For Churches, Abortion Politics Is a Double-Edged Sword

Ireland and Poland went in entirely opposite directions on abortion. Why?

By Amanda Taub
Sept. 21, 2022

For the past several years, as I have struggled to put the escalating tumult of global abortion politics into some sort of order inside my own mind, I have returned over and over to two events.

They happened in different countries, in different years. They produced opposite outcomes. And yet I could not shake the feeling that looking at them together might help me understand something important about the way the world works.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/europe/abortion-ireland-poland.html

Poland’s ban on abortion forces many to seek help in Germany

A Berlin-based activist group seeks to aid the rising number of women seeking help with abortion in Poland.

By Gouri Sharma
Published On 8 Aug 2022

For Zuzu*, an activist with the Berlin-based group Ciocia Basia that assists people seeking an abortion in neighbouring Poland, fielding calls is just one of many responsibilities she carries out.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Zuzu and other activists working with partner organisation Abortion Without Borders (AWB) told Al Jazeera that the number of calls they are receiving has increased.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/8/8/polands-ban-on-abortion-forces-many-to-seek-help-in-germany

USA – People are getting IUDs and Plan B ahead of a possible post-Roe future

By Abigail Higgins, Washington Post
May 10, 2022

Last week, as soon as Sydney Phillip read about the leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, she booked an appointment to get an IUD.

Intrauterine devices are one of the most effective forms of birth control, and getting the long-acting contraceptive had been a floating item on her medium-term to-do list. She’s been using the birth control pill, a method that has about a 7 percent failure rate for typical use. The potential consequences of that margin of error felt tolerable — until now.

Continued, Unblocked: https://wapo.st/3Maiuda
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/05/10/iud-birth-control-supreme-court-draft-opinion-leak/

As Oklahoma and Idaho enact abortion restrictions, Black women will suffer the most

BY AMIAH TAYLOR
April 13, 2022

On April 12, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that makes it a felony—punishable by up to 10 years in prison—to perform an abortion, excluding cases where there is a high risk of pregnancy-related death. The bill is just the latest example of the steady rise in restrictive measures across the U.S. that limit women’s access to abortions, especially for Black women, who are five times more likely to have an abortion than their white counterparts.

“States that enact restrictions on abortion access are not interested in supporting families, but rather in controlling the reproductive lives of women and birthing people—especially Black women and other people of color,” said Kamyon Conner, executive director of Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund, a reproductive justice nonprofit.

Continued: https://fortune.com/2022/04/13/state-abortion-restrictions-black-women-reproductive-maternal-care/

Abortion access under renewed threat in Oklahoma and Missouri

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Sun April 10, 2022

(CNN)While abortion rights advocates could secure several victories in US states in the coming days, they're sounding the alarm about an Oklahoma bill that would ban nearly all abortions that's likely to be signed into law. Here are some of this week's moves in state legislatures and by state leaders you may have missed.

Oklahoma sends near-total ban on abortion to governor
Oklahoma legislators passed a bill on Tuesday that would make performing an abortion illegal in the state, except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/09/politics/state-abortion-legislation-round-up-oklahoma-missouri/index.html

In a surprise move, Oklahoma approves bill to make abortion illegal

If signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, the bill could take effect as soon as this summer.

Shefali Luthra, Health Reporter
April 5, 2022

Oklahoma’s legislature has voted to ban all abortions, with narrow exceptions if the abortion is necessary to save the pregnant person’s life.

The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has previously vowed to sign all anti-abortion bills. If signed, it would take effect in late August, 90 days after the legislature has adjourned.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2022/04/in-a-surprise-move-oklahoma-approves-bill-to-make-abortion-illegal/

‘A Massive Ripple Effect’: Oklahoma Banning Abortion Will Worsen a Crisis

One Oklahoma abortion provider says she keeps "finding staff members crying in corners."

By Susan Rinkunas
April 4, 2022

Oklahoma, the state to which droves of Texans have been fleeing to access abortion, is itself on the verge of banning abortion. Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, a provider in both states, could tell during her shifts last week that the impending laws were weighing on the minds of her colleagues. “They’ve been taking care of folks through the fallout,” she told Jezebel Thursday. “It has hit them so differently that now this is their home that it’s gonna happen to, too. I kept turning a corner and finding staff members crying in corners, just trying to really emotionally process what they’re about to go through.”

In the spring of 2020, after Texas Governor Greg Abbott dubiously shut down abortion clinics by executive order, Dr. Moayedi, who’d been providing abortions in Texas since 2004, realized it was time to get licensed in neighboring Oklahoma.

Continued: https://jezebel.com/a-massive-ripple-effect-oklahoma-banning-abortion-wi-1848745388

Poland’s year of fear – who will die next in abortion crackdown?

By URSZULA GRYCUK
WARSAW, January 26, 2022

Every day, the calls and emails flood in with desperate requests for help.

Since the
Constitutional Tribunal decision leading to a law all but eliminating legal
abortion in Poland – which came into force one year ago – the number of women
and girls contacting the Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federa) has
increased threefold.

Continued: https://euobserver.com/opinion/154191

Poland government aims to create pregnancy register

08.01.2022
Video: 03:27 mins.
Alexandra von Nahmen

Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, banning the procedure in all but a few cases. Now the government wants to take it a step further by creating an official registry of all pregnancies.

continued: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-government-aims-to-create-pregnancy-register/av-60205302

08.01.2022

doctors reporting women to police

Dr. Piotr Sieroszewski

Poland – What it’s like to live in a country with a near total ban on abortion

As the US teeters on the brink of outlawing abortion, an expert from Poland explains the practical and emotional consequences of such a ban

Katarzyna Wężyk
7 December 2021

openDemocracy asked me, as a Pole and the author of a book about abortion, to describe what it's like to live in a country with restricted reproductive rights.

In short: it’s lonely, humiliating, dangerous to life and health, and it undermines the rule of law. And it’s expensive.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/live-in-a-country-near-total-ban-abortion/