Indonesia – Komnas Perempuan Values The Need For Safe Abortion Services For Rape Victims

02 Oktober 2024

JAKARTA - The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) views that the fulfillment of the rights of women victims of rape and sexual violence to safe abortion services should be adequate and comprehensive.

"When this service is not available, victims are at risk of engaging in the practice of unsafe abortion which will be fatal to him, or then placing him as a party in conflict with the law on the request of abortion to take the life of the fetus he just born. This condition makes the victim of a criminal act of sexual violence even worse," said Komnas Perempuan member Satyawanti Mashudi when confirmed in Jakarta, Wednesday, October 2, confiscated by Antara.

Continued: https://voi.id/en/news/421604


Indonesia – Safe abortion saves lives

In practice, women have long been struggling to access safe abortions, even when they have the right to terminate the pregnancy.

Editorial board (The Jakarta Post)
Sat, August 10, 2024

The government just enacted a new rule that makes it easier for women to get safe abortions in cases of rape or medical emergency. This is part of a larger health reform that was introduced last year to improve women's reproductive health and reduce maternal deaths.

The regulation requires certain large clinics and hospitals to provide medical assistance before and after abortion for rape survivors with a gestational age up to 14 weeks, and women with life-threatening medical conditions or if the fetus has lethal anomalies. The regulation has been welcomed by women's and human rights groups, but they have also criticized a requirement for rape survivors to obtain a statement from the police attesting that their pregnancy resulted from rape or sexual violence.

Continued: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2024/08/10/safe-abortion-saves-lives.html


Indonesian police granted exclusive authority to approve abortions for rape victims

Previously, women could obtain this document from medical professionals or psychologists.

Reuters
August 03, 2024

New rules issued this week by Indonesia will make the police the only authority allowed to give the go-ahead for abortions for rape victims, drawing criticism from rights activists who said the changes were regressive.

Abortion is illegal in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, except in the event of a medical emergency or rape. The new regulations stipulate that to be recognised as a rape victim, women must obtain a document that only the police can issue.

Previously, women could obtain this document from medical professionals or psychologists.

Continued: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2485260/indonesian-police-granted-exclusive-authority-to-approve-abortions-for-rape-victims


Indonesia widens abortion window for health emergencies, pregnancy due to rape

But Muslim-majority nation’s top clerical body slams move saying fetus has a soul at 40 days.

Pizaro Gozali Idrus and Arie Firdaus
August 1, 2024

Indonesia has widened the window to 14 from six weeks after conception for women to have abortions in cases of health emergencies and pregnancies from rape and sexual violence – a divisive change in the Muslim-majority country where termination is mostly illegal.

Gender rights activists in Southeast Asia’s most populous country who have been demanding the change welcomed the move that came two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending that nation’s right to abortion.

Continued: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/abortion-window-widened-08012024185515.html


Government of Canada commits to increasing sexual and reproductive rights including access to abortion services

IPAS
July 21, 2023

Ipas is pleased to announce a partnership with the government of Canada to increase access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care for women and girls in Bolivia, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Canadian government has pledged $10 million CAD for programmatic work in Bolivia, Indonesia and Nigeria to increase the sexual and reproductive autonomy of women and girls by expanding their access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and enhancing their ability to make decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/government-of-canada-commits-to-increasing-sexual-and-reproductive-rights-including-access-to-abortion-services/


New Indonesian law: No sex outside marriage, no abortion, no Marxism

December 6, 2022
BY NINIEK KARMINI

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)—Indonesia’s Parliament unanimously passed a long-expected revision of the country’s penal code on Tuesday that criminalizes sex outside of marriage for citizens as well as foreigners, prohibits promotion of contraception, forbids progressive political thought, and bans defamation of the president and state institutions.

The amended code also expands an existing blasphemy law and maintains a five-year prison term for deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia’s six recognized religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

Continued: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/new-indonesian-law-no-sex-outside-marriage-no-abortion-no-marxism/


Indonesia – Making abortion legal

Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post)
Wed, June 29, 2022

The United States Supreme Court recently overturned the constitutional right to abortion, reversing a nearly 50-year-old precedent that had been a milestone in the struggle for women’s rights in the country.

In the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling, the court found that the petitioner, who was known for the purposes of the proceedings as Jane Roe, had a right to end her pregnancy in Texas and established guidelines for legal abortion throughout the country. But the precedent continued to be challenged thereafter.

https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/06/28/making-abortion-legal.html


Reproductive control of Indigenous women continues around the world, say survivors and researchers

Survivors of forced sterilization and coerced contraception from Canada, Peru and Indonesia will meet with researchers to share stories, heal and advocate for change.

June 27, 2022
by Gillian Rutherford

Survivors of forced sterilization and coerced contraception from Canada, Peru and Indonesia will gather with academic researchers at a summit in Edmonton this summer to share stories, heal through art and ceremony, and set an agenda for change.

The full extent of reproductive control practices around the world is not known, but they have been historically — and continue to be — targeted at Indigenous, poor and migrant women, according to principal investigator Denise Spitzer, professor in the School of Public Health and former Canada Research Chair in Gender, Migration and Health.

Continued: https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2022/06/reproductive-control-of-indigenous-women-continues-around-the-world.html


Abortion in Asia: The limits of choice

The overturning of Roe v. Wade could be a watershed for U.S. women's rights. Is the same true in Asia?

ISMI DAMAYANTI, KIRAN SHARMA and ARISA KAMEI, Nikkei staff writers
JUNE 15, 2022

"Keeping it was never an option," says Rara, a woman in her 20s from Jakarta, Indonesia.

It was 2017 and Rara (not her real name) was studying communication at a private university in the capital. After falling pregnant by her unmarried partner, who had another girlfriend at the time, she felt she could not disappoint her devout Muslim parents.

Continued: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Abortion-in-Asia-The-limits-of-choice


Southeast Asia – Less Contraception Use In A Pandemic?

Athira Nortajuddin
15 March 2021

Just last year when over half of humanity was confined to their homes due to COVID-19 preventive measures, Karex, a Malaysian contraceptives manufacturer predicted a global condom shortage as the pandemic shuttered factories and disrupted supply chains.

This came as Malaysia, one of the world’s top rubber producers and a major source of condoms, imposed a nationwide lockdown – known locally as the Movement Control Order (MCO). The MCO was implemented sometime in mid-March 2020 for several months.

Continued: https://theaseanpost.com/article/less-contraception-use-pandemic