After Idaho’s strict abortion ban, OB-gyns stage a quick exodus

Reviewed by Emily Henderson
May 2 2023

At a brewery in this northern Idaho city, hundreds of people recently held a wake of sorts to mourn the closure of Sandpoint's only labor and delivery ward, collateral damage from the state's Republican-led effort to criminalize nearly all abortions.

Jen Quintano, the event's organizer and a Sandpoint resident who runs a tree service, called to the crowd, packed shoulder to shoulder as children ran underfoot, "Raise your hand if you were born at Bonner General! Raise your hand if you gave birth at Bonner General!" Nearly everyone raised their hand.

Continued: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230502/After-Idahoe28099s-strict-abortion-ban-OB-gyns-stage-a-quick-exodus.aspx

USA – ‘I’ll lose my family.’ A husband’s dread during an abortion ordeal in Oklahoma

May 1, 2023
Selena Simmons-Duffin

Before February, Jaci Statton wasn't particularly focused on Oklahoma's abortion bans. "I was like, 'Well, that's not going to affect me. I won't ever need one,' " she says.

She's 25 and lives in central Oklahoma with her husband, Dustin, and their three kids — two 7-year-olds and an 8-year-old. They are a blended family with two kids from Jaci's previous marriage and one from Dustin's.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/01/1172973274/oklahoma-abortion-ban-exception-life-of-mother-molar-pregnancy

Louisiana doctors detail unintended consequences of state’s abortion ban

BY KEITH ZUBROW, CBS NEWS
APRIL 30, 2023

"I am more likely to die than my mother was in childbirth. So as a country, our outcomes are getting worse," Dr. Rebekah Gee, an OB-GYN and a former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, told 60 Minutes.

Gee was interviewed by 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi as part of Sunday's report on maternal mortality rates in the United States. According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of maternal death in the developed world, with Louisiana possessing some of the highest rates of any American state.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-detail-unintended-consequences-of-louisiana-abortion-ban-60-minutes-2023-04-30/

30.04.2023

miscarriage management

MSF statement on Supreme Court mifepristone decision

April 21, 2023

Today, the United States Supreme Court granted the Biden Administration’s emergency request to allow the continued use of mifepristone—one of two drugs used for medication abortions—while lower courts consider an appeal of an earlier ruling revoking the FDA’s approval of the drug.

Dr. Carrie Teicher, director of programs for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) USA, gave the following statement:
MSF has witnessed the devastating complications from unsafe abortion when people don’t have access to this essential health care. As a provider of safe abortions in countries all over the world, we know that medication abortion reduces maternal death and suffering.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-statement-supreme-court-mifepristone-decision

21.04.2023

News

Doctors Without Borders

Dr. Carrie Teicher

Food and Drug Administration

maternal mortality

Medicins sans Frontieres

USA – How Abortion Bans Are Impacting Pregnant Patients Across the Country

Leading legal scholar Mary Ziegler and Tennessee OB-GYN Dr. Nikki Zite talk to ProPublica about ominous trends and threats to patients’ lives posed by increasingly strict abortion bans.

by Ziva Branstetter
March 29, 2023

Nine months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending nearly 50 years of federal protection of abortion rights, the impact of the landmark ruling known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization continues to ripple across the nation.

In Dobbs, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. The ruling essentially divided the nation into two territories: states where people have access to abortion care and states where most or all people are unable to obtain an abortion, even if their lives are at risk.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/legal-medical-impact-abortion-legislation-qa

29.03.2023

Interviews/Podcasts

criminalizing women for abortion

Decriminalization of abortion in Benin: a solution to reduce female mortality and morbidity?

Kparon Baaru
March 28, 2023

Unsafe abortions are one of the causes of female mortality and morbidity worldwide. According to the WHO, estimates of the number of abortions in Africa stand at 6 million. Of this figure, only 3% are done in medicalized and safe conditions for women. Among the victims who eventually succumb or suffer over time from serious infections, cancer of the cervix or sterility, there are a large number of adolescent girls and young women. To remedy this, a few rare African countries are taking the resolution to legalize voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). Among these, is now added Benin. Is the legalization of abortion the solution to reduce clandestine abortions and a step forward in access to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in Benin?

The WHO defines abortion as a simple health intervention that can be managed effectively by a wide range of health workers using drugs or by surgery. Abortion is a subject that we avoid talking about especially in the presence of adolescents and young people in Africa. This neglected point in the debates is an integral part of SRHR. Adolescents and young people do not have access to reliable information related to sexuality and reproduction as they should.

Continued: https://www.breakinglatest.news/world/decriminalization-of-abortion-in-benin-a-solution-to-reduce-female-mortality-and-morbidity-kparon-baaru/

India – The Unwanted Daughters of Rajasthan: Sex Determination And Female Foeticide

A strong preference for boys means many families try to find out the sex of the child illegally, and abort the foetus if it's a girl, or many born girls are unwanted and treated badly.

By Jigyasa Mishra
27 Mar, 2023

Jaipur (Rajasthan): “Bojha, Aanachhi, Kachri, Nirasha are some popular names given to girls born as a second or third child here,” says Kachri Bai, who lives in the rural outskirts of Jaipur, the capital of the western state of Rajasthan.

Bojha means burden, Aanachhi means unwanted or bad, Kachri means garbage and Nirasha means gloom. Kachri bai is the third girl in the family, after her sisters Roshni and Renu.

Continued; https://www.indiaspend.com/gendercheck/the-unwanted-daughters-of-rajasthan-sex-determination-and-female-foeticide-857635

USA – The Abortion Battle Over Rising Deaths in Pregnant Women

BY KATHERINE FUNG
ON 3/24/23

A massive spike in U.S. maternal deaths has abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups debating the cause of the nation's most fatal odds for expectant mothers in more than half a century.

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week said that maternal mortality—deaths that take place during pregnancy or within 42 days after delivery—shot up by 40 percent in 2021. The figure reaffirms America's position as the most dangerous wealthy country to live in when pregnant or while giving birth.

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-battle-over-rising-deaths-pregnant-women-1789982

Gender equality isn’t possible without abortion and contraception

Access to reproductive health protects women and girls, uplifts them and allows them to prosper.

Banchiamlack Dessalegn, Africa Director at MSI Reproductive Choices
Published On 18 Mar 2023

It is Women’s History Month and the world is bursting with proclamations of support for gender equality and women’s rights. But too often, the general narrative celebrating historical progress on gender issues leaves out abortion and contraception, sidelining the fact that without them, gender equality would have been – and still is – impossible.

This year, millions of women and girls will be denied access to abortion, forced to carry unintended pregnancies to term or resort to unsafe termination. Abortion continues to be unjustly restricted across the world, most recently in the United States, where new state bans are being introduced with the Supreme Court’s decision to rescind the legal protection of abortion established in the 1970s.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/18/gender-equality-isnt-possible-without-abortion-and-contraception

18.03.2023

Opinion

Banchiamlack Dessalegn

gender equality

maternal mortality

MSI Reproductive Choices

Women's History Month

The doctors suing Texas over abortion access

By SYDNEY GOLD, Politico
03/17/2023

Last year, Dr. Judy Levison, an OBGYN in Houston, was offering routine counseling to a pregnant patient about screenings, explaining how she could check for spinal cord or chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus. She told her patient that while not everyone wants to know about abnormalities in their pregnancy, others do in case they’ll need to prepare for any health issues or, depending on the prognosis, even end the pregnancy.

“As I got to the word ‘abortion,’ you know, ending a pregnancy, I suddenly stopped and said, ‘Oh my, I can’t offer abortion anymore, and my patients tend to be low income, and going out of state is really not an option,’” said Levison. “I suddenly felt like somebody had literally tied my hands behind my back.” Levison ultimately decided to stop seeing patients after nearly 40 years in practice, citing Dobbs as a contributing factor.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/women-rule/2023/03/17/the-doctors-suing-texas-over-abortion-access-00087608

17.03.2023