USA – Abortion Saved Her. Now It Could Cost Her Freedom.

As the Trump administration cuts funding for Planned Parenthood, one court offers Black Women in the South a legal lifeline.

by Angela Dennis
April 21, 2025

Kneeling on the cold bathroom floor of her apartment, Kisha clutched the pregnancy test she had just picked up from the Walgreens down the street. She waited for a single blue line to appear. Instead, there were two.

“When I looked down at that test, I didn’t believe it,” she said. “I told myself there was just no way. This can’t be happening to me.”

She was pregnant at 41 years old.

Continued: https://capitalbnews.org/planned-parenthood-cuts-trump-black-women-abortion-bans/

Why Doctors Are Opting Out of Arkansas

The state’s abortion ban impedes recruitment and compounds physician workloads

By Caroline McCoy
April 18, 2025

Over ten days in February, Shannon Barringer, a certified genetic counselor practicing in Little Rock, referred three patients to medical facilities outside of Arkansas. Each woman had chosen to terminate a nonviable pregnancy, a medical procedure that would present far less risk than carrying the fetus but is no longer legal in Arkansas. Barringer had spent hours coordinating care for her patients elsewhere, ultimately sending two to Chicago and one to Boston. “I think part of me is running on automatic, trying to get these people where they need to be,” Barringer said. “But I also feel very emotionally worn out.”

Continued: https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/why-doctors-are-opting-out-of-arkansas

19.04.2025

Commentary

abortion training

Arkansas abortion ban

My Abortion Was My Lifeline—Getting It Felt Like A Battle For Survival

Taren Holliman
April 17, 2025

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted an abortion. The immediate decision didn't come from fear or confusion; it came from clarity. I was too sick to work, constantly running out of my classes to throw up and juggling multiple jobs to stay afloat. Behind all of that was a mental health battle I'd been quietly fighting for years, and I didn't have access to the support I needed. There was no way I could carry this pregnancy to term—and, more importantly, I didn't want to. It was my body. It was my life, and I made my decision. It really should have been that simple. But almost immediately, I learned how hard it was to access abortion care.

This is America, after all — where racist, sexist policies are so deeply embedded into our institutions that they shape who gets access to essential care and who gets left behind. And for folks most impacted by systemic inequities—like disparities in income, health insurance and medical racism—no one is facing the brunt of these bans and restrictions like Black women.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/black-maternal-health-abortion-access

India: Why maternal deaths continue to haunt

A recent United Nations report ranks India second in global maternal deaths, an alarming number despite the strides the country has made in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Globally, approximately one woman died every two minutes due to a...

Aksheev Thakur, Tribune News Service
Apr 11, 2025

A recent United Nations report ranks India second in global maternal deaths, an alarming number despite the strides the country has made in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR).

Globally, approximately one woman died every two minutes due to a maternal cause in 2023, notes the report titled ‘Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000-2023’. While Nigeria saw the highest number of maternal deaths in 2023, India ranked second, sharing the spot with the Democratic Republic of Congo; both accounted for 7.2 per cent each of global deaths.

Continued: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/explainer-why-maternal-deaths-continue-to-haunt/

11.04.2025

News

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

maternal mortality

Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000-2023

African region’s maternal and newborn mortality declining, but progress still slow

7 Apr 2025

Brazzaville – The African region has made progress in lowering maternal mortality since 2000 but needs a 12-fold increase in the annual reduction rate to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) target of fewer than 70 deaths per 100 000 live births by 2030, new estimates by the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Interagency Group show.

Despite a 40% decline in maternal mortality, from 727 to 442 deaths per 100 000 live births between 2000 and 2023, the region still accounts for 70% of global maternal deaths. Each year, an estimated 178 000 mothers and 1 million newborns die in the Africa region – many from preventable causes.

Continued: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/african-regions-maternal-and-newborn-mortality-declining-progress-still-slow

07.04.2025

News

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu

maternal mortality

Sustainable Development Goals

Breaking the Silence: Abortion Rights in Kenya – BBC Africa Eye documentary

BBC News Africa
Nov 26, 2023
Film: 45 minutes

Across the world, debates are raging about access to safe abortion. Complications from unsafe, backstreet procedures are a leading cause of maternal death in developing countries. In Kenya, where almost two-thirds of pregnancies are unintended, unregulated terminations are estimated to claim the lives of over 2,000 women every year.

BBC Africa Eye reporter Linda Ngari investigates a hidden crisis that has led to an estimated seven Kenyan women dying from unsafe abortions every day, with many more facing life-altering complications.

Continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI3AKMFgVKQ

Kenya – ‘We Lost Our Daughters To Unsafe Abortion’

Nov 25, 2023
The Nation

Deep in Kharanda village, a few kilometres from Kakamega town, Catherine Nyongesa, 55, strolls along a fence enclosing her modest homestead.

On the left side of her mud-walled house, she points to an unmarked grave of her late daughter, Naomi. She was her third-born child who died at the age of 14.

Continued: https://www.theafrica.co.za/africanews/we-lost-our-daughters-to-unsafe-abortion-4525522267

25.11.2023

Stakeholders move to lift ban on safe abortion guidelines in Lagos

By Josephine Agbonkhese
Nov 21, 2023

Civil society leaders, stakeholders and medical experts have embarked on a move to develop a roadmap for an advocacy campaign geared towards lifting the suspension on guidelines for safe termination of pregnancy in Lagos State.

This was the crux of a two-day meeting organised in Lagos by the Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre, WARDC, with support from AmplifyChange, as part of its ongoing Project Enhance initiative aimed at ‘Enhancing Women’s Voices to Demand Accountability on Safe Abortion and Preventable Maternal Deaths in Lagos’.

Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/11/stakeholders-move-to-lift-ban-on-safe-abortion-guidelines-in-lagos/

21.11.2023

News

Amplify Change

Bose Ironsi

Child Protection Network

Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi

maternal mortality

Ronke Oyelakin

Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre

Georgia Supreme Court Allows Six-Week Abortion Ban to Remain in Effect as Legal Challenge Continues

October 24, 2023
ACLU
Case: SisterSong v. State of Georgia / Affiliate: ACLU of Georgia

ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court issued a ruling today that allows H.B. 481, a ban on abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy, to remain in effect. The court’s majority opinion disregards long-standing precedent that a law violating either the state or federal Constitution at the time of its enactment is void from the start under the Georgia Constitution. Georgia’s ban was blatantly unconstitutional when enacted in 2019 against the backdrop of Roe v. Wade and almost five decades of federal precedent, and therefore unenforceable, as the trial court found. But today’s ruling reversing the lower court’s decision concludes that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe last year effectively erased that history.

Continued: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/georgia-supreme-court-allows-six-week-abortion-ban-to-remain-in-effect-as-legal-challenge-continues

With Milei leading Argentina’s presidential race, abortion is on the line

Libertarian candidate and frontrunner Javier Milei has pledged to hold a referendum to repeal abortion access if elected.

By Natalie Alcoba
20 Oct 2023

Buenos Aires, Argentina – In Argentina, it can be hard to focus on anything but economics during an election year. With an annual inflation rate that has eclipsed 138 percent and a currency that has plunged in value, the dire financial outlook has once again dominated this year’s presidential campaign.

But as voters head to the polls on October 22, social issues are increasingly taking centre stage, in large part due to the popularity of far-right libertarian candidate Javier Milei.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/20/with-milei-leading-argentinas-presidential-race-abortion-is-on-the-line