By Lily Nothling
Aug 29, 2021
When Zoe Eaton fell pregnant during high school, she knew she wanted an abortion, but getting one didn't come without hurdles.
"I didn't expect that I was going to be pregnant at 17. It was not something I wanted for myself," Ms Eaton said. "To me, my future looked pretty bleak if I had to go through with that pregnancy."
Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-30/access-to-abortion-really-difficult-in-regional-qld/100414012
Seven months after severe restrictions against abortion came into effect, women are struggling with the emotional toll of the near-total ban.
by Ylenia Gostoli
22 Aug 2021
When Dominika Biernat took to the streets last October, joining the huge public protests against Poland’s near-total ban on abortion, little did she know that in a few months she would become one of its victims.
A single woman and a successful actress with
one of Warsaw’s most renowned theatre companies, her pregnancy was not planned.
But the father was a good friend and when she found out, the 39-year-old
thought it could be one of her last chances to become a mother.
Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/8/22/the-mental-health-costs-of-polands-abortion-ban
The Lancet
CORRESPONDENCE| VOLUME 398, ISSUE 10299, P485, AUGUST 07, 2021
Céline Miani and Oliver Razum
Poland is rightly being criticised for suppressing abortion services.1 Since January, 2021, abortion is only legal if the pregnancy is directly life-threatening or the result of rape or incest. However, countries with allegedly more progressive policies have reasons to be self-critical as well.
An example is Germany, considered a liberal country in terms of abortion law from an international perspective, since women can be granted an abortion on request for any reason, including socioeconomic reasons. Yet, abortion in Germany is technically a crime (albeit not punished up to 12 weeks from conception), and gynaecologists are losing court cases for stating on their websites that they provide abortion care in a supportive environment.2 Attacks on abortion rights and services are nourished by vocal conservative and religious forces whose agendas find support in a non-negligible share of the population.
Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01225-3/fulltext
John Breslin
July 04 2021
The numbers of women from Northern Ireland choosing to terminate their pregnancies has dramatically increased since the procedure was made legal last year.
As of June 11, the Department of Health had received 1,624 notifications of termination, despite the lack of a full and formal commissioning of the service here.
July 2, 2021
By Claire Pierson, University of Liverpool
Liza Caruana-Finkel, University of Liverpool and The Conversation
If accessing abortion in countries where it’s
criminalised wasn’t hard enough before the pandemic, lockdowns and COVID-19
travel restrictions have made the process that much more difficult.
In fact, the issue became so pronounced at the start of the pandemic that the
European parliament and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights
called on member states to guarantee safe and timely access to abortion.
Continued: https://canadianinquirer.net/2021/07/why-it-is-vital-to-decriminalise-abortion-the-case-of-malta/
June 29, 2021
Sydney Calkin
Gibraltar has voted to change the territory’s strict abortion ban, which held that abortion was punishable by “imprisonment for life” for the pregnant person and anyone who helped them get an abortion.
Just over half of Gibraltar’s 23,343 eligible voters took part in the referendum on June 24, with 62% voting in favour of reforms to make abortion legally available. The success of the referendum will mean important changes for people in Gibraltar who urgently need access to safe, legal and local abortion.
Claudia Torrisi
June 21, 2021
For months in the Republic of San Marino, a group of women worked tirelessly for a referendum that could lead to a historic turning point: legalizing abortion in the country. The small state of about 33,000 inhabitants between Emilia-Romagna and Marche is one of the very few in Europe – together with Malta, Gibraltar, Andorra, Vatican City and Poland, which recently introduced an almost total ban – in which to terminate a pregnancy. it is a crime.
The penal code provides for a sentence of three to six years of imprisonment – for the woman who has an abortion and for anyone who participates – regardless of the reasons for the choice: even in the case of rape or serious fetal malformations.
Continued: https://breakinglatest.news/news/san-marino-women-struggle-to-legalize-abortion-claudia-torrisi/
By Amanda Connolly, Global News
Posted May 20, 2021
The number of Canadian women going south of the border to receive medically necessary abortions has dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Ontario government and a sexual health expert who says her organization has seen a drop.
Over the last five years, dozens of Canadian women primarily from Ontario have been referred each year to doctors and clinics in the United States to receive medically necessary abortions they cannot access at home, which are covered under their provincial health-care plans.
Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/7868372/coronavirus-covid-pandemic-abortion-access-canada/
By Alex Cooke, Global News
Posted May 5, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on almost all facets of health care, and abortion access isn’t an exception.
For Shannon Hardy, founder of Abortion Support Services Atlantic, COVID-19 hasn’t necessarily created new problems, but it’s highlighted issues that were there long before the pandemic.
“Geography, always,” she said of the biggest challenges facing someone seeking abortion.
Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/7833844/abortion-access-covid-19-nova-scotia/
Advocacy group says confusion over travel rights causing upset at distressing time
May 2, 2021
Kitty Holland, Social Affairs Correspondent
Women travelling abroad for abortion services
are facing increased costs and delays, and are being refused permission to
board flights amid confusion over their travel rights during the pandemic, an
advocacy group has said.
The Abortion Support Network (ASN), a London-based charity supporting women
travelling for abortion services, is calling for “clarity” from the Department
of Health as to whether abortion is an “urgent” medical service under the
Covid-19 travel regulations.
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