assembly of Catholic bishops, received a $30,000 grant from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2019 for “pastoral animation and advocacy of members of parliament and the laity in political leadership”.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/us-catholics-funded-malawi-opponents-legal-abortion-cases-rape/

Martin Bashir Showed Princess Diana Fake Abortion ‘Receipt’ for Nanny Ahead of Panorama Interview: Report

Princess Diana was said to have been convinced that the royal nanny had become pregnant by Charles

By Erin Hill
March 29, 2021

BBC journalist Martin Bashir allegedly showed Princess Diana a faked abortion "receipt" for Tiggy Legge-Bourke — Prince William and Prince Harry's former childhood nanny — in an attempt to land his 1995 Panorama interview with the royal, according to a new report.

Diana was said to have believed Prince Charles wanted her murdered in order to marry Legge-Bourke, and she was so convinced that the royal nanny had become pregnant by Charles that an investigation was launched by the Queen's private secretary, Sir Robert Fellowes, who was also Diana's brother-in-law, according to the Daily Mail.

Continued: https://people.com/royals/martin-bashir-showed-princess-diana-fake-abortion-receipt-for-nanny-panorama-interview/

29.03.2021