USA – Campus researchers find disinformation on medication abortion webpages

BY ERIC ROGERS | SENIOR STAFF
Jan 25, 2021

UC Berkeley School of Public Health researchers found that four out of the five most presented webpages in response to “abortion pill” queries on Google were less than 50% accurate, in a study published Thursday.

Of the top five most presented webpages, three were anti-abortion, according to lead researcher and first-year doctoral student Betsy Pleasants. She added that these anti-abortion webpages — American Pregnancy Association, Abortion Pill Rescue and Abortion Procedures — had “very limited” factual and clinical information and are covertly affiliated with religious organizations.

Continued: https://www.dailycal.org/2021/01/24/campus-researchers-find-disinformation-on-medication-abortion-webpages/

Poverty and lack of awareness and access forcing many to resort to unsafe abortion

Even 19 years after legalisation, women’s struggle for safe abortion continues. As a result, they put their health at risk and are unable to exercise their rights, experts say.

Samiksha Baral
Published at : January 24, 2021

For months last year, Mina waited for the Covid-19 induced lockdown to end with bated breath.

When the government finally eased months of lockdown in July, Mina, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was all set to run away from her home.

Mina had her own simple reason—she did not want to have the child she was carrying.

Continued: https://kathmandupost.com/health/2021/01/24/poverty-and-lack-of-awareness-and-access-forcing-many-to-resort-to-unsafe-abortion

Why President Biden Should Increase Access to the Abortion Pill

BY MOIRA TAN
JANUARY 20, 2021

In this op-ed, Moira Tan, a 23-year-old Washington, D.C.-based reproductive justice organizer and legal scholar, explains how access to the abortion pill can help young people. She is a member of the Young Womxn of Color 4 Reproductive Justice Leadership Council and a volunteer with Collective Action for Safe Spaces DC.

Nearly 50 years after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade (1973), challenges to abortion continue to deluge the political landscape. From Louisiana to Kentucky to Colorado and Oregon, none of us young people organizing for abortion access in our communities are left unscathed by the relentless attacks on the constitutionally-affirmed procedure. There are unnecessary waiting periods, the proliferation of deceitful clinics, age restrictions, and more, with hundreds of bills and regulations introduced every year at the state and federal levels.

Continued: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/president-biden-abortion-pill

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

Polish pro-choice campaigner helps women bypass abortion law

Issued on: 31/10/2020

Seven years ago, Natalia Broniarczyk had an abortion despite stringent Polish legislation against it.

Now, she is helping other women do the same and taking part in mass protests against a further tightening of an already highly restrictive law.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201031-polish-pro-choice-campaigner-helps-women-bypass-abortion-law

Telemedicine Abortions Are Safe — So Why Are They Still So Hard To Get?

ELIZABETH GULINOLAST
OCTOBER 20, 2020

Katie realized she was pregnant during the first week of April 2020. She decided pretty quickly that she wanted to terminate the pregnancy. She already had two kids, and she’d just been diagnosed with high blood pressure. The condition was still uncontrolled, which made her pregnancy high-risk. But it was just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. She was in full lockdown, and she wasn’t sure if she could get an abortion.

"I was Googling abortions," she tells Refinery29. "My biggest thing was not wanting to actually go to a place." Besides being afraid of catching the virus, the nearest clinic to Katie was six hours away from her home in New Mexico, and she wasn’t sure how she’d find the time to get there.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10015435/medical-abortion-pill-telabortion-access

5 days later pill also to minors without prescription

For the Medicines Agency it is a "turning point for the physical and psychological health protection of adolescents"

October 11, 2020

It will no longer be necessary to have a medical prescription to dispense ulipistral acetate (EllaOne), the drug used for emergency contraception up to five days after intercourse, even to minors.

This was established by the Italian Medicines Agency Aifa with Resolution no. 998 of last 8 October.

Continued: https://www.unionesarda.it/en/articolo/news/italia/2020/10/10/pillola-dei-5-giorni-dopo-anche-alle-minorenni-senza-ricetta-137-1069260.html

11.10.2020

emergency contraception

Italian Medicine Agency Aifa

Bhutan – Demand for abortion pills— a legal dilemma

October 10, 2020

The news of “demand for abortion pills rise in Thimphu” in Kuensel this week deserves our attention. The horrifying stories of abandonment of human fetuses and informal reports of unsafe abortions taking place across the border are sadly not uncommon in Bhutan. The issue of abortion is sensitive and controversial because the very nature of abortion is emotional, often against one’s social values and spiritual beliefs. It is also of moral and ethical dilemma among physicians.

Section 146 of the Penal Code of Bhutan (PCB), 2004, criminalizes abortion except when the mother’s life is in danger or of unsound mental condition or when pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. This provision is discriminatory itself as abortion is a crime only if certain criteria are not met violating the rights of both the mother and fetus.

Continued : https://kuenselonline.com/demand-for-abortion-pills-a-legal-dilemma/

Supreme Court denies request to lift injunction on FDA abortion pill rule

OCT. 8, 2020
By Daniel Uria

Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to lift a nationwide injunction preventing the Trump administration from regulating a pill commonly used for medication abortions.

In its first action on reproductive rights since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the shorthanded court rejected the bid to remove the emergency stay against restoring regulations that require patients to see a medical provider before receiving Mifeprex.

Continued: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/10/08/Supreme-Court-denies-request-to-lift-injunction-on-FDA-abortion-pill-rule/9871602209120/

08.10.2020

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Judge Theodore Chuang

India – Why your nearby chemist doesn’t have abortion pills, and why he should stock them

A new study throws light on the availability
of prescription-based medical abortion drugs with chemists as a way to prevent
early abortion care costs among other benefits for women exercising their
choice of terminating pregnancy

Written by Jayashree Narayanan
Published: August 19, 2020

Marking 49 years of the inception of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)
Act in 1971, a new study out on August 10, 2020 evaluated the availability of
Medical Abortion (MA) drugs in six Indian states to understand the awareness
levels and perceptions of the chemists stocking and selling MA pills.

Despite the passage of the MTP (Amendment) Bill in March 2020 that extended the
upper limit for permitting abortion to 24 weeks from 20 weeks, the
non-availability of MA drugs, which are approved for use up to nine weeks of
pregnancy in India, is seen to be “threatening” to women’s access to safe
abortion and proper reproductive healthcare.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/medical-abortion-pills-mtp-act-chemist-study-6552205/