N. Ireland – Abortion access lessons to be compulsory in post-primary schools in NI

June 6, 2023
By Robbie Meredith, BBC News NI education correspondent

It will be compulsory for all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland to teach pupils about access to abortion and prevention of early pregnancy.

It comes after Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris laid new regulations in Parliament, covering relationships and sex education (RSE). In a written statement, he said he had a legal duty to act on recommendations made in a United Nations (UN) report.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65824502

06.06.2023

CEDAW Report

Chris Heaton-Harris

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

comprehensive sex education

Dr John Kirkpatrick

Executive Formation Act

Natalie Whelehan

Relationships and Sex Education

USA – The persecution of an abortion doctor who treated a pregnant child was a shameful political farce

Robin Abcarian
Sun, June 4, 2023

The first physician to publicly fall victim to the antiabortion madness that has followed the overturning of Roe vs. Wade was vindicated last month when Indiana medical officials ruled that she did not fail to report child abuse and was not unfit to practice medicine after providing abortion care to a 10-year-old and telling a reporter about it.

Ludicrously, though, the state medical board fined Dr. Caitlin Bernard $3,000 for violating her unnamed patient’s privacy rights. The board members' ruling, as it’s been reported, didn’t make clear exactly what protected information she had disclosed.

Continued: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/abcarian-persecution-abortion-doctor-treated-100044070.html

04.06.2023

Amanda Stevenson

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice persecution

Donna Shalala

Dr. Caitlin Bernard

Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission

maternal mortality

Robin Abcarian

Todd Rokita

USA – The Sense & Sensibility of Being an Abortion Haven

Long a stronghold for reproductive rights, Colorado is providing access to care to those from states where the procedure has been limited or banned altogether. Here's what local health care practitioners, advocacy groups, and everyday Coloradans are doing to ensure abortion remains accessible.

Lindsey B. King
June 2023

The text message simply read, “Fuck Texas.” Rebecca Cohen looked up from her phone, took a sip of her chai latte, and said, “I get a lot of these in my line of work.” Still, Cohen, a Denver OB-GYN, thought this particular expletive, received in mid-February, might’ve been about more than another pregnant person being denied health care in the Lone Star State. The 42-year-old abortion clinician pulled up Google. “I wonder if maybe the mifepristone ruling came through,” she said.

Cohen searched for a breaking news story detailing whether a Donald Trump–appointed Texas judge had decided to force a major abortion drug off the market despite longtime Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and a 23-year safety record. “If the judge bans mifepristone,” Cohen said, “it would be baseless and inappropriate, but appeals would go to the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Supreme Court, which is, of course, what they want.”

Continued: https://www.5280.com/the-sense-sensibility-of-being-an-abortion-haven/

04.06.2023

Australia – Want long-term contraception? There are more effective options than the pill. But they can be hard to find

June 2, 2023
by Deborah Bateson

Australians’ access to a range of contraceptive options depends on where they live and how wealthy they are. A recent parliamentary inquiry recommends ways to end this “postcode lottery” for people who want to use long-acting reversible contraception.

There are several types of long-acting reversible contraception: the hormonal contraceptive implant, the hormonal intrauterine devices (IUD) and copper IUDs.

Continued: https://canadianinquirer.net/2023/06/02/want-long-term-contraception-there-are-more-effective-options-than-the-pill-but-they-can-be-hard-to-find/

02.06.2023

hormonal contraception

Australian women’s access to abortion is a postcode lottery. Here’s what needs to change

May 30, 2023
Danielle Mazza

When the American legal precedent protecting women’s right to an abortion in the United States, Roe versus Wade, was overturned last year, women around the world felt anxious.

In Australia, despite abortion being legal, there was increasing concern about women’s ability to access abortion. This led to a Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive health care. This inquiry has now concluded.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/australian-womens-access-to-abortion-is-a-postcode-lottery-heres-what-needs-to-change-206504

30.05.2023

abortion at hospitals

abortion postcode lottery

barriers to abortion access

Ireland – Ivana Bacik: How abortion campaign went from ‘desperately lonely’ to ‘tremendously positive’

On a political level, there was very little to cling to as an abortion activist in the 80s and 90s, she says, and religion of course played a large part in that.

May 27, 2023

LABOUR LEADER IVANA Bacik spoke to The Journal about how the route to abortion rights went from being a “desperately lonely” movement on the periphery of society to becoming a mainstream political issue.

The subject of access to abortion stills holds the public’s attention today with a recent review finding that issues such as geographic location, the three-day waiting period and other obstacles still impede women’s access to abortion services.

Continued: https://www.thejournal.ie/ivana-bacik-interview-abortion-rights-ireland-6077186-May2023/

The Real End Goal of the Anti-Choice Texas Abortion Lawsuit

BY MARY ZIEGLER, Slate
MARCH 28, 2023

Earlier this month, Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general and the architect of S.B. 8, Texas’s six-week abortion ban, filed what seems like a long-shot lawsuit. Mitchell is representing a Texas man in a wrongful-death suit against two of his ex-wife’s friends and the person who provided them with an abortion pill.

This suit may never go anywhere, even in a state as hostile to abortion as Texas. State law requires that a death be “wrongful,” but the abortion in this case took place before Texas’ trigger ban took effect. Mitchell and his colleagues are relying on a pre-Roe criminal ban to try the case, and its legal status remains contested. As important, Texas law makes clear that pregnant people themselves can’t be sued or prosecuted for having abortions, so it’s not clear that aiding a woman in doing so would be considered wrongful either.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/personhood-laws-anti-choice-texas-abortion-lawsuit.html

28.03.2023

USA – What plaintiffs targeting abortion pill want might not even be possible

BY: SOFIA RESNICK
MARCH 25, 2023

At the center of the federal anti-abortion lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the abortion drug mifepristone and the regimen that reportedly accounts for the majority of abortions in post-Roe America. That’s why the whole country is bracing itself for a ruling from a notoriously anti-abortion judge in Amarillo, Texas.

The attention and confusion around this case might end up being the most impactful aspects about it, as many legal scholars doubt the judge has the legal authority to do what plaintiffs are asking for, which boils down to forcing the FDA to essentially recall a drug that for two decades has maintained a record of efficacy and safety. But regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, legal experts still think a ruling that even briefly or partially favors plaintiffs will likely have lasting consequences on U.S. abortion access and affect medication policy beyond abortion.

Continued: https://lailluminator.com/2023/03/25/what-plaintiffs-targeting-abortion-pill-want-might-not-even-be-possible/

USA – What Nine Months Means to a Pregnant Person

BY ROBIN MARTY AND LEAH TORRES
MARCH 24, 2023

Right at this moment there is a person in labor preparing to give birth. They got pregnant exactly nine months ago. They may have been trying to conceive. They may have been hoping to avoid it.

But thanks to the five far-right conservatives on the Supreme Court – four of whom will never be capable of carrying a child – that person will face a life-threatening delivery whether they wanted it or not.

Continued: https://time.com/6265098/abortion-alabama-clinic-nine-months-after-dobbs/

24.03.2023

Leah Torres

Robin Marty

Tina Collins

West Alabama Women's Center

Some people who seek abortions can face prison time in more than 120 countries, analysis shows

In six countries, some abortion seekers can face life in prison, according to a global study of the penalization of abortion.

March 21, 2023
By Julianne McShane

Some people who seek or obtain abortions can face prison time in more than 120 countries, according to an analysis published Monday that sheds new light on international penalties for the procedure.

More than 90 countries have maximum penalties of up to five years of prison time for certain abortion-seekers, while 25 have sentences of between five and 10 years, according to the research, which relied on a World Health Organization database of abortion policies.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortion-penalties-prison-time-around-world-rcna75760

21.03.2023