5 reasons why abortion is healthcare

Access to safe abortion care has a real impact on people’s lives and health, from preventing unsafe abortions and complications to upholding bodily autonomy.

Nov 19, 2024
Doctors Without Borders

At Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), we consider safe abortion care a critical part of our sexual and reproductive healthcare services – one that can save lives and support the well-being of our patients.

Our teams around the world work in countries with varying laws and cultural views on abortion. Every day, MSF staff see firsthand how access to safe abortion care has a real impact on people’s lives and health. Anyone who seeks an abortion no matter their reason is deserving of high-quality and dignified care. When patients can access safe abortion care in their communities, the risk of complications related to unsafely induced abortion significantly decreases. There are instances in which abortion care is medically necessary to preserve an individual’s health and well-being, or even save their life. As health providers, MSF is committed to upholding medical ethics and person-centred care, which includes access to safe abortion.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/5-reasons-why-abortion-is-healthcare/

19.11.2024

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Dominican activists protest against a new criminal code that would maintain a total abortion ban

Activists in the Dominican Republic are protesting against a bill for a new criminal code that would retain a total abortion ban

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press
July 17, 2024

Activists in the Dominican Republic protested on Wednesday against a bill for a new criminal code that would keep in place the country’s total abortion ban.

The Dominican Senate gave initial approval to the bill in late June and lawmakers are expected to give it final approval in the next few days.

“We continue to fight,” said feminist activist Sergia Galván, who along with fellow protesters have asked for legal abortion when the woman’s life is at risk, when a pregnancy is the product of rape or incest, and in cases of fetal malformation incompatible with life.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dominican-activists-protest-new-criminal-code-maintain-total-112054507

Dominican Republic’s Senate Doubles Down on Abortion Ban in Criminal Code

Bill Reduces Penalties for Sexual Violence, Excludes LGBT People from Protection

Stephanie Lustig, Research Assistant, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch
July 3, 2024

A deeply problematic bill for a new Criminal Code is now approaching final approval in the Dominican Republic's Senate. The bill, which the Senate approved on first review on June 26, maintains the country's complete ban on abortion. It also reduces penalties for sexual violence within marriage, classified as ‘non-consensual sexual activity,’ and continues to exclude sexual orientation from the list of characteristics protected from discrimination, thus failing to afford equal protection to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

The Dominican Republic is one of only five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that maintains a total prohibition on abortion and imposes incarceration for women and girls seeking abortions, as well as for those performing them. For decades, women's rights organizations have called for access to safe and legal abortion.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/03/dominican-republics-senate-doubles-down-abortion-ban-criminal-code

03.07.2024

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After Alabama

Making IVF available won’t stop criminalization

MAR 1, 2024
Lynn M. Paltrow

Shock and outrage have met the recent Alabama Supreme Court IVF decision that frozen embryos are children who “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.” This decision, based on Christian theology, has put all in-vitro fertilization procedures in the state at risk. It should not, however, have come as a surprise given the many Alabama laws and earlier decisions holding that fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses are separate legal persons.

New legislation to ensure that Alabama families have access to this expensive fertility treatment will do nothing to address the other punitive and dehumanizing ways Alabama’s legal personification of the unborn is used to arrest hundreds of mostly poor, rural women. Nor will it do anything to stop the likely, if not inevitable, use of Alabama’s criminal laws to lock up anyone who has an abortion.

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/after-alabama

What does a total abortion ban look like in Dominican Republic?

BY MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ
January 2, 2024

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Dominican Republic is one of four Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion without exceptions. Women face up to 2 years in prison for having an abortion, while the penalties for doctors or midwives range from 5 to 20 years. Abortion rights activists argue that the country’s total abortion ban not only restricts women’s reproductive choices but also puts their lives in danger.

Here’s a look at the country’s ban.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/dominican-republic-abortion-ban-women-catholic-church-5890252153c3b451b16b62b4aa3fe26d

Abortion still heavily criminalized and regulated across the world, says Amnesty report

A new report by Amnesty International looks into the different forms of violence that safe abortion providers and advocates around the world are exposed to

November 25, 2023
by Peoples Health Dispatch

Health workers and activists defending access to abortion continue to face attacks, as shown in a new report by Amnesty International. While previous years have witnessed improvements in the standards of human rights, progressive legislature, and access to medication abortion, many women and girls still encounter insurmountable obstacles in seeking abortion care.

According to the report, abortion “remains criminalized and heavily regulated in most countries.” This disproportionately affects poor and working-class women, as well as those residing in remote areas where healthcare is less accessible. Regardless of whether abortion is criminalized or not, one activist interviewed for the report emphasized, “Women who have money are able to get abortion services, women without money die.”

Continued: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/11/25/abortion-still-heavily-criminalized-and-regulated-across-the-world-says-amnesty-report/

25.11.2023

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Public healthcare in northern Mexico is dodging federal rules on abortion

Mexican law allows abortion for victims of rape – but state hospitals and politicians often stand in their way

Dánae Vílchez, Verónica Martínez
2 November 2023

Mexican federal regulations to provide emergency abortion services to victims of rape are being systematically flouted by state government health workers and law enforcement bodies in regions bordering the US, an investigation by openDemocracy and La Verdad de Juárez has found.

Federal regulations permit women and girls to have an abortion if they are victims of rape. But hospitals and police in northern Mexican states – where there is a growing rate of sexual violence and high prevalence of under-age pregnancy – stop abused pregnant women from taking control of their healthcare decisions, say medical sources and rights advocates.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/mexico-abortion-legal-rules-regulations-supreme-court-chihuahua-nuevo-leon-sonora/

USA – Stigma Makes Abortion Criminalization Possible

A Nebraska mother and daughter were put behind bars for self-managing an abortion, but not because of what the law says is illegal.

ELIZABETH LING
Oct 4, 2023

Self-managed abortion is not a crime in Nebraska, and yet a teenager in Nebraska was recently sentenced to three months in jail and two years of probation for self-managing her own abortion when she was 17 to escape parenting with an abusive partner. In September, her mom was sentenced to two years in prison for supporting her with ending her pregnancy.

I work on If/When/How’s Repro Legal Helpline, and every day I talk to people who are worried that their decision to end a pregnancy might put them or their loved ones at legal risk. Many are terrified, and all are confused. Not because their actions are necessarily illegal, but because the anti-abortion stigma that seems to be everywhere—even in ourselves—is fueling an atmosphere of mistrust and surveillance. And their fears aren’t unfounded. People have been criminalized for self-managing their own abortion for decades, often without much needed supportive public attention or outrage.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/stigma-abortion-criminalization/

04.10.2023

Opinion

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Elizabeth Ling

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Repro Legal Helpline

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Americas: Brazil can become the next country to step up to guarantee the right to abortion

Amnesty International
September 28, 2023

To mark International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“Despite the green wave’s numerous victories in the Americas over the last few years, the rights gained and the opportunities to expand abortion protections are under attack by anti-rights actors. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States last year was a wakeup call for the movement, reminding us once more that the fight to defend and expand our rights must be ongoing.”

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/americas-brazil-right-to-safe-abortions/

Demonstrators across Latin America demand abortion rights

September 28, 2023

Americas Desk, Sep 28 (EFE).- The Day for Decriminalization and Legalization of Abortion drew demonstrations all over Latin America on Thursday to address a lack of protection in countries such as El Salvador, fear of losing rights in Argentina, intense political debates in Brazil and progress in Mexico.

In El Salvador, activists from the Feminist Assembly denounced the total criminalization of abortion as the “greatest expression of violence” against women, who can be accused of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison, even in cases of miscarriage.

Continued : https://www.laprensalatina.com/demonstrators-across-latin-america-demand-abortion-rights/