Brazilian Justice Accepts Father’s Request and Denies Abortion for Abused Teen

13-year-old teenager expressed desire to terminate pregnancy to the Tutelary Council

Jul.17.2024
Isabella Menon, SÃO PAULO

A 13-year-old teenager living in Goiás had her legal abortion denied by the Goiás Court of Justice, after her father went to court and requested the prohibition of the procedure.

The young girl is already 28 weeks pregnant, making the procedure more difficult.

In testimony to the Tutelary Council in her area, she stated that she wanted to terminate the pregnancy when she was 18 weeks along. In messages sent to the council, she said that if she did not have access to the procedure, she would find a way to do it on her own.

Continued: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/scienceandhealth/2024/07/brazilian-justice-accepts-fathers-request-and-denies-abortion-for-abused-teen.shtml


USA – Post-Dobbs, Abortion Bans Have Given Abusers a New Power

"Abusers could now use new laws, or confusion about those laws, to harass and threaten their partners,” the National Domestic Violence Hotline writes in a new report about how abusive partners are using abortion bans to keep their victims trapped.

By Kylie Cheung, Jezebel
June 3, 2024

It’s been almost two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and a new survey from the National Domestic Violence Hotline offers a disturbing glimpse into how abortion bans—and rampant confusion about the language of these laws and who they punish—have given abusers more control than ever.

Between October and December 2023, the Hotline conducted a survey on its website and anonymously collected domestic violence victims’ experiences with acts of reproductive coercion, or acts to control their victims’ reproductive decision-making, such as tampering with their birth control or blocking their access to abortion. The survey received 3,431 responses.

Continued: https://www.jezebel.com/post-dobbs-abortion-bans-have-given-abusers-a-new-power


These Are The Abortion Stories You Don’t Hear After Roe v. Wade

Why telling all kinds of abortion stories — particularly the mundane — is important in helping achieve reproductive justice.

BY DANIELLE CAMPOAMOR
DECEMBER 28, 2023

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, countless stories of people being denied access to abortion care emerged, the majority focusing on instances of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, incest or catastrophic pregnancy complications.

From a woman in Texas being admitted to the ICU and nearly dying, to a 10-year-old girl in Ohio forced to cross state lines to access care after she was raped, to a mother who says she was told to wait in a hospital parking lot until she was closer to death before doctors would treat her, these stories saturated headlines across the country, and for good reason — people with the capacity to get pregnant losing the Constitutional right to bodily autonomy is, it turns out, deadly.

Continued: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/these-are-the-abortion-stories-you-dont-hear-after-roe-v-wade


Her body, her choice: Why a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy must be upheld
For abortions within 24 weeks of gestation, there is no legal requirement for pregnant persons to approach courts for permission. Yet, the petitioner in a recent case was forced to approach the Supreme Court, as healthcare providers disregarded her decisional autonomy to terminate her pregnancy.

Written by Dipika Jain
October 15, 2023

A 27-year-old married woman, mother of a four-year-old and a one-year-old, filed a petition with the Supreme Court to terminate an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. Her husband was the sole earning member of the family, supporting the family, his sister and his mother. The petitioner discovered her pregnancy late due to Lactational Amenorrhea, a condition where breastfeeding suppresses menstruation. She was dealing with postpartum depression and was not mentally prepared to have a third child, which led to a suicide attempt. She approached several healthcare providers to terminate her pregnancy, but most doctors declined as she was 20 weeks pregnant. On October 4, 2023, she approached the Supreme Court seeking permission for abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act along with the associated Rules.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/her-body-her-choice-woman-terminate-pregnancy-upheld-8983912/


What it’s like for doctors in Wisconsin to follow an 1849 abortion law in 2023

Obstetricians describe patients who cannot comprehend having to carry nonviable pregnancies. And only one pharmacist in town will fill prescriptions for abortion pills.

July 22, 2023
By Sarah Varney

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The three women sitting around a table at a busy lunch spot share a grim camaraderie. It’s been more than a year since an 1849 law came back into force to criminalize abortion in Wisconsin. Now these two OB-GYNs and a certified midwife find their medical training, skill, and acumen constrained by state politics.

“We didn’t even know germs caused disease back then,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an obstetrician-gynecologist who lives in Green Bay.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/s-doctors-wisconsin-follow-1849-abortion-law-2023-rcna95433


How US abortion organisers are learning from Honduran activistsc

As networks, some clandestine, form to help women access abortion in the US, they look to Central America for a road map – and a warning.

By Delaney Nolan
Published On 19 Feb 2023

New Orleans, United States – The half dozen women gathered in the backyard pause for a moment to listen to the television next door. The neighbour is playing a football game at high volume. It’s loud. That’s good – it gives them cover.

“I couldn’t hear anything from the sidewalk,” says Ana,* referring to the women’s conversation. “I think we’re OK,” says another. The rest are reassured.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/19/how-us-abortion-organisers-are-learning-from-honduran-activists


Overturning Roe Has Meant At Least 10,000 Fewer Legal Abortions

by Maggie Koerth and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
OCT. 30, 2022

The same day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, Alabama’s law banning abortion took effect. The next morning, phones began ringing in Georgia.

“We got nearly 100 calls the day after the Dobbs decision from patients in Alabama,” said Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta. In states where abortion remains at least partially legal the phones haven’t stopped ringing.

Continued: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/overturning-roe-has-meant-at-least-10000-fewer-legal-abortions/


Brazilian Judge Denies Abortion to 11-Year-Old Rape Victim, Previewing Post-Roe America

It's not just Brazil—across the US, lawmakers are already boasting about the bans they'll pass without rape exceptions, which are already mostly symbolic.

By Kylie Cheung
June 21,2022

A judge in Brazil denied an abortion to an 11-year-old who had been impregnated by rape, saying she didn’t want to enable a “homicide,” Newsweek reported on Monday. The young girl had reportedly been raped in her home earlier this year, and when she was taken to the hospital upon learning she was pregnant, a doctor at the University of Santa Catarina denied her an abortion because she was more than 22 weeks pregnant. The university hospital’s rules prohibit doctors from offering abortion care to someone past 20 weeks of pregnancy, without a court order.

Brazil notably criminalizes abortion and threatens abortion patients with one to three years in prison, and providers with one to four years. The country provides exceptions only for threats to the pregnant person’s life, when the fetus is deemed unviable, and, relevant to this case, if the pregnancy is the result of rape.

Continued: https://jezebel.com/brazilian-judge-denies-abortion-to-11-year-old-rape-vic-1849089474


Antiabortion laws are forced-birth laws. Here’s what that looks like.

By Kate Manning
May 31, 2022

Embarrassing, but I am going to talk about my bladder.

I’d prefer not to. But it seems important to mention how it’s been leaking since my first child was born (common after childbearing) now that Roe v. Wade appears poised to fall. Should the Supreme Court overturn that decision, more than half of U.S. states plan to severely restrict abortion care and will thus mandate pregnant women to give birth and suffer such physical consequences.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/antiabortion-laws-are-forced-birth-laws/


Forced Pregnancy Is Involuntary Servitude, Violates the 13th Amendment

5/23/2022
by CARRIE N. BAKER

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.“
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The draft Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leaked this month gives America a glimpse into a dystopian future where the Constitution would offer no protection for women’s rights—including abortion rights—because they are not “deeply rooted in the country’s history and traditions.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2022/05/23/abortion-bans-13th-amendment/