In Hospitals Across Africa, A Lack Of Post-Abortion Care

March 9, 2021
PATRICK ADAMS

Some of Onikepe Owolabi's most vivid memories of medical school in her native Nigeria are of the teenage girls she saw in the emergency room of a rural hospital with complications from an unsafe abortion — painful infections that, if left untreated, can lead to permanent disability or even death.

Each time, Owolabi, now a senior research scientist with the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit reproductive rights organization in the U.S. that supports abortion rights, assisted doctors in promptly providing the girls with a group of essential obstetric services known collectively as "post-abortion care," or PAC.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/09/936206516/in-hospitals-across-africa-a-lack-of-post-abortion-care

Healthcare providers in Kenya cautiously welcome removal of Global Gag rule

23 February 2021
Sarah Kimani, SABCNews

Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare providers in Kenya have cautiously welcomed the removal of the Global Gag rule, an American policy that prohibits foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who receive US global health assistance from facilitating or promoting abortion.

Also known as the Mexican City policy and first adopted by the then President Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1984, it has been repealed by every Democratic administration and reinstated by every Republican one since then.

Continued: https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/healthcare-providers-in-kenya-cautiously-welcome-removal-of-global-gag-rule/

23.02.2021

Planned Parenthood Global

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

Biden Wants More Stable Diplomacy. An Abortion Fight Is a Test

U.S. funding for overseas health providers that offer abortion services has vacillated with the changing of administrations for decades. Congress is debating whether to settle the policy by law.

By Lara Jakes
Feb. 11, 2021

WASHINGTON — As it reaches out to allies rattled by four years of erratic American diplomacy, the Biden administration wants to enlist Congress in advancing foreign policies that will withstand the whims of any single president.

An early test lies in the fate of what is known as the Mexico City policy.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/biden-abortion-mexico-city-rule.html

What Is The Global Gag Rule & How Does It Affect Abortion Access Around The World?

Alice Broster
Feb 8, 2021

It’s been estimated that between 2015 and 2019 around 121 million unintended
pregnancies occurred around the globe. Of those, 61% ended in abortion. This
equates to around 73 million abortions every year. This can mean very different
things depending on where you live. For a termination to be considered safe it
should be carried out by someone who is trained and in an environment that’s
clean. For many people, this isn’t an option. So, what is the global gag rule?
It’s been reported that President Biden will end the U.S. government's efforts
to restrict access to reproductive rights and healthcare around the world
through the Mexico City Policy, AKA the global gag rule.

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicebroster/2021/02/08/what-is-the-global-gag-rule--how-does-it-affect-abortion-access-around-the-world/

US anti-abortion “gag rule” hits women hard: what we found in Kenya and Madagascar

February 4, 2021
Sara E Casey, Emily A Maistrellis, Terry McGovern

US President Joe Biden has reversed a Trump administration policy that prohibited US funding for nongovernmental groups that provide or refer patients for abortions.

The Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, was enacted in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Since its introduction, the policy has been instated by each Republican president and rescinded by each Democrat president.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/us-anti-abortion-gag-rule-hits-women-hard-what-we-found-in-kenya-and-madagascar-154434

Repealing the Global Gag Rule is good news – but it could take months to repair the damage it caused

Preventing abortion services from operating does not stop women seeking terminations – this policy's effects have been felt around the world

EDWARD MORRIS, ASHA KASLIWAL
2 February 2021

When Joe Biden signed the executive order to repeal the Global Gag Rule last week, there was an audible sigh of relief from the sexual and reproductive health community around the world.

Four years earlier, President Trump reinstated and later expanded the rule – also known as the Mexico City policy. The policy was initially introduced by President Reagan in 1984 to stop foreign organisations in receipt of United States family planning funding from providing abortion services, information, counseling, referrals or advocacy.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/repealing-global-gag-rule-good-news-could-take-months-repair/

USA – Why we might soon see a surge in antiabortion violence

By ROBIN ABCARIAN, COLUMNIST

JAN. 31, 2021

In 2009, four months after Barack Obama, who supported abortion rights, was
sworn in as president and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, a
religious zealot murdered the late-term abortion doctor George Tiller in the
vestibule of Tiller’s church.

I have always believed those two things were related.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-31/column-why-we-might-soon-see-a-spike-in-antiabortion-violence

‘You can’t just remove the damage of the last four years’

Reproductive rights groups cautiously welcome Biden's reversal of Trump's abortion access restrictions

By Kara Fox and Nicole Gaouette, CNN
Sat January 30, 2021

For more than four years, countries that rely on American foreign aid have been reeling from the profound impact that Donald Trump's reinstatement of the Mexico City policy has had on women.

The policy, known as the "global gag rule" among opponents, prevents non-government organizations that provide abortions, give counseling about abortions, or advocate for safe access to abortion from receiving US funding.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/world/biden-abortion-mexico-city-policy-intl/index.html

Health Providers Worldwide Welcome Biden Reversal of Anti-Abortion Rule

By restoring funding cut off by his predecessor, President Biden ended four years of what abortion rights advocates called a concerted assault on women’s reproductive health in the developing world.

By Bhadra Sharma, Ruth Maclean, Oscar Lopez and Rick Gladstone
New York Times
Jan. 29, 2021

KATHMANDU, Nepal — When President Donald J. Trump scrapped tens of millions of dollars in aid to women’s health care providers around the world four years ago, the Family Planning Association of Nepal was forced to dismiss more than 200 people and close clinics in at least four parts of the country, one of Asia’s poorest.

Family planning education and birth-control distribution slowed or stopped in Nepal, which relies heavily on American financial assistance for public health programs. While abortion is legal in the country, the options for safe procedures were abruptly narrowed.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/world/asia/gag-rule-abortion.html

Biden starts rolling back Trump anti-abortion rules

Executive orders aim to put new administration's reproductive rights stamp on the global stage.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
01/28/2021

President Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders on Thursday aimed at rolling back some of the Trump administration’s most far-reaching abortion restrictions, including one denying U.S. aid to health groups abroad that provide information about the procedure.

The actions will begin restoring federal support to abortion providers and organizations that offer abortion counseling while promoting the new administration's reproductive rights agenda on the global stage.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/28/biden-trump-anti-abortion-rules-463347