What Facebook Unwittingly Reveals in its Ban of LifeSiteNews for COVID Misinformation

BY REBECCA TODD PETERS
MAY 7, 2021

Facebook’s ban of LifeSiteNews a notoriously
ultraconservative website that regularly spreads disinformation about
abortion—for its COVID violations—puts into sharp relief the tolerance of
misogyny and violence against women on Facebook and in our culture more
broadly.

While many may have missed this decision in the midst of the controversy over
Facebook’s ban of Trump, the rationale for the ban of LifeSiteNews was the
spreading of “false information about COVID-19 that could contribute to
physical harm,” an action that violates Facebook’s COVID-19 policies. The
website was banned from YouTube in February for similar reasons.

Continued: https://religiondispatches.org/what-facebook-unwittingly-reveals-in-its-ban-of-lifesitenews-for-covid-misinformation/

How COVID-19 has hindered — and helped — abortion access in Nova Scotia

By Alex Cooke, Global News
Posted May 5, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on almost all facets of health care, and abortion access isn’t an exception.

For Shannon Hardy, founder of Abortion Support Services Atlantic, COVID-19 hasn’t necessarily created new problems, but it’s highlighted issues that were there long before the pandemic.

“Geography, always,” she said of the biggest challenges facing someone seeking abortion.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/7833844/abortion-access-covid-19-nova-scotia/

05.05.2021

Featured

News

Abortion Support Services Atlantic

Covid-19 and abortion

Martha Paynter

Mifegymiso

Shannon Hardy

travelling for abortion

Canada – Pro-choice coalition aims to raise awareness with billboard campaign

Group says it is seeking to challenge the stigma that persists around the topic of abortion

Mary Katherine Keown
May 04, 2021

As an abortion doula, Amber Gaudrault offers non-judgemental support to those who need it.

The choice to abort a fetus is rarely easy, but Gaudrault says doulas provide a “safe place to talk about why they chose an abortion and what it was like to have the procedure.”

Continued: https://www.thesudburystar.com/news/local-news/pro-choice-coalition-aims-to-raise-awareness-with-billboard-campaign

04.05.2021

pro-choice advertising

pro-choice billboard

Sarah Mann

Sudbury Manitoulin Abortion Support Collective

Sudbury Pro-Choice Coalition

Challenge of city’s abortion ads decision could have ‘ripple effect’ says abortion rights group

Three national organizations have been granted 'friends of the court' status for an upcoming court challenge

Apr 19, 2021
By: Richard Vivian, Guelph Today

Three national organizations have been granted “friends of the court” status for an upcoming court challenge of the city’s decision to pull three anti-abortion advertisements from buses in 2019 and 2020.

“We think this is an important case because, I think, Canadians have the right to be protected from false advertising, which is really what this case revolves around and whether cities have the right to refuse such advertising or whether they’d be compelled to subject the public to false and demeaning advertising,” said Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Vancouver-based Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC).

Continued: https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/challenge-of-citys-abortion-ads-decision-could-have-ripple-effect-says-abortion-rights-group-3641812

Tory MP’s bill to ban sex-selective abortion is the stinking albatross Erin O’Toole was warned about

Konrad Yakabuski, Globe & Mail
PUBLISHED APRIL 14, 2021

Like
clockwork, the Tory-stalking species known as the stinking albatross returns to
Canada each election season after wintering in warmer climes where the culture
wars occur year-round.

Conservative
Leader Erin O’Toole was hounded this week by journalists seeking his reaction
to a private member’s bill tabled by one of his MPs that would ban
sex-selective abortions. It did not go well, to the delight of Liberal
strategists and horror of Tory ones who fear Mr. O’Toole may have to campaign
with the same smelly bird around his neck that made Andrew Scheer’s 2019
election campaign such a stinker.

Continued: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-tory-mps-bill-to-ban-sex-selective-abortion-is-the-stinking-albatross/

Women’s Rights Are Human Rights

This fight against women's oppression is not just a struggle for women, but for all of humanity.

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

by Alison Bodine, Common Dreams

March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day, is an important day to recognize the
challenges confronted and the great victories made by women around the world,
especially in the past year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the last 12 months, in addition to the health challenges posed by Covid-19
itself, women have faced increasing rates of domestic violence, higher rates of
job loss, as well as a larger burden of the care of children and families
because of the pandemic. In countries like the U.S. and Canada, government
mismanagement of Covid-19 has amplified the health and economic crisis. Black,
Indigenous, and immigrant women and their communities have been
disproportionately impacted by the crisis.
Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/06/womens-rights-are-human-rights

Canada doctors group breaks silence on “unproven” abortion ‘reversal’ treatment

openDemocracy’s investigation prompts Canada’s Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to speak out against this controversial ‘treatment’

Joni Hess, Annie Burns-Pieper

26 March 2021

Canada’s national society of obstetricians and gynaecologists has issued a
statement warning that so-called ‘abortion pill reversal’ treatment is
“unproven” and can also cause “serious complications” for patients.

The statement – the first by a Canadian medical association to address this
topic – was issued in response to findings from an openDemocracy investigation that
reveals how this controversial ‘treatment’ is spreading from the US around the
world.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/canada-doctors-group-breaks-silence-on-unproven-abortion-reversal-treatment/

Anti-Abortion Groups Quietly Installed Activists Into Top Positions Inside the Conservative Party of Canada

Nearly 40% of the Conservative Party of Canada's newly elected National Council members were endorsed by anti-abortion groups

by PressProgress
March 22, 2021

Anti-abortion groups are declaring victory after securing at least seven of 18 top spots on the Conservative Party of Canada’s powerful National Council.

The National Council has powers set-out in the Conservative Party’s constitution controlling the party’s budget, creating party bylaws and, importantly, setting rules for local nomination races and candidate selection.

Continued: https://pressprogress.ca/anti-abortion-groups-quietly-installed-activists-into-top-positions-inside-the-conservative-party-of-canada/

Canada – Abortion issue is off the table as Conservatives launch pre-election policy convention

'I think our voice is being suppressed,' says spokesperson for anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition

John Paul Tasker · CBC News
Posted: Mar 18, 2021

Conservative party delegates from across the country begin a three-day virtual policy convention today — likely their last before the next federal election. But some of the most contentious social issues won't be up for debate.

A larger list of policy proposals was narrowed down by electoral district associations (EDAs) to a relatively concise 23-page booklet earlier this month.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-policy-convention-abortion-1.5954129

Canada – My body, my business — abortion is a personal choice and right

Kathryn McIntee
March 17, 2021
Viewpoint: Reproductive Justice (Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada)

In August 2020, I was away up North when I suspected that I was pregnant again. My period was not late, but I experienced all the symptoms I felt in the past. I was alone when I took the pregnancy test that confirmed it. My partner was also in the North but in a place far more remote without any cell service. It was difficult not being able to share the unexpected news with him, but I knew I would see him in a week.

When I returned to the city, I decided to see a doctor to confirm the pregnancy and to request a referral for an ultrasound. I have been pregnant several times in the past, but many pregnancies ended due to an anembryonic pregnancy (also called a blighted ovum -- this occurs when an early embryo never develops or it stops developing; it is resorbed and leaves an empty gestational sac). An anembryonic pregnancy does not always result in a miscarriage, and so I have experienced both surgical and medical abortions to dispel the "products of conception that are contained in the uterus." I have also made a choice to end a pregnancy for personal reasons.

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/viewpoint-reproductive-justice/2021/03/my-body-my-business-abortion-personal-choice

17.03.2021