Total criminalisation of abortion is a threat to sexual and reproductive health in Brazil

BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r52
Published 10 January 2025
Michelle Fernandez, Luísa M M Fernandes, Melania M R de Amorim

In Brazil, a proposed constitutional amendment is currently being discussed in the National Congress, aiming to criminalise abortion in the country entirely. It stipulates prison sentences for women who undergo the procedure, ranging from 6 to 20 years, regardless of the circumstances. The proposal equates abortion with the crime of homicide. The suggested penalties for abortion are harsher than those currently imposed on rapists, who face a maximum of 10 years in prison. The proposed amendment would threaten the reproductive rights and health of women in Brazil, and directly affect their dignity and autonomy.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj.r52

A Coast Guard Commander Miscarried. She Nearly Died After Being Denied Care.

by Erin Edwards for ProPublica and Robin Fields
Dec. 13, 2024

The night the EMTs carried Elizabeth Nakagawa from her home, bleeding and in pain, the tarp they’d wrapped her in reminded her of a body bag.

Nakagawa, 39, is a Coast Guard commander: stoic, methodical, an engineer by trade. But as they maneuvered her past her young daughters’ bedroom, down the narrow steps and into the ambulance, she felt a stab of fear. She might never see her girls again.

Then came a blast of anger. She’d been treated for a miscarriage before. She knew her life never should have been in danger.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/elizabeth-nakagawa-miscarriage-military-tricare-abortion-policy

USA – Her baby was going to die. Abortion laws forced her to give birth anyway

Photographs by Danielle Villasana
Story by Rebecca Wright, CNN
Published March 31, 2024

Samantha Casiano spent this month planning her daughter’s first birthday party. The 30-year-old east Texas mother of four knows how to throw a good party for her kids.

But this family get-together on Friday was not a traditional party, despite Casiano purchasing a cake and balloons for the event.

Instead, Casiano’s family spent the day at the gravesite of Halo Hope Villasana, Casiano’s daughter who was born with anencephaly, a fatal condition that prevents a child’s brain and skull from forming properly.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/03/health/texas-abortion-law-mother-cnnphotos/

31.03.2024

fatal fetal abnormality

forced childbirth

Luis Fernando Villasana

A Young Woman Almost Died Due to Texas’ Abortion Bans. Now She’s Battling to Save Other Women

Jan 12, 2024
by BONNIE FULLER

“I can’t carry a pregnancy again,” Amanda Zurawski said sadly, but matter of factly. The Austin, Texas, resident will never be able to carry a pregnancy again because she was refused a necessary abortion in her state after her water broke at 18 weeks, long before her baby would have been viable.

Tragically, the delay in receiving what used to be normal healthcare allowed a massive bacterial infection to develop and turn into life-threatening sepsis—which ravaged her body and reproductive organs.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2024/01/12/amanda-zurawski-texas-abortion-kate-cox-republicans-womens-health/

UK – Guernsey woman says abortion booked ‘without my permission’

Oct 5, 2023
By John Fernandez, BBC Guernsey political reporter

A mother has spoken out about how she felt poorly treated by the Medical Specialist Group (MSG), prompting her to seek out a second opinion elsewhere.

Soozy Jenner's baby Grace was diagnosed with a life-threatening condition while in the womb. Mrs Jenner, from Guernsey, said she was then booked in by doctors at the MSG for an abortion without her consent.

The MSG said: "No patient can be booked in for a procedure without their consent."

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-67011336

05.10.2023

News

anencephaly

British Medical Association

Dr Sandie Bohin

Medical Specialist Group

‘How sick is sick enough?’ Abortion bans leave providers, patients questioning when care is OK

Saturday, September 2, 2023
By Elise Catrion Gregg | News21

AUSTIN, Texas — Amanda and Josh Zurawski sit in the house they bought last year, the dream home they intended to share with their future daughter.

They’ve told their story too many times now, but they brace themselves to tell it once more — from a room just above the backyard where they will one day plant a tree in memory of the baby who never made it home.
It will be a willow, in honor of the name they chose for their little girl.

Continued: https://nondoc.com/2023/09/02/how-sick-is-sick-enough-abortion-bans-leave-providers-patients-questioning-when-care-is-ok/

For one Texas doctor, abortion bans are personal and professional

August 21, 2023
Selena Simmons-Duffin
4-Minute Listen with Transcript

On a recent Friday night, as her husband made dinner at the family's home in Dallas and her toddlers ran around underfoot, Dr. Austin Dennard saw an email come in on her phone.

The judge who heard her testify last month in an Austin courtroom about Texas's abortion laws had reached a decision. Dennard is among 13 women who sued the state arguing that the current abortion bans are unclear when it comes to pregnancy complications. She is also an OB-GYN, and she's nearing the end of a healthy pregnancy – she was visibly pregnant while on the stand.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/21/1194482842/texas-pregnant-doctor-abortion-bans

21.08.2023

Center for Reproductive Rights

Doctors testify about confusion surrounding Texas’ abortion bans

Doctors testified as part of a hearing for a preliminary injunction on the bans.

By Nadine El-Bawab
Video by Jessie DiMartino
July 20, 2023

On the second day of a hearing over a lawsuit filed against the state of Texas, physicians who practice medicine outside the state testified on Thursday that Texas' abortion laws are confusing and would make it difficult to provide necessary care to patients.

They were joined by a physician in Texas who was pregnant herself and delivered emotional testimony about having to go out of the state to get an abortion.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/doctors-testify-confusion-surrounding-texas-abortion-bans/story?id=101521408

Kentucky couple ‘furious’ state abortion laws meant they couldn’t hold their daughter to say goodbye

By Elizabeth Cohen, Carma Hassan and Amanda Musa, CNN

Fri July 7, 2023

All Heather and Nick Maberry wanted to do was hold their dead baby, but strict Kentucky abortion laws meant they couldn’t.

They were “furious” that the laws meant they never got to kiss or cuddle their daughter, Willow Rose, or tell her goodbye, Heather said. “We’ll never know what her face looked like. We’ll never know what it was like to hold her in her arms,” she said. “We’re grieving someone that we’ve never seen.”

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/07/health/kentucky-abortion-anencephaly/index.html

In post-Roe Texas, 2 mothers with traumatic pregnancies walk very different paths

July 4, 2023
Selena Simmons-Duffin

The funeral did not go as Samantha Casiano had hoped — she did not get an open casket for the baby she named Halo.

"I was super-heartbroken," Casiano tells NPR. "It's the last time I was going to be able to see my daughter. It would have been the first time that a lot of my family members were able to see her."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/04/1185904719/texas-abortion-bans-dobbs-fetal-anomaly