By Euronews & AP
Updated: 23/10/2021
Poles took to the streets on Friday night to mark the one year anniversary of a constitutional court ruling that restricted abortion rights in Poland in October 2020.
Protests were held in Warsaw and other cities but numbers were far smaller than the demonstrations that followed last year's ruling, the biggest in three decades since the end of Communism.
Published on October 21, 2021
A year ago – on 22 October 2020 – a Polish Constitutional Court decided
that the provision of abortion in case of foetal malformation was
unconstitutional. While the decision didn’t come into force until 27 January
2021, the change happened immediately. The next day, despite the still-valid
provision of abortion under Poland’s abortion act, the first four people
refused abortion in Polish hospitals called Abortion Without Borders for help.
Over the past 12 months Abortion Without Borders groups have helped 34,000
people from Poland to access abortion. 1080 people were able to terminate their
pregnancy in a foreign clinic in the second trimester. Financial support given
was more than 700,000 zloty/ £129,000/ €153,000.
19/10/2021
International Federation for Human Rights
(Brussels, October 19, 2021) – Women, girls,
and all pregnant people have faced extreme barriers to accessing legal
abortions in the year since a Constitutional Tribunal ruling virtually banned
legal abortion in Poland, 14 human rights organizations said today. Since the
ruling, women human rights defenders have also faced an increasingly hostile
and dangerous environment.
Poland’s authorities should end efforts to undermine reproductive rights and
weaken protections from gender-based violence. They should commit to protecting
women human rights defenders who have faced ongoing threats and attacks since
the October 2020 decision. Escalating death threats since October 9 against
Marta Lempart, co-founder of Ognopolski Strajk Kobiet (All-Poland Women’s Strike)
and a target of repeated threats for leading demonstrations supporting legal
abortion and women’s rights, led to her police protection during public
appearances.
by: KEVIN SCHEMBRI ORLAND, Associated Press
Posted: Oct 18, 2021
VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — A European human rights watchdog recommended on Monday that Malta legalize abortion, improve gender equality and implement reforms to protect journalists, adding another international voice of criticism to the laws and culture on the Mediterranean island nation.
The Council of Europe’s rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatović, made an initial set of recommendations following her recent visit to Malta, during which she met with the prime minister, other ministers and civil society groups. A final report is expected later.
Continued: https://www.cbs17.com/news/rights-watchdog-faults-malta-for-abortion-journalist-safety/
By Michael Fitzpatrick, BBC News NI
October 14, 2021
A High Court judge has ruled the secretary of state for Northern Ireland has failed to comply with his duty to provide abortion services to women in Northern Ireland "expeditiously."
However Mr Justice Colton declined to compel Brandon Lewis to make abortion services available. He also dismissed claims against the Department of Health and the Executive Committee.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-58910720
By Lucia Yar | EURACTIV.sk
Oct 10, 2021
As many as a third of all hospitals and
medical facilities surveyed refuse to provide legal abortions on the grounds of
conscientious objection, according to a study by the feminist organisation
Possibility of Choice.
Due to conscientious objection, individuals can refuse to perform certain
medical procedures based on their religious or personal beliefs. However, no
legal norm states that entire medical facilities can exercise conscientious
objection. In addition to hospitals, pharmacies often refer to it when refusing
to sell hormonal contraception to women.
Three such adverts appeared on the platform here reaching ‘up to’ three million people
Wed, Oct 6, 2021
Mark Hilliard
Facebook Ireland has said it will investigate claims of ads posted to promote controversial abortion pill “reversal” procedures.
The social media company’s ad library recently showed records of 92 such ads in the US which, according to its own analytics, were viewed by users up to 18.4 million times since January, 2020.
By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI political correspondent
Oct 4, 2021
Stormont departments have "no duty" to follow a government direction to set up abortion services in NI, the High Court in Belfast has heard.
The remarks were made by John Larkin QC during the start of a second legal challenge over abortion laws.
In July, political disagreement in the executive led the government to impose a deadline to establish services by next March.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-58765851
By Belle de Jong
October 4, 2021
Europe has been at the forefront of the global trend towards the liberalisation of abortion laws for more than 60 years – but Malta is lagging centuries behind.
Human rights NGO Amnesty International published an article on abortion laws across Europe, and, as the only EU member state with a total ban on abortion, Malta is extensively featured in it.
A new comprehensive atlas of abortion policies across Europe shows that women’s experience ‘largely depends on their postcode’
Tatev Hovhannisyan
28 September 2021
Women and girls in almost a third of European countries have problems accessing abortion care and some are even forced to continue pregnancies against their will, reveals the European Abortion Policies Atlas, published today on International Safe Abortion Day.
“It is startling how governments are cynically manipulating [the law] to prevent women’s access to abortion,” said Caroline Hickson, regional director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF EN), co-author of the Atlas with the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF).
Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/europe-access-abortion/
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