STEVIE EMILIA, THE JAKARTA POST
Jakarta / Tue, September 29, 2020
Abortion – safe or unsafe, legal or illegal – has existed throughout history. Yet, it continues to be the most sensitive and controversial issue in reproductive health.
The WHO has disclosed that an average of 73.3 million – safe and unsafe – abortions took place worldwide per year between 2015 and 2019, with the rate of abortions being higher in developing regions than in developed ones.
By Afedzi Abdullah
09/09/2020
Despite Ghana having relatively liberal laws on abortion, the procedure continues to be highly stigmatised, and as a result, many abortions are done illegally.
Consequently, the country is lacking accurate data on abortion incidence and unintended pregnancies which are very essential to planning reproductive health services.
Continued: https://www.modernghana.com/news/1028434/reducing-unsafe-abortions-the-need-for-a-more.html
Alice Broster, Forbes
Sep 2, 2020
Abortions are recognized as a human right by the World Health Organisation as a person has the right to “decide freely and responsibly without coercion and violence the number, spacing and timing of their children.” However, a lot of misinformation and misconceptions are attached to abortions and future pregnancies. So, does having an abortion affect your fertility? This is such a relevant question as people seek out abortion procedures for a multitude of reasons with the intention of having a family in the future. Myths like this only attach stigma and prevent people from accessing information and treatment.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that between 2015 and 2019 there were 121 million unintended pregnancies each year globally. Of those unintended pregnancies, 61% ended in abortion. When you’re considering having an abortion it’s totally natural that you’d think about your fertility in the long run. And the short explanation is that there’s no evidence that would suggest that either a medical or surgical abortion causes infertility when done in a safe setting.
Kathmandu, August 20
A media monitoring study has concluded that mainstream daily newspapers of the country have not given sufficient space to the issues related to safe abortion, and marriage equality.
Yuwalaya, a youth NGO, says it made the conclusion after monitoring the news reports published in 10 daily newspapers published from Kathmandu throughout 2019. The report was made public in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
Continued: https://english.onlinekhabar.com/media-coverage-of-safe-abortion-marriage-equality-insufficient.html
A choice, not a death warrant
Many unaware safe abortion an option
29 Jun 2020
Penchan Charoensuthipan
Noi thought her world had tumbled down when she discovered she was pregnant at
the age of 50.
But it has dawned on Noi, a teacher, that an unwanted pregnancy could happen to
any woman, young or old. What compounds the already dire situation for many
women is that they feel their only choice is to have an illegal abortion.
Continued: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1942568/a-choice-not-a-death-warrant
How the Pandemic Is Changing Abortion Care in Vulnerable Countries
By Rachelle Hampton
May 18, 2020
This as-told-to essay from Dr. Manisha Kumar has been edited and condensed for clarity from an interview with Rachelle Hampton.
I am currently the head of Médecins Sans Frontières’ task force for safe abortion care. It’s a relatively new initiative that started in 2016 to increase provision of contraception and safe abortion care in MSF projects. Before this role, I worked for MSF in many different capacities. I was both a field staff doctor in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a medical coordinator in DRC and Bangladesh. Just like many people, I’m working from home now, in Amsterdam. I’ve never spent this much time in my apartment, behind my computer, on Zoom meetings and calls. So much of MSF and who we are is based in the field.
Continued: https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/coronavirus-abortion-doctors-without-borders.html
COVID-19 lockdowns leading to a rise in violence against women and girls
The global COVID-19 pandemic in its indiscriminate spread has claimed loved ones before their time - once bustling cities and neighbourhoods now stand in ‘lock-down’.
14 May 2020
Jameen Kaur
While the spread of COVID-19 is indiscriminate, mounting evidence has revealed that COVID-19 has further compounded existing inequalities putting already marginalised women and girls, often with weaker access to political and economic power, at greater risk, not only to the coronavirus but also to the direct and indirect consequences of lock-down.
FIGO and our 132 National Member Societies commitment to promote women’s health and rights precedes the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the two are explicably linked. UN Women has reported a global rise in domestic violence cases and new evidence released by UNFPA reveals that for every 3 months the lockdown continues an additional 15 million cases of gender-based violence are expected, 13 million women will not be able to access modern contraceptives and there will be an estimate of 325,000 unintended pregnancies.
Continued: https://www.figo.org/covid-19-lockdowns-leading-rise-violence-against-women-and-girls
Opinion: During COVID-19 crisis, lift barriers to reproductive health care — including abortion
By Anu Kumar
27 April 2020
As COVID-19 spreads worldwide, upending life as we know it, governments around the globe are facing massive challenges in containing the new coronavirus and protecting lives. But even in this time of crisis — in fact, especially in this time of crisis — pregnancy care, including abortion care, remains an essential health service.
Abortion is time-sensitive and cannot be significantly deferred without profound consequences for women and their families. While conservatives in the U.S. have pounced on the political “opportunity” that the coronavirus pandemic presents to advance their ideology, countries in the global south are struggling to meet all the needs of their citizens, including the need for safe abortion care.
Training Providers on Law and Clinical Norms
02.03.2020
FIGO
Mozambique liberalised its abortion law in 2014, granting legal abortion on request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and longer term limits in cases of rape, incest and foetal anomaly. FIGO National Member Society, The Associação Moçambicana de Obstetras e Ginecologistas (AMOG), was proud to support this change in law.
Clinical norms to guide treatment were also made available, and benefitted from AMOG’s technical expertise while being developed. However, barriers that prevent women accessing abortion care remain; although we have the law in place, it is often not being implemented.
Continued: https://www.figo.org/news/training-providers-law-and-clinical-norms-0016330
In Mozambique, Canadian aid funds a rare service: safe abortions
In an African nation where abortion was only recently legalized, the barriers to access are public education, medical training and money. An $18-million Canadian project is trying to help, and Mozambicans say it’s saving lives
Geoffrey York, Africa Bureau Chief
Manica, Mozambique
Published February 25, 2020
For years, the blood supply at Manica District Hospital was falling to worryingly low levels. So many women needed emergency transfusions, after undergoing dangerous abortions at home, that its blood stocks often became depleted.
“They would come here almost in shock from hemorrhaging,” said Flora Diomba, clinical director of the hospital in central Mozambique. “Women were trying to get rid of their pregnancy at any cost.”
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