Crown Princess Mary makes her first official appearance of 2021 with a searing message
The Danish royal is ready to tackle another year.

JAN 20, 2021
JESS PULLAR

Crown Princess Mary has kicked off the year with a stirring message for
followers of the Danish Royal Palace.

Sharing an image of Mary working from her residence in Denmark, our first
glimpse of Mary in 2021 proved just because she's not as publicly present these
days doesn't mean she's no less busy.

Continued: https://www.nowtolove.com.au/royals/international-royals/princess-mary-female-empowerment-66532

21.01.2021

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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

ICPD25 High Level Commission

Westminster ‘may intervene’ over abortion services

CLAIRE SIMPSON
20 January, 2021

Westminster may intervene over the provision of abortion services in the north, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has said.

Abortion up to 12 weeks into pregnancy has been legal in the north since last year.

MPs voted for a change in the law in 2019, during the hiatus at Stormont.

Continued: https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2021/01/20/news/westminster-may-intervene-over-abortion-services-2191894/

20.01.2021

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NI Human Rights Commission

22 abortions carried out in Northern Ireland in year, new figures show as MP claims 100 refused

Government says further legislation could be proposed

Jonathan Bell
January 20 2021

An MP has claimed over 100 women in Northern Ireland have been refused an abortion with some turning to the internet for pills.

It comes as new Department of Health figures show there were 22 abortions carried out in Northern Ireland during the financial year of 2019/20.

Continued: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/22-abortions-carried-out-in-northern-ireland-in-year-new-figures-show-as-mp-claims-100-refused-39990069.html

20.01.2021

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Amnesty International

Carla Lockhart

Informing Choices NI

reproductive rights in Northern Ireland

Abortion: Westminster warns it is ready to intervene again over full access in NI

The London government has warned that it may intervene directly if abortions are not made more freely available in Northern Ireland soon.

By Adam Kula
Wednesday, 20th January 2021

Robin Walker MP, the minister for state for Northern Ireland, made the comments in the House of Commons as he was quizzed about the current law in the Province.

The whole issue dates back to summer 2019.

At that time MPs in Westminster passed a law which said if the Northern Irish devolved government was not restored by late October, then the London government would act to change the law on terminations, bypassing the NI Assembly altogether – a move which outraged anti-abortion groups.

Continued: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/abortion-westminster-warns-it-ready-intervene-again-over-full-access-ni-3107077

20.01.2021

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Carla Lockhart

European Convention on Human Rights

NI Human Rights Commission

Group Takes Legal Action Over Lack of Abortion Services in Northern Ireland

A human rights group says the government’s inaction has left a health care void in a country where the procedure was legalized in 2019, but remains largely unavailable.

By Megan Specia
Jan. 11, 2021

A human rights group in Northern Ireland is taking legal action against the government over its failure to provide abortion access, the group announced on Monday, highlighting the continuing struggle for safe abortions more than a year after the procedure was legalized in the region.

The organization, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, cited deep concerns about a lack of abortion services, which it says has left a health care void for many women and girls.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/world/europe/northern-ireland-abortion.html

UK ministers face legal action over lack of abortion services in Northern Ireland

Exclusive: government accused of failing to ensure access more than a year after terminations legalised

Alexandra Topping
Sun 10 Jan 2021

Northern Ireland’s human rights commission (NIHRC) has launched a landmark legal action against the UK government for its failure to commission safe and accessible abortion services more than a year after abortion was made legal in the country, the Guardian can reveal.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, is accused of unlawfully denying the rights of women in the country, who experts warn are being forced to use unregulated services and to travel to high-risk areas during the pandemic. The NIHRC is also taking action against the Northern Ireland Executive and the country’s Department of Health.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/10/uk-ministers-face-legal-action-over-lack-abortion-services-northern-ireland

Covid: Locked-down women turn to pills amid Malta abortion ban

Catholic Malta has the strictest ban on abortion in the EU, but during the pandemic more Maltese women have been ordering abortion pills from abroad, unable to travel because of the lockdown.

By Sophia Smith-Galer, BBC World Service
January 8, 2021

Veronica - not her real name - was among them. "It was a big burden for me. I already have two kids with learning difficulties. I came off the pill, as the doctor suggested I switch to an IUD for health reasons. I was waiting for the appointment, but Covid came and cancelled all the hospital appointments."

Not long after that Veronica got pregnant. "I had to decide what is best for me and the children," she says. "The best for my health, the best financially… plus the father immediately told me to abort."

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55579339

Northern Ireland: Abortion services cease at South Eastern Trust following Health Department failure

05 Jan 2021

Amnesty International has learned that Northern Ireland’s South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust has stopped referrals to their early medical abortion service as of today (5 January) due to the failure of Department of Health to commission and resource services.

Despite abortion regulations taking effect from March 2020, the Department of Health’s failure to commission services means that health trusts have been left to absorb the costs and resource abortion care themselves, whilst battling through a pandemic.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/northern-ireland-abortion-services-cease-south-eastern-trust-following-health

06.01.2021

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Amnesty International Northern Ireland

Brandon Lewis

Patrick Corrigan

Robin Swann

South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust

Northern Ireland health chiefs accused over lack of abortion care

Patrick Corrigan, Lisa
Smyth
January 06 2021

Health bosses have been accused of failing more than a third of a million
people amid claims an abortion service has been stopped.

Amnesty International said a failure by the Health Minister to commission
services and provide funding has forced the South Eastern Trust to cease the
provision of vital abortion care.

Continued: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-health-chiefs-accused-over-lack-of-abortion-care-39936938.html

06.01.2021

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Amnesty International

Amnesty International Northern Ireland

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Abortion and the Covid-19 vaccine

There is a false moral controversy that is only of interest to the Vatican in its global crusade against legal pregnancy terminations

DEBORA DINIZ, GISELLE CARINO
04 JAN 2021

Even when addressing a global emergency like the Covid-19 pandemic, the Catholic Church clings to its usual fanaticism by couching abortion as a more pressing moral concern than the possibility of saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

The trouble this time are cell lines drawn from a kidney and a cornea which have been grown in laboratories since the 1970s and 1980s. During this time they have served to produce drug treatments for such grueling disorders as hemophilia, rheumatoid arthritis and cystic fibrosis, as well as vaccines against chicken pox, hepatitis A, rubella, and shingles. But what is it about these cell lines that bothers the Catholic Church’s male leadership so much, especially US and Canadian bishops? The origin of the lines: samples from the kidney and cornea of two aborted fetuses.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/spanish_news/2021-01-04/abortion-and-the-covid-19-vaccine.html