UK – Pregnant woman shocked after GP ‘gave her anti-abortion leaflet’

Woman was reportedly handed information from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children at London clinic

Shanti Das
Sat 30 Jul 2022

A pregnant woman who told her GP she was considering having an abortion says she was left “shocked and traumatised” after being given a leaflet for an anti-abortion group.

The woman, 38, says she was seeking treatment for a bladder problem on 19 July when a doctor at All Saints Medical Centre in Plumstead, south-east London, asked whether she was pregnant.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/30/pregnant-woman-shocked-gp-anti-abortion-leaflet-society-protection-unborn-children-spuc


Ireland – ’Frightening’ language and no abortion information: Warning issued over rogue pregnancy services

Women who have inadvertently engaged with these groups have found the experience “extremely distressing”.

January 17, 2021

THE HSE HAS issued a warning about unregulated crisis pregnancy services which present themselves as unbiased but have an anti-abortion stance.

A number of these services have profiles on social media and also advertise with stickers and posters in Dublin and other locations.

Continued: https://www.thejournal.ie/unregulated-crisis-pregnancy-services-in-ireland-5650166-Jan2022/


Texas abortion ban means ‘other US states will follow’, pro-choice campaigners warn

‘Rich women will have abortions, and poor women will die or have babies. That’s what’s going to happen in Texas’

By Jasmine Andersson, iNews UK
September 2, 2021

Texas’s strict new abortion ban puts women’s lives at risk and could cause other US states to follow suit, campaigners have warned.

In a major blow to abortion rights, the US Supreme Court refused to block the law – known as S.B. 8 – which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/texas-abortion-law-ban-us-states-pro-choice-campaigners-1179534


Ireland – Government U-turn on safe access zones at abortion clinics

SAT, 07 AUG, 2021
ELAINE LOUGHLIN, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR

The Government has scrapped promised laws to introduce safe access zones outside maternity hospitals and clinics providing abortion services.

Campaigners have hit out at Health Minister Stephen Donnelly for quietly shelving legislation to protect women and staff from intimidation when entering healthcare facilities, accusing him of "disregarding the electorate" and "disrespecting pregnant women".

Continued: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40354406.html


Telemedicine for abortions should be here to stay

Jillian Merchant
Monday July 05 2021

In recent weeks the Scottish government published its analysis of responses to its public consultation on the continued use of telemedicine for abortion services. It concluded that it would consider the responses, along with further evidence, before making any decision.

Last week this decision came under fire from the Catholic Media Office. As a starting point, it is important to note that public consultations on healthcare procedures are exceptionally rare. It says a lot about the lack of value and trust, placed by society on women and their health, that the public at large should have any say in medical procedures. There are few, if any, other subjects where scientific advances are seen with such fear and inaction than women’s health.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/telemedicine-for-abortions-should-be-here-to-stay-ww3znv0kh


Slight decrease in the number of abortions carried out in Ireland last year, report shows

The report shows the vast majority of abortions were carried out in early pregnancies

Tue, Jun 29, 2021
Jade Wilson

A total of 6,577 abortions were carried out last year, which is a slight decrease on the first year of the service 2019, official Government figures show.

In 2020, the vast majority of terminations – 6,455 – were carried out in early pregnancies of less than 12 weeks, according to the notification report.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/slight-decrease-in-the-number-of-abortions-carried-out-in-ireland-last-year-report-shows-1.4607044


N. Ireland – Free, safe, legal, local

Emma Campbell describes the long fight for reproductive rights in Northern Ireland

March 24, 2021
Emma Campbell

Northern Ireland has finally emerged from the shadow of a British law that wreaked untold misery on the island of Ireland. On 22 October 2019, tired but buoyed, we celebrated that people were no longer at risk of being charged with a criminal offence for accessing an abortion. After a long struggle, the women of Northern Ireland now have the best abortion law in the UK and Ireland.

Sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act criminalised doctors and abortion seekers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with punishment up to ‘penal servitude for life’. This remained in place until the 1967 Abortion Act allowed abortion to carried out legally in certain circumstances, even if it wasn’t fully decriminalised.

Continued: https://www.redpepper.org.uk/alliance-for-change/


Ireland – Abortion data shows progress made in abortion care but way to go to universal access

Press release, Abortion Rights Campaign
June 30, 2020

“The release of Ireland’s first abortion figures demonstrates a reality we have long known to be true: Irish people get abortions. They always have, they always will. Now, for the first time in the country’s history, free, safe, legal abortion is possible; the repeal of the 8th has brought an end to forced travel overseas or importing pills illegally for many in Ireland,” said Cathie Shiels, Co-convener of the Abortion Rights Campaign.

These figures, which showed that 6,666 people had an abortion in Ireland in 2019, are not comparable to statistics used in the past. Previously, we have relied on UK data which we always knew to be an undercount that failed to capture Irish residents who gave UK addresses, travelled to other destinations overseas or imported pills illegally.

Continued: https://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/2020/06/30/press-release-abortion-data-shows-progress-made-in-abortion-care-but-way-to-go-to-universal-access/


UK – Anti-abortion activists increasingly targeting UK university students

Anti-abortion activists increasingly targeting UK university students
NUS reports rise in anti-abortion societies in students’ unions and demonstrations nationwide

Sally Weale, Education correspondent
Sun 5 Jan 2020

Anti-abortion campaigners are increasingly targeting students at UK universities, where there has been a rise in the number of anti-abortion societies on campus and demonstrations by outside groups displaying graphic imagery.

The campaign has gathered momentum on the back of a continuing debate about freedom of speech in universities. Some student unions have been threatened with legal action if they attempt to prevent anti-abortion groups opening on campus.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/05/anti-abortion-activists-increasingly-targeting-uk-university-students


Ireland still does not have the women-centred abortion service people voted for

Ireland still does not have the women-centred abortion service people voted for

Published: Thursday, December 19, 2019
National Women’s Council of Ireland

As the first year of legal abortion provision for women in Ireland comes to a close, the Abortion Working Group, chaired by the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) and made up of 23 groups working together to ensure safe access to abortion, today raised urgent concerns about the current state of local services, and a lack of leadership.

Orla O’Connor, Chair of the Abortion Working Group and Director of NWCI said,

Continued: https://www.nwci.ie/learn/article/ireland_still_does_not_have_the_women_centred_abortion_service_people_voted