The unspoken truth – Restrictions on abortion care in the Asia-Pacific

KELLY DURRANT AND PHOEBE RYAN
21 September, 2022

The overturning of Roe versus Wade is a huge setback for reproductive rights in the United States, and worldwide. But closer to home, there are many countries in Australia’s Asia-Pacific neighbourhood where access to legal, safe abortion care has never been available.

The US now joins El Salvador, Nicaragua and Poland in becoming the fourth country to roll back access to abortion in the last 25 years, a stark contrast to the more than 60 countries which have liberalised their abortion laws in that same period.

Continued: https://www.fijitimes.com/the-unspoken-truth-restrictions-on-abortion-care-in-the-asia-pacific/

21.09.2022

Romania’s abortion ban tore at society, a warning for U.S.

Romania’s abortion ban between 1966 and 1989 caused maternal mortality rates to jump and left people wary of one another

Perspective by Gail Kligman
September 15, 2022

Courtesy of the Supreme Court, an increasing number of American states — most recently West Virginia — are now in the company of the extreme antiabortion regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, from which Romanians were liberated when the communist dictator and his wife, Elena, were executed on Dec. 25, 1989. The provisional government swiftly moved to legalize abortion to the great relief of the population. A Christian Science Monitor headline proclaimed: “Freedom Triumphs and Romania Goes Pro-Choice: Romania’s Pre-revolution Abortion Laws Should Serve as Warning to the U.S.”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/15/romania-exposes-how-abortion-bans-kill-women-rip-society-apart/

15.09.2022

Zimbabwe – Cooperation needed in dealing with illegal abortions

9 Sep 2022

The illegal abortion services through online platforms should be put to a stop immediately and individuals behind the practice arrested and prosecuted.

this paper reported on Tuesday that while abortion is illegal in the country, the dodgy individuals demand up to US$100 for pills to induce termination of pregnancies with promises of further treatment to clean the womb.

Continued: https://www.chronicle.co.zw/comment-co-operation-needed-in-dealing-with-illegal-abortions/

09.09.2022

Mpilo Central Hospital

Ghana – Northern Region records reduction in maternal mortality

Date: Aug - 06 – 2022
BY: Mohammed Fugu

The Northern Region has recorded a reduction in maternal mortality and morbidity cases within the past two years. The region recorded 73 maternal deaths in 2020, the figure decreased to 70 in 2021, while 34 cases have so far been registered in the fi rst half of 2022. The figure is projected to reduce by the close of the year.

An Obstetrics and Gynaecology Specialist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Dr Hawa Malechi, who said this added that although there had been a marginal reduction in mortality, much needed to be done to significantly reduce the figures.

Continued: https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/nothern-region-records-reduction-in-maternal-mortality.html

06.08.2022

Northern Regional Health Directorate

The safety concern in abortion debate

Mohammad Javed Pasha
July 31, 2022

Abortion is a public health concern besides being a sensitive issue with religious, moral, cultural and political dimensions. More than a quarter of the world’s people live in countries where the procedure is permitted only in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormalities or to save the pregnant person’s life. Abortions still occur in these countries, nearly half of them are unsafe, performed by unskilled practitioners or in unhygienic conditions, or both.

Abortions performed in unsafe conditions claim the lives of tens of thousands of women around the world every year and leave many times that with chronic and often irreversible physical and mental health problems becoming a drain on the resources of public health systems. Controversy, however, often overshadows the public health impact. An estimated 73 million abortions occur globally each year. Unsafe abortions accounts for up to 13 percent of deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide. Globally, at least 7 million women are treated every year for complications from unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/978303-the-safety-concern-in-abortion-debate

31.07.2022

Commentary

Featured

International Conference on Population and development

maternal deaths

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

Mohammad Javed Pasha

World Health Organisation

Why restricting access to abortion damages women’s health

The PLOS Medicine Editors
Published: July 26, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004075

In late June, the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned by the United States Supreme Court, a decision, decried by human rights experts at the United Nations [1], that leaves many women and girls without the right to obtain abortion care that was established nearly 50 years ago. The consequences of limited or nonextant access to safe abortion services in the US remain to be seen; however, information gleaned from abortion-related policies worldwide provides insight into the likely health effects of this abrupt reversal in abortion policy. The US Supreme Court’s decision should serve to amplify the global call for strategies to mitigate the inevitable repercussions for women’s health.

Continued: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004075

Sierra Leone backs bill to legalise abortion and end colonial-era law

Country hails ‘monumental step’ towards expanding reproductive rights at a time when the US has overturned them

Emmanuel Akinwotu, west Africa correspondent
Wed 6 Jul 2022

Ministers in Sierra Leone have taken a major step towards decriminalising abortion and overturning the country’s colonial-era law, in a move hailed by campaigners and women’s rights activists.

President Julius Maada Bio said his cabinet had unanimously backed a bill on risk-free motherhood, which would expand access to abortion in a country where terminations are only permitted when a mother’s life is at risk.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/06/sierra-leone-backs-bill-to-legalise-abortion-and-end-colonial-era-law

Renewed hope for sexual and reproductive health and rights in East Africa

Time is up for policy makers to stop putting the health and lives of women and girls at risk based on implicit biases and subjective opinions

by ESTHER AOKO, Star Blogs
24 June 2022

As sexual and reproductive health and rights continue to be sidelined the world over, detrimental health outcomes like alarming rates of teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions continue to be reported in Kenya.

The Ministry of Health recently reported over 45,700 cases of teenage pregnancies in January and February of this year alone. Additionally, over 26,000 women and girls in Kenya die every year from unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/opinion/star-blogs/2022-06-24-renewed-hope-for-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights-in-east-africa/

24.06.2022

Blog

Featured

comprehensive sexuality education

Esther Aoko

maternal deaths

sexual and reproductive health and rights

49 maternal deaths recorded between January and May 2022 in the Eastern Region

Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Forty-nine (49) institutional maternal deaths were recorded between January and May this year in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

The current rate paints a gloomy forecast of a sharp rise this year defeating gains made in a gradual reduction of the menace.

Continued: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/49-maternal-deaths-recorded-between-January-and-May-2022-in-the-Eastern-Region-1566374

21.06.2022

India – The case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy

Posted on May 28, 2022
Dr. Farah K. Usmani

Remarkable gains have been made in sexual and reproductive health and rights championed by governments, civil society, and international organizations over the last several decades. But despite progress, hundreds of millions of women today still face economic, social, institutional,and other barriers that prevent them from making their own decisions about whether, when how often and with whom to become pregnant.

The basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of one’s children has been recognized in numerous international human rights agreements over the past five decades. During this same period, the world has seen a vast expansion in the availability of effective, modern contraceptives — one of the greatest public health achievements in recent history. However, even in 2022, women don’t have control on their fertility.

Continued: https://www.risingkashmir.com/The-case-for-action-in-the-neglected-crisis-of-unintended-pregnancy-107682

28.05.2022