Little enthusiasm in Canada and U.S. for heating up abortion debate: poll

Mario Canseco / Glacier News
SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

For weeks, it seemed that the issue of abortion, which used to dominate the airwaves in political campaigns in the United States, would not be a feature of this year’s presidential election. Americans are more preoccupied with other matters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and race relations, to ponder rules and regulations regarding pregnancy termination.
…
In Canada, our reintroduction to this topic happened during the Conservative Party’s leadership race, after eventual winner Erin O’Toole was criticized for his “pro-choice” stance. The governing Liberal Party will not remotely consider changes to the status quo, especially after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to support abortion rights in the last federal campaign.

Continued: https://www.vancourier.com/little-enthusiasm-in-canada-and-u-s-for-heating-up-abortion-debate-poll-1.24207263

24.09.2020

Easing restrictions on abortion pill greatly improved access to care in Canada

UBC-led study offers lessons for other nations on deregulating mifepristone

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Research News
NEWS RELEASE 14-SEP-2020

Removing restrictions on how mifepristone--the medical abortion drug--can be prescribed and dispensed in Canada greatly improved access to abortion, especially in rural communities across the country.

That's one of
the key findings of new University of British Columbia-led research published
today in the Annals of Family Medicine.

Continued: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/uobc-ero090920.php

How abortion bans harm LGBTQ2 people, too

Queer and trans people are systematically harmed by continued attempts to dismantle abortion access in the U.S.

By Jessica Zucker
Aug 25, 2020

Amidst a global pandemic that has already claimed the lives of over 165,000 Americans and left more than 20 million unemployed, GOP politicians are still shamelessly focused on curtailing access to safe, legal, affordable abortion care. In Nebraska, Republicans have introduced a bill that would ban an abortion method that is proven to be safe. In Iowa, GOP lawmakers passed a law requiring abortion patients to make an additional, medically unnecessary appointment with an abortion provider then wait 24 hours to receive abortion care. In Tennessee, lawmakers successfully banned abortion as early as six weeks, which is before most people even know they’re pregnant (the law was blocked by a federal court 45 minutes after it was signed).

Continued: https://www.dailyxtra.com/abortion-bans-harm-lgbtq2-178036

Canada – It’s hard enough to get an abortion in New Brunswick—closing Clinic 554 won’t help

by Tegwyn Hughes
Posted on August 17, 2020

This article is the first in a two-part series about Clinic 554 and health care in New Brunswick.

In the Greater Toronto Area, there are nine locations where someone can access abortion services. In the entire province of New Brunswick, there are only four. Come September, that number could shrink to three, worsening the already poor access to abortion care in the province.

Clinic 554, New Brunswick’s only independent clinic that offers abortions—as well as family medicine, trans-inclusive care, and contraception counselling—is set to close permanently at the end of September. Advocates for the Fredericton, N.B. clinic, as well as former patients, are urging the provincial government to save it, but the Progressive Conservative leadership hasn’t budged.

Continued: https://the-pigeon.ca/2020/08/17/clinic-554-1/

COVID-19 is changing the way Canadians have abortions

BY TEGWYN HUGHES
POSTED ON JULY 30, 2020

As health care providers continue to adapt to the demands of COVID-19, doctors in Canada say that the crisis proves we need accessible abortion services more than ever.

From routine procedures to life-saving surgeries, health authorities have deemed different services either essential or non-essential to prioritize emergency care. This need to prioritize health care based on urgency has reopened debates about the kinds of services we consider important.

Continued: https://the-pigeon.ca/2020/07/30/covid-19-abortions/

BC’s Online Abortion Services Increasing Access in Pandemic

The number of clinics offering access to needed medication without physical appointments has tripled.

Moira Wyton, Today | TheTyee.ca
July 2, 2020

Two clinics that began offering online abortion services during the pandemic are seeing a surge in patients, highlighting the lack of reproductive health services available for patients outside the Lower Mainland.

Before the pandemic hit, the Willow Clinic in Vancouver was the only place in B.C. offering abortion services without requiring an in-person visit.

But the pandemic encouraged Vancouver’s Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic and sister clinic Everywoman’s Health Centre to move ahead more quickly with plans to offer the service, tripling the number of clinics patients can choose from to obtain the required medication.

Continued: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/07/02/BC-Online-Abortion-Services/

02.07.2020

Featured

News

Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic

Everywoman's Health Centre

telemedicine abortion

Willow Women's Clinic

Feds sending foreign aid for abortion services

Feds sending foreign aid for abortion services

June 9, 2020
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canada is dedicating $8.9 million in new international aid to ensure women and girls around the world have access to safe abortions and reproductive health services — money experts say will help maintain that access despite restrictions due to COVID-19.

International Development Minister Karina Gould said Tuesday that contraceptives, abortion services and reproductive health care have become more challenging to procure for women in many parts of the world and Canada wants to do its part to "step up."

Continued: https://www.toronto.com/news-story/10018168-feds-sending-foreign-aid-for-abortion-services/

Abortion opponents protest COVID-19 vaccines’ use of fetal cells

Abortion opponents protest COVID-19 vaccines’ use of fetal cells

By Meredith Wadman, ScienceMag.org
Jun. 5, 2020

Senior Catholic leaders in the United States and Canada, along with other antiabortion groups, are raising ethical objections to promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are manufactured using cells derived from human fetuses electively aborted decades ago. They have not sought to block government funding for the vaccines, which include two candidate vaccines that the Trump administration plans to support with an investment of up to $1.7 billion, as well as a third candidate made by a Chinese company in collaboration with Canada’s National Research Council (NRC). But they are urging funders and policymakers to ensure that companies develop other vaccines that do not rely on such human fetal cell lines and, in the United States, asking the government to “incentivize” firms to only make vaccines that don’t rely on fetal cells.

Continued: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/abortion-opponents-protest-covid-19-vaccines-use-fetal-cells

Canada is still falling short on abortion rights

Canada is still falling short on abortion rights

By Sandeep Prasad and Jill Doctoroff, Contributors
Tue., May 12, 2020

Fifty years ago the Abortion Caravan came to Ottawa as part of the decades-long sexual rights movement that changed the country – and eventually led to the decriminalization of abortion.

Today, as standard-bearers for that same movement, we’re marking the important anniversary of this historic event – and reflecting on how far we have to go, at a time when disparities in health care access across the country are becoming clearer in the face of a global health crisis.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/05/12/canada-is-still-falling-short-on-abortion-rights.html

Canada’s Abortion Caravan: Looking back at a historic reproductive rights movement

Canada's Abortion Caravan: Looking back at a historic reproductive rights movement
The House explores a landmark trek for abortion rights 50 years ago, and where the debate stands now

CBC Radio
Posted: May 09, 2020

Fifty years ago this weekend, hundreds of women from across Canada arrived in Ottawa to protest an abortion law passed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau's government in 1969.

They arrived in a convoy led by a Volkswagen van with a black coffin strapped to the roof. They argued that the existing law was too restrictive, forcing women to seek unregulated abortions by unqualified practioners that resulted in hundreds of deaths each year.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chris-hall-the-pandemic-recession-is-placing-a-new-burden-on-women-1.5561435/canada-s-abortion-caravan-looking-back-at-a-historic-reproductive-rights-movement-1.5561456