In the Dominican Republic, the Fight for Abortion Rights Is a Fight Against Anti-Blackness

Afro-feminist movements push for comprehensive sex education, a cultural shift, and exceptions to a total abortion ban.

By Natalia Perez-Gonzalez
FEBRUARY 22, 2023

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC—There’s a citywide blackout. No street lights, no shop lights—just headlights from passing cars. “This is just your typical Friday night,” Alicia Mendez Medina says, and a bodega worker nods from behind her. Alicia bids her goodbye and we head to Parque Duarte, the place many have described as “the it spot” for nightlife in Santo Domingo. She orders some wine.

“This country is a mess,” she laughs, and pours herself a glass. I can only see her cheekbones and her eyes, her back illuminated by phone flashlights from passersby. We restart our conversation, this time in almost complete darkness.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/dominican-republic-abortion/

Uganda – Sexuality education: Is it a game changer?

Wednesday, September 07, 2022
Mariana Kayaga

During the national consultations by the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) on the East African Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill (EAC SRH Bill), a section of clerics argued that sexuality education sexualises children and that “children have no business engaging in sex”.

They further argued that sexuality education for children should be left to the parents. Discussions on sexuality education have always been a polarising debate and this is partly fueled by misconceptions and misinformation. For a long time, there has been the misconception that sexuality education and sex education are the same thing. However, sexuality education is a curriculum-based means of teaching and learning about cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality.

Continued: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/commentary/sexuality-education-is-it-a-game-changer--3939374

07.09.2022

Featured

Opinion

comprehensive sexuality education

East African Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill

Why So Many Indians Watch YouTube To Know How To Get An Abortion

Turns out, that a large population in India is still not aware that abortion is legal.

By Adrija Bose
8 July 2022

A 25-year-old woman in Nagpur used household utensils to self-abort last year by watching a YouTube tutorial. The procedure that involves a safe place, safe tools and a trained medical practitioner was carried out by herself, in her own home when her parents were away. The woman survived but she had to spend days in the hospital, recovering from an acute infection from the procedure that could have killed her. This is not the only story of a botched abortion.

This is not the only story of a botched abortion.

Continued: https://www.boomlive.in/explainers/abortion-india-legal-watching-youtube-roe-v-wade-us-18465

Africa: ‘Let’s Treat Sexual and Reproductive Health Services as a Regular Part of Health Care to Remove Stigma’

11 MARCH 2022
INTERVIEW By Sethi Ncube

Johannesburg — Too many girls and women continue to die and face both the short and long-term repercussions of unsafe abortions, yet potentially life-saving information on receiving quality care for abortion-related complications, remains in short supply.

To address this gap, the UN system for Human Reproduction Research (HRP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, published new data on the issue, in the latest edition of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. The newly published papers also explore the experiences of adolescents and women in accessing support in insecure environments, reports UN News.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202203110732.html

USA – Minority women most affected if abortion is banned, limited

Feb. 1, 2022
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS and LEAH WILLINGHAM
The Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — If you are Black or Hispanic in a conservative state that already limits access to abortions, you are far more likely than a white woman to have one.

And if the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to further restrict or even ban abortions, minority women will bear the brunt of it, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

Continued: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/minority-women-most-affected-if-abortion-is-banned-limited/

USA – Yes, it’s easier to get birth control than it was in the 1970s – but women still need abortion care

January 18, 2022
Emily M. Godfrey

A historic ruling on abortion is likely to emerge from the U.S. Supreme Court this year as justices consider whether Mississippi can, in fact, impose a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, challenges the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protects women’s right to abortion. Meanwhile, Texas enacted its own restrictive abortion law in September – and other states are working to follow suit.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/yes-its-easier-to-get-birth-control-than-it-was-in-the-1970s-but-women-still-need-abortion-care-174026

18.01.2022

Commentary

Featured

Affordable Care Act

contraceptive failure

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Activists Say Romania Has Been Quietly Phasing Out Abortion

September 1, 2021
LUCÍA BENAVIDES

Daniela Draghici knows firsthand what an abortion ban looks like.

In 1976, when she was a college student in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, she got pregnant after her contraception failed. Abortion was prohibited in Romania.

With the help of a friend, Draghici was taken to a woman with no medical training to end her pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1021714899/abortion-rights-romania-europe-women-health

‘Brave Sisters’ Tackle Croatia’s Growing Stigma Over Abortion

As women in Croatia encounter even greater difficulties in obtaining access to terminations of pregnancy, feminists are launching a new project to help them exercise what often seems a disappearing right.

Anja Vladisavljevic, Zagreb
December 1, 2020

Women’s rights activists in Croatia have been warning for years that, while legal, abortion is becoming less and less available in the mainly Catholic country.

“The opponents of abortion will stop at nothing,” Nada Peratovic, a lawyer and women’s rights activist, told BIRN.

Continued: https://balkaninsight.com/2020/12/01/brave-sisters-tackle-croatias-growing-stigma-over-abortion/

Jamaica’s Teen Mother Crisis Gets Government Attention.

By Jonathan Mason
November 30, 2020

KINGSTON, Jamaica–November 29th,2020–HIV/AIDS Officer at the United Nations Population Fund Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, Dr. Denise Chevannes, is urging interested parties to focus on adolescent pregnancy prevention, as one of the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She noted that COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem of adolescent pregnancy and has left more girls susceptible to teenage pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/jamaicas-teen-mother-crisis-gets-government-attention/

“We Are Only Free When Everyone Is Equal”: Anja Rubik On The Abortion Rights Crisis In Poland

The supermodel and prolific Vogue cover star shares a powerful letter on the realities surrounding abortion rights in her home country, and her hopes for an inclusive future for the LGBTQIA+ community.

BY ANJA RUBIK
23 NOVEMBER 2020

In 2020, our Poland is a divided country, and as a Polish woman, I have grave fears. Church and state have merged, giving birth to conflict and contradiction. A woman’s right to choose is under siege, the LGBTQIA+ community is treated like second-class citizens, and sex education is being phased out.

Poland has the strictest abortion legislation in the EU. Abortion is illegal with three exceptions [in cases of rape, incest or where there’s a threat to the mother’s life], and these exceptions are being slowly erased. This will affect not just our women, but our entire community. On 22 October, the Constitutional Court outlawed abortion in the case of severe and irreversible foetal impairment.

Continued: https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/anja-rubik-abortion-poland

23.11.2020