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

This is Not Your Typical Love Letter: An Abortion Story

12/13/2020
by SARAH ALEXANDER

A new short film on YouTube tells the story of one young woman’s experience terminating a pregnancy while offering a glimpse into the plight of the contemporary generation to dismantle an archaic stigma.

This is Not a Love Letter is, in truth, a conversation. The film conveys with an impunative honesty writer Isabel Pask’s own experience soliciting an abortion in the U.S. It is sequential and deliberate in form. It is intimate and brazen in feeling. It builds to a catharsis that has the capacity to resonate with anyone who has ever felt silenced or marginalized. It exudes love, laughter and sisterhood. In Pask’s words, it is a commentary on “the resilience of women”.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/12/13/abortion-united-states-this-is-not-a-love-letter-youtube/

13.12.2020

This is not a love letter

Victoria Pedretti

women's abortion stories

Health

Human Rights

It can feel uncomfortable to keep telling our abortion stories – but it is still essential

Many experiences are like mine: unexceptional, not ‘deserving’ or ‘worthy’. The more of those testimonies we hear, the stronger we are in our fight to protect women’s rights

Emma Beddington
Mon 16 Nov 2020

One of the last things I did before lockdown was attend a rally supporting the protests against Poland’s constitutional court ruling that introduced a near-total ban on abortion. Hardening the country’s already terrifyingly restrictive current law, it would, if enforced, remove one of the few narrow exceptions still permitted: termination in the event of congenital birth defects.

The scale of protests in Poland has been extraordinary – and hopeful. With up to 100,000 people gathering nightly in Warsaw, they seem to have forced a pause in implementation of this appalling ruling. My damp, local version was less impressive – there were fewer than 100 of us (including dogs and babies), carefully distanced, in cagoules and masks – but no less moving, hearing young Polish women and men stand up and denounce a sclerotic, repressive ancien regime I’m desperate to see them sweep away.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/16/it-can-feel-uncomfortable-to-keep-telling-our-abortion-stories-but-it-is-still-essential

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

Amanda Shires on Why Abortion Rights Matter

In an exclusive op-ed, singer-songwriter discusses the crucial need for reproductive freedom in America

By AMANDA SHIRES
October 30, 2020

Amanda Shires is one of Nashville’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, winning widespread acclaim for such releases as 2018’s To the Sunset and last year’s debut from The Highwomen, the all-star group she founded with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby. Last month, Shires released “The Problem,” a single recorded with her husband, Jason Isbell, that depicts an honest conversation about abortion rights. All proceeds from the song’s sales benefited the Yellowhammer Fund, a reproductive justice organization based in Alabama. In this exclusive op-ed for Rolling Stone, Shires elaborates on why reproductive rights mean so much to her.

I am not a baby-killer. I have never killed a baby. I have had cells removed from my body by a doctor. But no matter what the accusatory asshats on Facebook would have you believe, I am not chopping up and dismembering anyone.

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/amanda-shires-abortion-rights-op-ed-1082647/

30.10.2020

Philippines – ’Give women options’: Advocates push for decriminalization of abortion

OCT 26, 2020
BONZ MAGSAMBOL

'There are a lot of reasons why women need to get an abortion. It's not just unwanted pregnancy. There are victims of abuse and rape,' shares one guest.

"We want to give women options whenever they face a particular situation, and that’s not something we can judge them for."

This was what Shiph Belonguel, youth reproductive health rights advocate, said during the 3rd episode of Spilling the Tea, a webinar series held by Rappler and SheDecides Philippines, a movement that promotes the fundamental rights of adolescent girls and women.

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/relationships/advocates-push-decriminalization-abortion

Polish woman’s quest for abortion exposes conflicted society

By Alicja Ptak
OCTOBER 19, 2020

WARSAW (Reuters) - In April, in the midst of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown in Poland, Katarzyna found out that the baby she was carrying had a severe genetic disorder and would probably die before birth or shortly after.

She immediately decided to terminate the pregnancy. When she finally managed to, five weeks later and after meeting some 10 doctors, securing a fallback plan in Germany and researching home methods, she knew she would not try to get pregnant again.

Continued: https://ca.reuters.com/article/idCAKBN27429N

This Is The Perfect Reason To Have An Abortion

MIREL ZAMAN
OCTOBER 20, 2020

There’s a good chance that you support abortion rights if you clicked on this story. You may already suspect that the title of the article is purposely attention-getting and even mildly tongue-in-cheek. You understand that there is no perfect reason to have an abortion; or, rather, that every reason is the perfect reason — as long as the person making the choice was able to decide for themselves, and follow through on that decision without unwanted interference.

And yet, even within communities that ostensibly support the right to abortion, there exist pervasive and damaging stigmas against certain “types” of abortion. “We’ve found that when people share their abortion stories, they often hear: ‘Well I’m pro-choice, but — I think you waited too long.’ ‘I think you had too many.’ ‘You didn’t use birth control’,” says Renee Bracey Sherman, a reproductive justice activist, author of Saying Abortion Aloud, and executive director of We Testify.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10109376/reasons-for-abortion-stories-women

Roe v. Wade Might Be Overturned Soon — This Is Worse Than You Think

MOLLY LONGMAN
OCTOBER 20, 2020

Angel Kai’s* heart sank when she found out she was pregnant again. The 20-year-old had delivered her second child only three months prior. She was on unpaid maternity leave from her job in Amarillo, TX, and she’d just received a $130 electricity bill in the mail that she didn’t know if she’d be able to pay. “Everything that was happening financially was just bad,” she remembers. “I couldn’t have another kid. I knew getting an abortion would be the best thing, because I couldn’t walk up the street to get a soda if I wanted one at the time. We were that tight on money.”

It turned out, though, that Angel couldn’t even afford the abortion she knew she wanted. Her health plan was offered under state-funded Medicaid, which, in Texas, only covers abortion in cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest. So, Angel Googled “abortion financial help.”

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10112297/what-happens-if-roe-v-wade-overturned-state-abortion-laws

20.10.2020

American Civil Liberties Union

American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Americans United for Life

Caitlin Knowles Myers

Catherine Glenn Foster

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

crisis pregnancy centers

Laurie Bertram Roberts

Marcela Howell

Mary Ziegler

Medicaid abortion

Mississippi Freedom Fund

National Abortion Federation

National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda

National Network of Abortion Funds

National Women’s Law Center

Noel León

Planned Parenthood Action Fund

self-managed abortion

Talcott Camp

Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers

TRAP laws

traveling for abortion

trigger laws

women's abortion stories

Women’s Health Protection Act

US – The Mercy of Abortion: What Republicans Get Wrong About Late Medical Terminations

ZawnVillines
Thursday October 15, 2020

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. Thousands of families across the nation will light candles for babies who were born dead, died shortly after birth, or whose births would have killed their mothers, necessitating a medical termination.

I am one of them. My daughter, Ember, died of fatal birth defects.

Continued: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/15/1986801/-The-Mercy-of-Abortion-What-Republicans-Get-Wrong-About-Late-Medical-Terminations

16.10.2020