Woman in Malta charged in court for having abortion

Pro-choice groups condemn rare enforcement of country’s total ban on terminations

Agence France-Presse in Rome
Thu 1 Jun 2023

A woman in Malta has been charged in court for having an abortion, in a rare enforcement of the country’s total ban on terminations.

The Women’s Rights Foundation of Malta said: “What should have never happened [has] happened today: a Maltese woman was brought to court facing charges of having a medical abortion at home.”

Its legal team had helped the unnamed woman throughout the proceedings, it said, “and she was let go with a conditional discharge”, without giving further details.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/01/woman-malta-charged-in-court-for-having-abortion-pro-choice-condemn-rare-enforcement-total-ban-termination

01.06.2023

News

Doctors For Choice Malta

Dr Natalie Psaila

prosecuting women for abortion

Robert Abela

Women's Rights Foundation

USA – Abortion access advocacy groups slam bill allowing women to be charged with homicide

The bill goes against Alabama’s 2019 law, which expressly states that women who obtain abortions are not to be prosecuted.

By JACOB HOLMES
May 15, 2023

When Alabama passed legislation in 2019 to criminalize abortions in the state, Republicans were clear: the women receiving abortions were not to be criminalized.

But just a year after Roe v. Wade was reversed, Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, has introduced a bill, HB454, doing just that, eliminating a section in the homicide code preventing prosecutors from charging women for homicide for having an abortion.

Continued: https://www.alreporter.com/2023/05/15/abortion-access-advocacy-groups-slam-bill-allowing-women-to-be-charged-with-homicide/

Some people who seek abortions can face prison time in more than 120 countries, analysis shows

In six countries, some abortion seekers can face life in prison, according to a global study of the penalization of abortion.

March 21, 2023
By Julianne McShane

Some people who seek or obtain abortions can face prison time in more than 120 countries, according to an analysis published Monday that sheds new light on international penalties for the procedure.

More than 90 countries have maximum penalties of up to five years of prison time for certain abortion-seekers, while 25 have sentences of between five and 10 years, according to the research, which relied on a World Health Organization database of abortion policies.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortion-penalties-prison-time-around-world-rcna75760

21.03.2023

Antonella Lavelanet

global abortion laws

Global Abortion Policies Database

prosecuting abortion providers

prosecuting women for abortion

Rebecca Cook

World Health Organization

How US abortion organisers are learning from Honduran activistsc

As networks, some clandestine, form to help women access abortion in the US, they look to Central America for a road map – and a warning.

By Delaney Nolan
Published On 19 Feb 2023

New Orleans, United States – The half dozen women gathered in the backyard pause for a moment to listen to the television next door. The neighbour is playing a football game at high volume. It’s loud. That’s good – it gives them cover.

“I couldn’t hear anything from the sidewalk,” says Ana,* referring to the women’s conversation. “I think we’re OK,” says another. The rest are reassured.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/19/how-us-abortion-organisers-are-learning-from-honduran-activists

In Texas, where abortion is already a crime, more roadblocks to access could be coming

Anti-abortion lawmakers eye new restrictions as court case on mifepristone access looms

Mia Sheldon, Ellen Mauro · CBC News
Posted: Feb 16, 2023

Look closely and a faint outline of the "Whole Women's Health" sign is all that remains of the only abortion clinic in McAllen, Texas. It was forced to close last summer. The building is now owned by a group of anti-abortion supporters — a literal symbol of the end of Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose in the state.

"I'm numb," said Cathy Torres from Frontera Fund, an organization that used to help 30 to 40 people a month travel within Texas or to nearby states to get abortions.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/texas-abortion-access-1.5957451

USA – The Inevitable Prosecutions of Women Who Obtain Abortions

The attorney general of Alabama finally went where the logic of the anti-abortion movement has long pointed.

BY DAVID DAYEN
JANUARY 16, 2023

Back when Donald Trump was just a presidential candidate, he was asked by Chris Matthews if he thought abortions should be dealt with under the law, like any other crime. He replied, “There has to be some form of punishment,” specifically saying he meant that the women who obtained abortions should be punished. After his handlers realized what he’d said, he quickly reversed himself, saying that if abortion were banned through the courts or legislation, the punishment should be reserved for “the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman.”

Some Republicans still draw the line there, reserving any legal action over abortions to those who conduct them. … But this don’t-punish-the-woman line is no longer unapproachable.

Continued: https://prospect.org/health/2023-01-16-prosecution-women-mifepristone-abortion-alabama/

USA – Abortion bans don’t prosecute pregnant people. That may be about to change.

Legislation in Oklahoma and remarks from the Alabama attorney general could foreshadow new efforts to punish people who induce their own abortions.

Shefali Luthra, Health Reporter
January 13, 2023

As state lawmakers weigh new restrictions on abortion, some Republicans are revisiting a longstanding taboo of not prosecuting pregnant people for seeking abortions in places where the procedure is banned, though the topic remains divisive among anti-abortion advocates.

State restrictions have so far fallen just shy of imposing criminal penalties on people who seek abortions, instead targeting physicians, health care providers and anyone else who might help someone get an abortion.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/01/abortion-bans-pregnant-people-prosecution/

The anti-abortion movement just had a mask-off moment in Alabama

In Alabama, pregnant women are subjected to a work around law in the name of protecting the fetus: chemical endangerment of a child

Moira Donegan
Fri 13 Jan 2023

This week, Steve Marshall, Alabama’s Republican attorney general, said he sees a path to prosecuting women for having abortions in his state. This was a bit of a faux pas: a moment of letting slip the mask that the anti-abortion movement always tries to keep on.

Alabama’s abortion ban, which has only limited exemptions for women’s lives, makes providing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison. But like nearly all of the abortion bans that have sprung into effect since the US supreme court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health overturned Roe v Wade last June, the law has no mechanism to prosecute women who receive abortions. But that doesn’t mean that patients are safe from criminal charges, according to the state’s top prosecutor.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/13/alabama-attorney-general-anti-abortion-movement

13.01.2023

Featured

Opinion

chemical endangerment

Moira Donegan

Pregnancy Justice

prosecuting women for abortion

USA – ‘Self-managed’ abortions could still bring criminal prosecution under child chemical endangerment laws

Craig Monger
01.07.23

Pills and other self-managed abortions could run afoul of Alabama law, even though the prevailing law does not hold mothers criminally liable for receiving an abortion.

In June, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down Roe v. Wade, which claimed abortion was a Constitutional right. After the SCOTUS decision, Alabama's near-total ban on abortion under the Alabama Human Life Protection Act of 2019 went into effect.

Continued: https://1819news.com/news/item/self-managed-abortions-could-still-bring-criminal-prosecution-under-child-chemical-endagerment-laws

07.01.2023

Commentary

Featured

Alabama Human Life Protection Act of 2019

Chemical Endangerment of a Child

Justice Tom Parker

prosecuting women for abortion

self-managed abortion

United States

Human Rights

Law

UK – Pair charged with illegally aborting baby in Gloucestershire

Jan 3, 2023
By Sammy Jenkins, BBC News

A man and a woman have been charged with illegally aborting a baby and concealing the birth of a child.

Elliot Benham from Wingfield, Swindon and Sophie Harvey, from St Mary's Road, Cirencester, were also charged with illegally disposing of a baby's body.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-64155166

03.01.2023