Honduras: UN experts deplore further attacks against right to safe abortion

United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
19 January 2021

GENEVA – UN human rights experts* today condemned a proposed bill that would basically block any potential progress on women's and girls' sexual and reproductive rights in Honduras, a country where one in four girls has been pregnant at least once before reaching age 19**.

The Constitutional amendment presented by a
deputy from the National Party and Vice-President of the Honduran Congress on
11 January would incorporate the absolute prohibition of abortion in article 67
of the national Constitution.

Continued: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26675&LangID=E

19.01.2021

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Pro-choice doctors call on ‘anti-abortion propaganda film’ to stop being shown in schools

Doctors for Choice argue that the film The Silent Scream is riddled with 'medical, scientific, and legal untruths'

9 November 2020
by Laura Calleja

Doctors for Choice have called for The Silent Scream, which they describe as an “anti-abortion propaganda film”, to stop being shown in schools.

The film was produced in the mid-1980s and is often shown in Maltese schools.

The NGO said the film continued to be used by pro-life groups to “dramatize abortion and portray it as an inhumane procedure that should be banned.”

Continued: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/105803/prochoice_doctors_call_on_antiabortion_propaganda_film_to_stop_being_shown_in_schools_#.X6nQbWhKhPY

09.11.2020

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Colorado voters reject 22-week ban on abortion

The state remains one of seven with no gestational limits on the procedure.

By Anna North

Nov 3, 2020

Colorado voters just rejected a measure that would have banned abortion in the
state after 22 weeks’ gestation, according to the New York Times and the
Associated Press.

The measure, Proposition 115, was backed by the anti-abortion group Due Date
Too Late, which argued that abortions after 22 weeks were inhumane. But
supporters of abortion rights were concerned about the impact of the measure on
pregnant people, not just in Colorado, but around the country.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2020/11/3/21534681/colorado-abortion-prop-115-fails-results

Kenyan charities urge gov’t to quit U.S.-led anti-abortion pact

Nita Bhalla, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Nov 03, 2020

NAIROBI, Nov 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) –
An alliance of Kenyan charities urged the government on Tuesday to withdraw
from a U.S.-led international accord that critics say aims to limit abortion
access for millions of women and girls around the world.

Thirty-three nations, including Kenya, signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration
(GCD) – which was co-sponsored by the United States, Brazil, Uganda, Egypt,
Hungary and Indonesia – on Oct. 22.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/kenyan-charities-urge-govt-to-quit-u-s-led-anti-abortion-pact

Poland’s Constitutional Court Has Effectively Banned Abortion, But We Will Not Stop Fighting For Our Fundamental Rights

BY KRYSTYNA KACPURA
OCTOBER 30, 2020

Planning in Poland Poland’s anti-abortion laws have always been among the most restrictive in Europe. Until this week the procedure was only permitted when the pregnancy posed a threat to the woman’s life; if there was a fatal fetal abnormality or in cases rape or incest.

However on Oct. 22 the country’s constitutional court ruled that a fatal fetal abnormality was not justification for terminating a pregnancy and violates the constitution. For the over 10 million women of reproductive age in Poland, this ruling effectively puts in place a complete ban on abortion.

Continued: https://time.com/5905885/poland-abortion-ban-protest/

30.10.2020

fatal fetal abnormality

Federation for Women and Family Planning

Women who require late-term abortions are being demonised in Australia – again

As South Australia debates a bill to decriminalise abortion, the same misinformation is being peddled

Gina Rushton
Thu 29 Oct 2020

It wouldn’t be a debate about abortion without a flagrant misinformation campaign about terminations after the first trimester.

A bill to decriminalise abortion was this month introduced in South Australia, the last jurisdiction to do so, and opponents of the legislation have already set about claiming if passed it would legalise and in fact encourage “abortion up to birth”, an offensive but ultimately meaningless phrase. It has been the relentless catchphrase of anti-abortion lobbyists, religious leaders and conservative politicians in every single push to modernise abortion laws in this country but it is not uniquely Australian.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/29/women-who-require-late-term-abortions-are-being-demonised-in-australia-again

Canada – Politicians, activists trying to stop display and distribution of graphic anti-abortion images

One petition is going to city politicians, another will be presented in the provincial legislature

Kate Dubinski · CBC News
Posted: Oct 26, 2020

A battle in London against graphic abortion images displayed and distributed by a Calgary-based group is being fought on several fronts, including counter-protests and petitions to municipal and provincial politicians.

NDP MPP Terence Kernaghan has one petition on his website, calling for a provincial injunction against the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform (CCBR) and its flyers which show aborted fetuses.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/politicians-activists-trying-to-stop-display-and-distribution-of-graphic-anti-abortion-images-1.5776582

Poland rules abortion due to foetal defects unconstitutional

Constitutional court’s ruling could pave way for governing PiS party to move ahead with legislative ban

The Guardian
Thu 22 Oct 2020

Poland’s constitutional tribunal has ruled that abortion due to foetal defects is unconstitutional, rejecting the most common of the few legal grounds for pregnancy termination in the predominantly Catholic country.

The
chief justice, Julia Przyłębska, said in a ruling that existing legislation –
one of Europe’s most restrictive – that allows for the abortion of malformed
foetuses was “incompatible” with the constitution.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/22/poland-rules-abortion-due-to-foetal-defects-unconstitutional

Women in Italy shocked to find their names on grave markers for aborted fetuses

Rome prosecutor's office investigating after women say they did not consent to burial of fetuses

Megan Williams · CBC News
Posted: Oct 08, 2020

When Francesca joined a group of friends on a fact-finding visit to a cemetery in Rome last week, she was not prepared to find a small, white cross with her name on it.

The friends had learned through Facebook that a woman from Rome who had an abortion had later discovered her name on a similar cross in the sprawling Prima Porta Cemetery in the Flaminio district on the northern outskirts of the capital city.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lawsuit-fetus-cemetery-1.5753731

When will conservatives learn that banning abortion does little to address demographic decline?

October 3, 2020
Milana Nikolova

A new Slovak bill limiting access to abortion – proposed by the populist OĽaNO (Ordinary People) party MP Anna Záborská – adds to a heap of similar laws that have been proposed throughout the emerging Europe region in recent years. The bill was brought before the Slovak parliament on Tuesday, but despite a heated debate that continued until late in the evening, a final decision could not be reached and a formal vote on its adoption was postponed: for now.

The draft bill proposes doubling the amount of time a patient should wait between requesting and receiving an abortion, increasing the amount of personal data collected about the patient, and requiring a compulsory second medical opinion, along with other measures designed to make getting an abortion more difficult.

Continued: https://emerging-europe.com/after-hours/when-will-conservatives-learn-that-banning-abortion-does-little-to-address-demographic-decline/