Abortion access in Thailand hampered by stigma and limited resources

Sunday, 27 Nov 2022

BANGKOK (The Straits Times/ANN): After finding out in 2020 that she was five weeks pregnant, Kiri (not her real name), then 24, knew she wanted to get an abortion. “It was quite a clear option for me,” said Kiri, who had just started a new job and was not ready to be a mother or get married.

But the process took a lot longer. Not knowing any local abortion avenues, it took her three weeks of research, calls and refusals before she finally secured an appointment to terminate the pregnancy in another province, a two-hour drive from her home in Bangkok.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2022/11/27/abortion-access-in-thailand-hampered-by-stigma-and-limited-
resources

Texas – She wanted to be a mom. When the pregnancy failed, she almost died waiting for an abortion

A Texas couple is sharing their story, because they're afraid it will happen to others.

Nov. 3, 2022
By Danielle Campoamor

Amanda and Josh Zurawski couldn't wait to be "mom" and "dad."

Now, after a heartbreaking pregnancy complication and a new Texas law that required her doctors to wait until her life was in danger before they performed an abortion, Amanda feels lucky just to be alive.

Continued: https://www.today.com/parents/pregnancy/texas-woman-shares-almost-died-waiting-abortion-rcna52961

03.11.2022

Cervical incompetency

Dr. Heather Irobunda

Dr. Jennifer Lincoln

maternal health complications

Obstetricians for Reproductive Justice

pregnancy complications

USA – At 18 weeks pregnant, she faced an immense decision with just days to make it

October 27, 2022
Selena Simmons-Duffin
11-Minute Listen, with transcript

In April, Karla Renée got a surprise positive on a pregnancy test. She and her husband Sam had tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant before and had expected they'd need fertility treatments.

"For it to just happen naturally felt like a miracle," she says. "We were ecstatic."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/27/1131410832/abortion-law-exception-fetal-anomaly

27.10.2022

chorionic villus sampling

women's abortion stories

United States

Health

Human Rights

USA – For one rape survivor, new abortion bans bring back old, painful memories

August 26, 2022
Sarah McCammon, Lauren Hodges
10-Minute Listen with Transcript

SANTA FE, N.M. — This summer, when Elaine heard the news stories about a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who'd become pregnant as a result of rape and had to travel out of state for an abortion, it was hard to look away.

"I knew it was coming," she said. "I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone like me hit the news. And that a doctor would go public on the effects of these laws."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/26/1119240260/for-one-rape-survivor-new-abortion-bans-bring-back-old-painful-memories

26.08.2022

women's abortion stories

United States

Health

Human Rights

I was pregnant, and getting an out-of-state termination was already scary. Then I got caught out by a fake abortion clinic.

Bethany Dawson
Aug 21, 2022

This article is based on conversations with Anna Smith, who asked that her real name not be used, from Kansas City, Missouri, who needed an abortion in a state where the procedure has been illegal since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. She detailed the problems she faced trying to cross the state line to get an abortion.

Roe v. Wade being overturned broke my heart. In the red state of Missouri, we had a trigger ban waiting for the Supreme Court judgment to drop. The moment it did, I knew every woman in my state would have their life changed.

Continued: https://www.insider.com/missouri-fake-abortion-clinic-tried-sabotage-a-womans-pregnancy-termination-2022-8

Why married women procure abortions in Uganda

DAVID MAFABI
August 17, 2022

MBALE – When Ms Agatha Negesa [Not her real name] got married, she had her family life planned out well, this is because she did not want to produce too early, too soon, too often, and too late.

She had a plan and target of having three children but also remaining at her workplace stable by the age of 35. Everything went well according to her plan by the time she gave birth to her third born in February 2017.

Continued: https://www.pmldaily.com/investigations/special-reports/2022/08/why-married-women-procure-abortions-in-uganda.html

Why the Right to an Abortion Matters for Every Person

In a deeply personal essay, the actor Sophia Bush and her husband, Grant Hughes, share the impact abortion has had on their life.

By Sophia Bush and Grant Hughes
July 13, 2022

The emotions I feel—rage, fear, pain, frustration, sadness, empathy—are all-consuming as I, along with millions of you, grapple with the enormity of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which for the last 50 years has protected our fundamental right to abortion care, and to self-determination. It’s infuriating to watch lawmakers tune out the cries of medical professionals and to see women treated—in the halls of a government that purports to be founded on “liberty and justice for all”—as less-than, as though their needs and their lives don’t matter. And it is deeply painful to see people consigned—legislated—to suffering. Our right to reproductive choice is fundamental to our democracy, so much so that one of the societal changes that signifies a backsliding democracy, one of the surefire things that happens anywhere when equality is being chipped away, is the rollback of the rights of women, and particularly those relating to bodily autonomy. Without reproductive choice, we have no autonomy. And so years ago I joined the fight for womxn to control their own bodies.

https://www.glamour.com/story/why-the-right-to-an-abortion-matters-for-every-person

13.07.2022

National Advocates for Pregnant Women

prosecuting women for miscarriage

‘Women are treated like walking incubators’: Malta’s fight for abortion

The island nation is the only country in the EU in which termination is still illegal under any circumstances, forcing women to have the procedure abroad or else risk prosecution. But women’s rights groups are pushing for change

by Rachel Cooke
Sun 19 Jun 2022

Elle doesn’t find it easy to talk about her
abortion, not because she regrets it – she would do the same again without any
hesitation – but because the memory of the terrible, almost overwhelming, fear
and isolation she experienced at the time still makes her feel so angry. “I’m
privileged,” she says, twisting the ring on her index finger. “I could afford
to travel. But what about those less fortunate than me? I know of a woman who
felt so desperate when she found out she was pregnant again, she put her three
children in front of some cartoons on the TV, and went straight upstairs to the
bathroom to begin launching herself from the toilet on to the floor in the hope
of inducing a miscarriage.” She’s fighting tears now. “That woman almost killed
herself. What about her? Does anyone want to hear her story?”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/19/the-fight-for-abortion-in-malta

With Roe set to fall, minors seeking abortion have few choices left

June 8, 2022
Ailsa Chang, Jonaki Mehta, Sarah Handel 8-Minute Listen with Transcript

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Rosann Mariappuram of Jane's Due Process about the impact Roe's fall would have on abortion access for minors. A teenager shares her experience navigating judicial bypass.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:
As we await the Supreme Court decision that's likely to drop later this month, potentially overturning federal abortion protections across this country, we wanted to talk about some of the most vulnerable people who do seek abortions - minors. And we're going to start with a story of a young woman in Texas whom we will call B. That's her first initial. She's not ready for her family to know her story. B was 17 in her senior year of high school back at the end of 2020. She was at her partner's house one day when she had a sinking feeling.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/08/1103785044/with-roe-set-to-fall-minors-seeking-abortion-have-few-choices-left

My Mother’s Abortion Saved My Life

And gave her own a much happier ending.

BY JENN LYONS
JUNE 06, 2022

A few years ago, I had a frank conversation regarding abortion with one of my childhood friends. We’d lost contact with each other, but I always remembered Jessica (not her real name) as a sweet girl with dimples and a fantastic smile. Her mother had been a bit of a hippie, so I’d always assumed Jessica would follow that route: charity work at food banks and protests against Big Agra, different varietals of kombucha fermenting in her basement.

Instead, she’d gone the good Christian wife and mother route. Not what I would’ve done, personally, but Jessica seemed happy, and I respected her choices. But a few years back, Jessica made a statement on social media that made me think she was planning to vote for Trump. That she was a one-issue voter, that issue being abortion. That if Trump outlawed abortion, she didn’t care what else he did.

Continued: https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/06/abortion-domestic-violence-personal-story.html

06.06.2022