El Salvador – Inter-American court hears first abortion rights case

23 MAR 2023

SAN JOSé - Women gathered outside the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in Costa Rica Wednesday, calling for "justice" as lawyers presented the tribunal's first-ever abortion rights case.

A woman identified only as "Beatriz" is symbolically squaring off against the Central American country of El Salvador which enforces an absolute ban on the procedure.

Continued: https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2533981/inter-american-court-hears-first-abortion-rights-case


While abortion restrictions spread across the U.S., access expands in Latin America

Some abortion rights advocates in the U.S. are seeking inspiration from their counterparts in Latin American countries where abortion access has expanded in recent years.

March 2, 2023
Sarah McCammon
3-Minute Listen with Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:
While abortion restrictions spread across the United States, abortion access has been expanding in Latin America. Some abortion rights advocates in the U.S. are now turning to the south for ideas and support. NPR's Sarah McCammon reports.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: As an immigrant from Colombia to the United States, Paula Avila-Guillen has watched the two countries move further apart on abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160563759/while-abortion-restrictions-spread-across-the-u-s-access-expands-in-latin-americ


Kenya – Experts raise alarm over unsafe abortions among teenagers

By Mercy Kahenda
Feb. 6, 2023

After the initial shock and denial of finding out she was pregnant at 15 years, Branice, a resident of Musuro village in Baringo walked to Marigat Hospital to procure an abortion. Instead, she took counselling and enrolled in an Antenatal (ANC) clinic.

Once on her own, however, she opted to terminate the six weeks pregnancy as she feared she would drop out of school, and face the stigma that comes with teen pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/health-science/article/2001466566/experts-raise-alarm-over-unsafe-abortions-among-teenagers


Thailand’s New Abortion Access Law Is Part of a Bigger Trend

BY SANYA MANSOOR
OCTOBER 27, 2022

Thailand’s Public Health Ministry legalized abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy on Thursday—an extension of a previous law which allowed termination of pregnancy within the first 12 weeks.

That 12-week allowance came as a result of a law expanding abortion rights enacted last year. These laws are a massive step for a country that criminalized abortion as recently as February 2020, when The
Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled that anti-abortion laws are unconstitutional.

Continued: https://time.com/6225758/thailand-abortion-access/


Hundreds of Americans a week are seeking abortion help from Mexico – and most of them want a safe hand-off of abortion drugs at the border

Isabella Zavarise and Azmi Haroun
Aug 21, 2022

Over the last decade, Mexico's movement to access abortion has notched several victories in the halls of justice. But north of the border, the landscape of abortion availability continues to move in the opposite direction.

Fifteen years ago, abortion was a crime in Mexico. In 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court challenged the ruling, stating that abortion would no longer be criminalized. In states like Mexico City and Oaxaca, abortion is legal. Now, Mexican advocates told Insider that Americans are crossing the border for support that is difficult to find – or illegal – in some US states.

Continued:  https://www.businessinsider.com/hundreds-of-americans-a-week-are-seeking-abortion-help-from-mexico-2022-8


Biden urged to clarify that abortion aid abroad unaffected by Roe v Wade ruling

Senators also seek to correct misinterpretation by aid recipients of Helms amendment as a blanket ban on US funds for abortion

Noa Yachot
Fri 12 Aug 2022

Supporters of reproductive rights in Congress are calling on the government to clarify to foreign aid recipients that the end of abortion rights in the US does not affect US-funded family planning programs abroad, and to limit the damage of a half-century-old law that has functioned as a blanket ban that prevents US aid from supporting abortion care overseas.

Their efforts come as the Biden administration looks for ways to support abortion rights in the wake of the supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade – which scrapped abortion rights – and amid signs that abortion rights could be a persuasive issue in midterm elections.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/12/foregin-abortion-funding-limit-ban-senators-joe-biden


Volunteer networks in Mexico aid at-home abortions without involving doctors or clinics. They’re coming to Texas.

Before abortion was legal in parts of Mexico, an extensive “accompaniment” system grew to help women safely terminate pregnancies on their own. Its organizers are now moving abortion-inducing medication across the border and helping replicate the system in the United States.

BY ALEXA URA AND GRETA DÍAZ GONZÁLEZ VÁZQUEZ
AUG. 4, 2022

MONTERREY, Mexico — Hi, I’m four weeks pregnant. Eight weeks. Six weeks.

The stream of pings and messages through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp reach Sandra Cardona Alanís at her home in this mountainous region of northern Mexico. She is an acompañante and a founder of Necesito Abortar México, a volunteer network that has helped thousands of people across Mexico access abortion, usually at home, by providing medication and support.

Continued: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/04/texas-abortion-mexico-volunteer-networks/


USA – It’s Time to End My Grandfather’s Harmful Legacy — the Helms Amendment

Biden already has the authority to roll back draconian abortion restrictions.

by ELLEN GADDY
07/28/2022

President Joe Biden and I have met many times throughout my life and over the course of his political career. Our last meeting was in 2008 at the funeral of my grandfather, the late Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

Biden and my grandfather started their first Senate terms together in 1973, the year Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court. Although my grandfather was a Republican who opposed civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, HIV/AIDS research and abortion, Biden found a way to cross the political divide and work with him on some of these controversial issues, and even helped to soften his views over the years.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/07/28/biden-repeal-helms-amendment-on-abortion-00048533


Democrats Push Bill to Allow U.S. Aid to Fund Abortions Around the World

BY KHALEDA RAHMAN
7/27/22

The Supreme Court's historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was quickly felt around the country as states quickly moved to enact abortion bans.

But abortion rights advocates fear not enough attention is being given to how the impact of the decision will ripple around the world.

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-push-bill-allow-us-aid-fund-abortions-world-1728338


A Mexican network is smuggling abortion drugs to American women

By David Shortell, CNN
Wed July 13, 2022

Mexico City (CNN) One day late last month, as new abortion restrictions began taking shape in US states, three Mexican women quietly crossed into the country at different points along the border, dozens of abortion-inducing pills hidden in their belongings.

The medication, an FDA-approved two-drug combination, had traveled across the interior of Mexico in the previous days, handled by an underground network of some 30 organizations in the country.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/americas/mexican-network-abortion-drugs-usa-intl/index.html