Trump’s Abortion Policy Could Go Global

In this year’s U.S. election, abortion is also a top foreign-policy issue.

By Jodi Enda, the Washington bureau chief and senior correspondent for The Fuller Project.
November 1, 2024

Less than two weeks before his 2020 election defeat, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out a document that purported to promote women’s health and rights while declaring that there was “no international right to abortion.”

“It’s the first time that a multilateral coalition has been built around the issue of defending life,” then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a signing ceremony, conducted virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda joined the United States in sponsoring the nonbinding directive, called the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family. Another 28 countries, many with authoritarian governments that repress women’s rights, signed it.

Continued https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/11/01/trumps-abortion-policy-could-go-global/

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/

The UN Urged Peru To Relax Its Abortion Stance. Lawmakers Did the Opposite

Across Latin America, a backlash against women’s rights is underway and girls are criminalized for miscarrying

Harriet Barber
June 6, 2024

Camila’s body folds in on itself, eyes fixated on the cuffs of her sweater and thick black hair shielding her face. The 19-year-old, an Indigenous teenager from the Peruvian mountains, sits close to her lawyer, arms touching, in a small office overlooking Lima’s skyline. In clipped and hushed sentences, she begins her story.

At the age of 9, Camila was raped by her father. He ordered her not to tell anyone, threatening to kill her and her mother and brother if she did. For a while, his threats worked and she stayed silent. His vicious assault was the start of years of violence, abuse that would make Camila pregnant at the age of 13 and leave her ostracized from her community.

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-un-urged-peru-to-relax-its-abortion-stance-lawmakers-did-the-opposite/

06.06.2024

Commentary

40 days for life

American Convention on Human Rights

Camila in Peru

Camila v. Peru

Center for the Promotion and Defence of Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Diana Aleman

Elga Prado

fetal personhood laws

Manuela Ramos Movement

menstrual regulation

Milagros Jauregui Martinez de Aguayo

Paula Avila-Guillen

Peruvian Institute for Responsible Parenthood

U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child

Women's Equality Center

The Terrifying Global Reach of the American Anti-Abortion Movement

Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They’ve been busy imposing their will on other countries, too—with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women.

Jodi Enda
March 18, 2024

Because Editar Ochieng knew the three young men, she didn’t think twice when they beckoned her into a house in an isolated area near the Nairobi River. One was like a brother; the other two were her neighbors in the sprawling Kenyan slum of Kibera.

Ochieng did not know the woman who performed her abortion. She and a friend scoured Nairobi until they found her, an untrained practitioner who worked in the secrecy of her home and charged a fraction of what a medical professional would. Mostly, what Ochieng remembers is the agony when this stranger inserted something into her vagina and “pierced” her womb. “It was really very painful. Really, really, really painful,” she told me. Afterward, Ochieng said, she cut up her mattress to use in place of sanitary pads, which she could not afford. She was 16 years old.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/179485/american-anti-abortion-movement-terrifying-global-reach

18.03.2024

Bethany Van Kampen Saravia

Biden Amendment

Caitlin Ryan Horrigan

Center for Women and Work

Council for Global Equality

Family Life Association of Eswatini

Feminist for Peace Rights and Justice Centre

Fòs Feminista

Foundation for AIDS Research

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Initiative for Strategic Litigation

Institute for Women’s Health

Marjorie Dannenfelser

maternal deaths

Mexico City policy

Mike Pence

MSI Reproductive Choices

Nelly Munyasia

Nerima Were

PEPFAR

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Population Action International

population control

President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Project 2025

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

Terry McGovern

Torchlight Collective

Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health

U.N. Fund for Population Activities

U.S. Agency for International Development

U.S. abortion rights setbacks spark fears in Latin America

Concerns in Latin America that abortion rights could face setbacks similar to those in the U.S. are adding urgency to the protests planned for International Women's Day this Friday, Marina writes.

March 5, 2024
Marina E. Franco

Why it matters: Regions of Latin America already are some of the most dangerous in the world for people who wish or need to terminate a pregnancy.

Threat level: Abortion bans can jeopardize the lives of women in trauma situations where continuing the pregnancy puts a woman's life at risk. Last month, Adilka Féliz, a senator's legal aide in the Dominican Republic — where there is a full ban on abortion— died from complications after an emergency premature birth procedure. She had an unviable pregnancy but was denied an abortion, her mother says.

Continued: https://www.axios.com/2024/03/05/international-womens-day-abortion-terminate-pregnancy

Will U.S. Abortion Wars End a Successful Foreign Policy in Africa?

Conservatives in Washington have blocked the reauthorization of PEPFAR, endangering the health of HIV-positive Africans.

By Nosmot Gbadamosi
NOVEMBER 1, 2023

The Most Successful U.S. International Health Policy Is Unraveling
Fierce opposition from conservative lawmakers is casting doubt on the future of PEPFAR, the U.S. government’s most successful global-health program, which was set up two decades ago by the George W. Bush administration to address the HIV epidemic.

Since 2003, PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has funded antiretroviral treatment for more than 20 million people across more than 50 countries in its 20-year existence. The project has donated about $110 billion to health projects globally, yet a decision to fund the program’s next five-year cycle has become embroiled in the domestic abortion debate. Authorization for PEPFAR lapsed at the end of September after it failed to get congressional approval.

Continued: https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/01/bush-pepfar-africa-aids-abortion-wars-end-a-successful-foreign-policy-in-africa/

Latin American feminists vow to continue fight for abortion rights in 2023

Sexual and reproductive rights activists in the region say ‘our struggle continues’ to maintain progress so far

Angelina De Los Santos, OpenDemocracy
3 January 2023

Last year, while US conservatives led the Supreme Court to remove constitutional protection for abortion, feminists across Latin America and the Caribbean moved several governments in the opposite direction.

But the powerful movement behind such progressive change faces difficult challenges in 2023, including safeguarding hard-won rights and overcoming the disparity of abortion policies between different countries.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/latin-america-caribbean-abortion-rights-feminists/

As US Guts Reproductive Rights, Sierra Leone Moves to Decriminalize Abortion

BY Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams
July 2, 2022

As the U.S. Supreme Court and Republican-controlled state legislatures void the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, Sierra Leone on Friday joined the growing list of African nations that have moved to protect the health and rights of pregnant people by decriminalizing the medical procedure.

“At a time in the world when sexual and reproductive health rights for women are either being overturned or threatened, we are proud that Sierra Leone can once again lead with progressive reform,” Julius Maada Bio, president of the West African nation, said during his closing remarks at the 10th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in the capital city of Freetown.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/as-us-guts-reproductive-rights-sierra-leone-moves-to-decriminalize-abortion/

Global abortion-rights advocates worry their countries are next if Roe falls

Activists said they spoke to officials not only about their fears of the international impact if Roe were to fall but also proposed changes to U.S. policy that has long restricted funding for abortions abroad.

By DANIEL PAYNE
06/15/2022

Abortion-rights advocates from around the world have met with congressional, USAID, HHS and State Department leaders to discuss worries that their countries will be next to see more restrictions if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

In meetings last week, the activists said they spoke to officials not only about their fears of the international impact if Roe were to fall but also proposed changes to U.S. policy that has long restricted funding for abortions abroad.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/15/global-abortion-rights-roe-00039654

What U.S. women can learn from Poland’s recent abortion restrictions

"It may be difficult to get abortions in Poland, but we have our ways," Polish feminist Krystyna Kacpura says.

May 16, 2022
By Lauren Egan and Corky Siemaszko

WARSAW, Poland — Americans fearing the worst if the Supreme Court repeals Roe v. Wade could look to the Poles for tips about how to fight for abortion rights and find ways around harsh government-imposed restrictions.

Poland, along with Malta, has the strictest abortion restrictions in Europe. It is allowed only in cases of rape, which are difficult to document, or when the life of the woman is endangered. And anyone helping a woman get the procedure for any other reason, including by prescribing pregnancy-terminating medication, could be charged with a crime — similar to what’s already happening in Texas, said Venny Ala-Siurua of Women on Web, an international online abortion service that has been helping women around the world, including thousands in Poland.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-women-can-learn-polands-recent-abortion-restrictions-rcna28750