Canada – Why we shouldn’t engage in the later abortion debate

Those who oppose all forms of abortion, use later abortions as a wedge issue to attack all abortion access.

by Dr. Roma Dhamanaskar
April 30, 2026

Creating unnecessary panic around later abortions is a political tool to promote controversy around access to abortion in Canada. Later abortions, which are those occurring after 20 weeks’ gestation, are uncommon and occur for a variety of complicated medical and social reasons.

Anti-choice politicians and activists attempt to rally opposition for abortion rights by presenting later abortion as a key issue when it comes to abortion access in Canada. Using later abortion as a scapegoat to create opposition to abortion access is problematic for many reasons.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/feminism/why-we-shouldnt-engage-in-the-later-abortion-debate/

30.04.2026

Commentary

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

Canada Health Act

later abortions

later abortions as political tool

maternal health

reasons for later abortion

Wildfire Smoke in North America Threatens Pregnancy Rights

Haze in Washington Should Move US Congress to Act

Skye Wheeler, Senior Researcher, Women's Rights Division
June 7, 2023

Canada’s wildfires have led to unpleasantly hazy skies and unhealthy air across large swathes of North America. The air quality in Canada is horrendous and – in certain areas – some of the worst in the world. Wildfire smoke is harmful to human health and other life, and is a worsening problem because of the climate crisis. Drought, for example, can make it easier for forests to catch on fire and for the fire to spread.

This is bad news for pregnant people in Canada, where fires have also forced people to flee their homes, as well as New York, Washington, DC, and other areas affected by the haze. Maternal health, including fetal development, is especially vulnerable to air pollution. Studies link air pollution with low birth weight, stillbirth, and deadly maternal health diseases like hypertension and gestational diabetes. The impact of tiny particulate matter, called PM 2.5, in wildfire smoke and other air pollution – including from fossil fuel and petrochemical operations – on premature birth rates are so well known that one expert tweeted that we don’t need more studies, only action.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/07/wildfire-smoke-north-america-threatens-pregnancy-rights

07.06.2023

smoke dangers to pregnancy

After Oklahoma’s sweeping abortion ban, many bills to improve maternal health still failed

Lawmakers said earlier this year they believed there would be momentum this session to pass bills addressing Oklahoma’s maternal health care problems and expanding family supports after the state enacted a near-total ban on abortions last year.

May 25, 2023
Kayla Branch

The 2023 legislative session was Sen. Carri Hicks’ fourth year to file a bill that would pay baby-friendly hospitals in the state slightly higher Medicaid reimbursement rates in hopes of expanding access to quality maternal health care.

But that bill, along with the other nine bills aimed at improving maternal health in the state, failed this year. Most bills didn’t receive a hearing in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee this legislative session. Sen. Paul Rosino, R-Oklahoma City, who chairs that committee, told The Frontier he had no comment.

Continued: https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/after-oklahomas-sweeping-abortion-ban-many-bills-to-improve-maternal-health-still-failed/

25.05.2023

News

Becky Mannel

Carri Hicks

Coalition of Oklahoma Breastfeeding Advocates

Bleeding and in pain, she couldn’t get 2 Louisiana ERs to answer: Is it a miscarriage?

December 29, 2022
ROSEMARY WESTWOOD
7-Minute Listen with transcript

BATON ROUGE, La. – When Kaitlyn Joshua found out she was pregnant in mid-August, she and her husband, Landon Joshua, were excited to have a second baby on the way. They have a 4-year-old daughter, and thought that was just the right age to help out with a younger sibling.

At about six weeks pregnant, Joshua, 30, called a physicians' group in Baton Rouge. She wanted to make her first prenatal appointment there for around the eight-week mark, as she had in her first pregnancy. But Joshua says the woman on the line told her she was going to have to wait over a month.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/29/1143823727/bleeding-and-in-pain-she-couldnt-get-2-louisiana-ers-to-answer-is-it-a-miscarria

Ghana – Zero tolerance for maternal deaths campaign launched in Accra

By GNA
Dec 14, 2021

A Maternal Health promotion campaign dubbed, ‘Zero Tolerance for Preventable Maternal Deaths and Disabilities’ has been launched in Accra to improve access to quality care for pregnant women.

The campaign, launched by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Tuesday, would seek the public’s support to remove barriers and unfair treatments that push women and girls with unintended pregnancies to dangerous paths that lead to their untimely deaths.

Continued: https://newsghana.com.gh/zero-tolerance-for-maternal-deaths-campaign-launched-in-accra/

14.12.2021

Featured

News

Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye

Zero Tolerance for Preventable Maternal Deaths and Disabilities

USA – As the Supreme Court Weighs the Future of Abortion, Women Are Already Suffering

Attacks on reproductive rights have metastasized well beyond abortion in recent years, endangering women’s health and lives.

By Michele Goodwin
Nov 12, 2021

In the nearly 50 years since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, there has perhaps never been a more consequential moment for abortion rights than the one we are in now. This fall, the nation’s highest court is hearing not one but three cases that could upend the fundamental promise at the heart of Roe: that pregnant women in the United States have a right to an abortion until a fetus becomes viable, which is around 24 weeks. On November 1, the court heard the first two of these cases, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson and United States v. Texas, which addressed Texas’s near-total abortion ban, the law known as SB 8. And on December 1, the court will hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which takes on the 15-week abortion ban passed by Mississippi in 2018. In that case, the state has made a direct appeal to the Supreme Court to overrule Roe.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/abortion-women-health/

Uganda – COVID-19 affects maternal health care

PATRICIA AKANKWATSA, The Independent
July 23, 2021

Uganda’s response to COVID-19 has negatively impacted maternal, child and neonatal health, accord[1]ing to data by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The UNFPA says the biggest and longest lasting impact is seen in complications of pregnancy, stillbirths and low-birth weight infants likely due to delayed care-seeking behaviour.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.ug/covid-19-affects-maternal-health-care/

Insights into how the US abortion gag rule affects health services in Kenya

September 30, 2020
Boniface Ushie, Sara E Casey, Terry McGovern

The Mexico City Policy – often referred to as the “Global Gag Rule” – is a US government policy that requires non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are not based in the US and that receive US global health assistance to certify that they will not provide, refer for, counsel on, or advocate for abortion as a method of family planning. The rule also applies to any non-US funding that the organisation may receive.

The policy was rescinded by President Obama in 2009 but then reinstated and expanded by President Trump in 2017. While prior iterations applied only to family planning assistance (US$575 million in 2016), Trump’s new version extends the restrictions to nearly all US global health assistance – an estimated US$9.5 billion – which includes funding for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal and child health. For example, it now means that an organisation that provides HIV care and treatment with US funding may not also provide safe abortion.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/insights-into-how-the-us-abortion-gag-rule-affects-health-services-in-kenya-145777

Scientist urges Kenya to take steps to diminish maternal deaths

Scientist urges Kenya to take steps to diminish maternal deaths

By xinhuanet.com
Nov 2, 2019

An international health scientist on Friday urged Kenya to embrace partnership and awareness creation to end the increasing maternal deaths.

Marleen Temmerman, director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health at the Medical College of Aga Khan University in East Africa said that the country’s maternal mortality rate (MMR) is high, with 488 deaths per every 100,000 live births per year.

Continued: https://www.newsghana.com.gh/scientist-urges-kenya-to-take-steps-to-diminish-maternal-deaths/

02.11.2019

Featured

News

Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health

Tanzania – Maternal health: Life of a mother matters

Maternal health: Life of a mother matters

By Elizabeth Tungaraza
Friday November 1 2019

Debates and discussions by health stakeholders on how to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in Tanzania have been continuing, reflecting at the toll of unsafe abortion and related maternal mortality.

Despite some promising progress recorded so far, reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity in Tanzania is still a challenge. Key findings of the 2015-16 Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey (TDHS-MIS) shows that the estimated mortality and morbidity rate (MMR) of 556 deaths is “lower” than that recorded in the 2004-05 TDHS (578), but is higher than the ratios reported in the 2010 TDHS (454) and in the 2012 Population and Housing Census (432).

Continued: https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/magazine/Maternal-health--Life-of-a-mother-matters/1840564-5333370-b7fkdn/index.html