USA – What It Really Means to Get an Abortion After ‘Fetal Viability’

By Chantelle Lee
December 4, 2024

Kate Dineen was about 33 weeks pregnant with her second child when an ultrasound revealed that her baby had suffered a catastrophic stroke in utero and would likely either die before birth or have a short and painful life.

“This was a deeply wanted pregnancy. Everything had been progressing smoothly,” Dineen, now 41, says. “I was just shocked by the diagnosis first, and heartbroken by the diagnosis, and also certain that I wanted to try and obtain a termination so that I could protect my son from pain and suffering. I knew in that moment that I wanted to make the decision.”

Continued: https://time.com/7199856/abortion-fetal-viability-pregnancy/

Abortion bans are killing women — and states like Texas want to hide the truth

As the laws’ predictable harms come to light, anti-abortion groups want us to look away.

Dec. 3, 2024
By Susan Rinkunas

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision two and a half years ago, state abortion bans have restricted pregnant women’s access to emergency medical care. And as the predictable harms — up to and including death — come to light, some states are acting as if they want to hide them from the public.

…from 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased by 56%, compared with 11% nationwide. But rather than investigate, the state is essentially admitting that the bodies are piling up faster than the state can address them. Its solution is not to dedicate more time and effort — like, perhaps, increasing the size of the 23-member committee — but to simply brush these women’s lives under the rug and skip ahead to 2024.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-georgia-women-deaths-abortion-ban-rcna182540

Why Trump’s next presidency poses a new global threat to women’s health

Rachel Schraer
Dec 3, 2024

Immediately after Donald Trump clinched a second term in the White House, mail orders of abortion pills spiked across the U.S. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood, the country’s biggest provider of reproductive health services, saw an eightfold increase in appointments for long-acting contraceptive devices known as IUDs.

The reality of another Trump presidency appears to have stoked fears among many Americans that their access to abortion and contraception could be further restricted. But the issue stretches beyond U.S. borders. Around the world, hundreds of millions of women who had no say in Trump’s election could lose vital health services because of his decisions.

Continued: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/why-trump-s-next-presidency-poses-a-new-global-threat-to-women-s-health/ar-AA1vbYiK

Fellowship opens door to comprehensive abortion access coverage in U.S., France

Lara Salahi
December 2, 2024

Ariel Cohen, a health policy reporter for CQ Roll Call, recently completed a comprehensive series of six stories examining abortion care policies in the United States and France. This in-depth reporting project, made possible through AHCJ’s International Health Study Fellowship, allowed Cohen to spend two weeks in France, comparing and contrasting the abortion policies and practices of both nations.

Her work comes at a critical time, as the U.S. grapples with the aftermath of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, while France moves to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution.

Continued: https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2024/12/fellowship-opens-door-to-comprehensive-abortion-access-coverage-in-u-s-france/

02.12.2024

Interviews/Podcasts

Ariel Cohen

Association of Health Care Journalists

CQ Roll Call

International Health Study Fellowship

USA – Study of Crisis Pregnancy Centers Reveals Misleading and Dangerous Claims

A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first national assessment of crisis pregnancy centers and their operations

December 02, 2024
Mika Ono

A new study from scientists at the University of California San Diego introduces a powerful new approach to understanding the operation of crisis pregnancy centers, non-profit organizations dedicated to an anti-abortion agenda. The study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first account of the practices of crisis pregnancy centers (CPC) operating in the United States.

"While our study shows crisis pregnancy centers provide valuable community services, like parenting classes, there is a clear need for consumer safety measures to prevent the promotion and use of their questionable medical services," said John W. Ayers, Ph.D., who is deputy director of informatics at the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, in addition to scientist at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute, co-creator of ChoiceWatch.org and study coauthor.

Continued: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/study-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-reveals-misleading-and-dangerous-claims

USA – “We Never Assumed Anything”: A Lifetime of Providing Abortion Care

In their new book We Choose To, Dr. Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd reflect on their decades helping women who needed abortions—before, during, and after Roe.

Regina Mahone
November 29, 2024

Five years ago, when Curtis Boyd, MD, and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd, PhD, RN, set out to write a book about their lives and 50-year-career providing abortion care in Texas and New Mexico, Roe was still the law of the land. But their book, which was published in September, made its debut two years after that landmark case was overturned and just a few short months before Donald J. Trump will retake the White House. As they explain in the Afterword of We Choose To: A Memoir of Providing Abortion Care Before, During, and After Roe (Disruption Books), the work they devoted their lives to, expanding access to abortions, is being undone—and once Trump is back in power, that reversal will only accelerate. We can expect that Trump will seek out ways to impose international abortion bans like the global gag rule, and his supporters would like to see him enforce the Comstock Act, which would ban mailing abortion pills. Knowing all of that, Glenna’s question in the Afterword hits hard: “Why did we bother?”

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/curtis-glenna-boyd-abortion-provider-interview/

Number of US abortions fell by only 2% after wave of state bans, CDC report reveals

First major report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallies abortion provision in the post-Roe US

Carter Sherman
Wed 27 Nov 2024

Despite the wave of state abortion bans that took effect after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022, the number of abortions performed in the US fell by only 2% that year, according to the first major report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to tally abortion provision in the post-Roe United States.

The findings in the report, released Wednesday, echo other research that has uncovered that US abortion rates have surprisingly risen in the years since Roe’s demise. In 2023, the US saw more than 1m abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortions and restrictions on the procedure – the highest number recorded in more than a decade.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/post-roe-abortion-rate

27.11.2024

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Society of Family Planning

United States

Health

‘Grave and Serious Moment’ for Reproductive Rights

Dr Anu Kumar, CEO of the global reproductive justice organisation Ipas, outlines the impact of a global clampdown on abortion

27/11/2024
Kerry Cullinan

“Unsafe abortion remains a leading cause of maternal mortality, and it is entirely preventable,” says Dr Anu Kumar, CEO of Ipas, an international reproductive justice organisation. “So there is something we can do about it. We know what to do and we know how to do it. We just need to do it.”

But Kumar concedes that the election of Donald Trump as United States (US) President has ushered in a “pretty grave and serious moment”.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/grave-and-serious-moment-for-reproductive-rights/

Canadian non-profit that facilitates abortion pill access sees surge in U.S. requests

By Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press
November 27, 2024

A Canadian non-profit that helps women obtain the abortion pill in countries with restrictions says it saw a fourfold increase in U.S. requests after the presidential election.

The majority of inquiries came from women who were not pregnant, suggesting many want the drug on hand in case they need it, says Venny Ala-Siurua, executive director of Women on Web.

Ala-Siurua, based in Montreal, says some women fear abortions could become illegal or harder to access in the U.S. after Donald Trump takes office.

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/11/27/canadian-non-profit-that-facilitates-abortion-pill-access-sees-surge-in-u-s-requests/

USA -Why abortions rose after Roe was overturned

Contrary to many predictions, abortions did not decline nationally after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. Here's what's behind the trend.

Nov. 26, 2024
By Aria Bendix

It seemed only logical after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that abortion rates would go down and births would go up. Instead, the opposite happened: Abortions went up last year and the country’s fertility rate hit a historic low.

More than 1 million abortions were recorded in the United States in 2023 — the highest in a decade, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion access. So far this year, abortion rates have remained about the same as in the last six months of 2023, preliminary data show.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortions-rose-roe-overturned-why-rcna181094

26.11.2024