Trump’s assault on human rights, bodily autonomy and democracy

January 25, 2025
Ipas

Late on Friday, January 24th, President Trump doubled down on his administration’s anti-abortion policies, reinstating the harmful Global Gag Rule, rejoining the non-binding Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), and strengthening the Hyde Amendment.

“These actions add up to a violation of human rights, bodily autonomy and democracy, as well as an unprecedented attack on the reproductive rights of people in the U.S. and across the globe,” says Ipas President and CEO Anu Kumar.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/trumps-assault-on-human-rights-bodily-autonomy-and-democracy/

World: States Must Step Up Protection for Abortion Care Providers

29 November 2024
Amnesty International

On international Women Human Rights Defenders Day, a coalition of human rights organizations are launching a new set of guidelines for governments to protect frontline abortion rights defenders, including healthcare providers.

Amnesty International, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Ipas, MSI Reproductive Choices, the Organisation Pour Le Dialogue Pour L'Avortement Sécurisé (ODAS Centre) and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) published the Key principles and actions to safeguard abortion care providers as human rights defenders.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/11/world-states-must-step-up-protection-for-abortion-care-providers/

What happens in the US could have global implications for abortion

What could Project 2025 mean for abortion rights around the world?

Dr Anu Kumar
27 August 2024

It has been two years since the US Supreme Court blew up federal protection for abortion, handing states the power to enact abortion bans and realising the decades-long fever-dream of anti-rights actors.

Though a minority in the US, these extremists are loud and determined and won’t stop at our borders. Their plans for the future are outlined in Project 2025, which is already being implemented in the US and abroad through anti-abortion and anti-LGBTIQ+ initiatives and would be fully executed if radical conservative forces reclaim the White House.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/us-elections-project-2025-global-abortion-rights/

USA – As abortion rights are further decimated, reproductive health funding remains ‘shackled’ by restrictions

During a critical election year, sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations risk losing funding to engage in partisan politics

by Rebecca. L. Root
July 2nd, 2024

In the months before and following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that struck down the constitutional right to abortion, nonprofits that had long worked to advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights found themselves fighting anti-abortion legislation at unprecedented levels.

Since 2022, the legal advocacy organization the Center for Reproductive Rights has filed lawsuits in multiple states on behalf of women who were denied medically necessary abortion care. In 2022, several organizations, including The Afiya Center and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, filed a federal class action lawsuit in Texas to protect the ability to help people access abortion out of state. In 2023, the state of Texas and an anonymous plaintiff sued Planned Parenthood over allegations that the organization’s affiliates defrauded the state’s Medicaid system. Also last year, Planned Parenthood Great Northwest filed a federal lawsuit against Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office following a legal opinion issued in March 2023 that said medical professionals in Idaho could be subject to criminal penalties if they referred patients across state lines for abortion care.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2024/07/02/reproductive-health-funding-shackled/

Abortion access expert talks about the U.S. position in the global abortion landscape

Rollback of abortion rights post-Dobbs makes U.S. a global outlier.

by Rachel Crumpler
June 5, 2024

Since the Dobbs decision in June 2022, nearly half of states in the United States — including North Carolina — have curtailed access to abortion by implementing increased restrictions.

The significant rollback in abortion legality throughout much of the country puts the United States in sharp contrast to the global trend of loosening abortion laws and increasing protections for abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2024/06/05/abortion-access-expert-talks-us-position-in-the-global-abortion-landscape/

Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah receives Right Livelihood award today

A ‘legend and reference point’ for reproductive rights in Africa, Brookman-Amissah’s 30 years of trailblazing work improved abortion access across the continent

Nov 29, 2023

Over the course of her career, Ghanaian physician and longtime Ipas leader Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah has earned an impressive array of titles—Ghana’s Minister for Health, Ghanaian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Ipas Vice President for Africa, and many more.

Today she adds a new title: Right Livelihood 2023 Laureate. At a televised awards ceremony in Stockholm, she will be honored for 30 years of trailblazing work that paved the way for liberalized abortion laws and improved abortion access in Africa.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/dr-eunice-brookman-amissah-receives-right-livelihood-award/

Remembering a lifelong champion for women’s health and rights

Professor Mahmoud Fathalla, former FIGO president, boldly spoke the truth

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2023
ANU KUMAR, Ipas President and CEO

My colleagues and I are deeply saddened by the news of Professor Mahmoud Fathalla’s passing. As an OB-GYN who served in various positions with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), Fathalla devoted his life to advancing women’s reproductive health and rights.

What many of us at Ipas admired most about Fathalla was his willingness to call out how patriarchy prevents women’s reproductive health care from receiving the attention, funding and sense of urgency it needs and deserves.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/remembering-a-lifelong-champion-for-womens-health-and-rights/

17.11.2023

Commentary

Anu Kumar

FIGO

International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics

Australia’s support for safe abortion globally

by Bettina Baldeschi, Daile Kelleher and Anu Kumar
10 October 2023

Last month, Western Australia passed landmark reforms removing barriers to accessing abortion, bringing it into line with other states in Australia. While there are still practical barriers to access, particularly for marginalised groups, every state and territory in Australia has now decriminalised abortion, and the National Women’s Health Strategy lays out a framework for universal access by 2030.

Globally, the picture is very different. Half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended. In Asia and the Pacific there are 140 million women with an unmet need for family planning. 13% of maternal deaths worldwide result from unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://devpolicy.org/australias-support-for-safe-abortion-globally-20231010/

10.10.2023

Western Australia abortion law

Latin American abortion rights activists just notched another win in Mexico

The Mexican Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide. It’s a big deal for the whole region.

By Nicole Narea
Sep 7, 2023

Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide Wednesday, making it one of many Latin American countries that has eased restrictions on the procedure in recent years.

Wednesday’s decision comes after a narrower 2021 ruling that decriminalized abortion only in the state of Coahuila, which sits along the US-Mexico border. Though some states moved to liberalize their laws around abortion since that ruling, federal law defining abortion as “unconstitutional,” as well as laws penalizing medical providers who perform the procedure, still stood until Wednesday. Now, abortion will become available in all federal Mexican health institutions in every state where women could have previously faced criminal penalties for undergoing the procedure.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/9/7/23863267/mexico-abortion-decriminalize-supreme-court-ruling

07.09.2023

News

Anu Kumar

Civil Association for the Rights of the Conceived

decriminalization of abortion

The Roe v Wade Fallout. What Can Australia Do?

Reproductive rights are also foundational to gender equality, a theme that is expected to be part of future Australian aid efforts, though so far it has not included sexual and reproductive health and rights.

July 7, 2023
By Anu Kumar

A few days ago, the President and CEO of global reproductive justice organisation, Ipas, Dr Anu Kumar was in conversation with Honorary Associate Professor Sally Moyle from the ANU Gender Institute. The pair discussed the impact of Roe v. Wade on the gains of 50 years and the assault on women’s and girls’ rights today.

I am a reproductive justice warrior. I have been for nearly all my adult life, and for the past 21 years, I’ve been in a leadership role at Ipas, a global reproductive justice organization that works to increase access to abortion care, contraception, and sexual and reproductive rights around the world. I’ve seen a lot of success in this area — since the 1970s, over 100 countries have liberalized their abortion laws including Ireland, Benin, Nepal, and Argentina.

Ipas, working with partners, has been a part of many of these victories and, importantly, translating those legal changes into actual services. There is one very notable exception to this progressive trend: the United States.

Continued: https://www.broadagenda.com.au/2023/the-roe-v-wade-fallout-what-can-australia-do/

07.07.2023