‘A perilous future’: UK aid budget cuts will ‘cause’ 23,500 maternal deaths

Exclusive: Cuts will leave extra 6.5 million people unable to get contraception

Maya Oppenheim, Women’s Correspondent
June 7, 2021

The UK’s cuts to the aid budget will result in 23,500 women dying while pregnant, during childbirth or from unsafe abortions which go wrong, experts have warned.

MSI Reproductive Choices, a leading reproductive health charity, estimates the maternal deaths will be the result of cuts to its services, leaving an extra 6.5 million people in the most “marginalised, remote” areas not able to get the contraception they “desperately” require.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-aid-budget-cuts-maternal-deaths-b1861066.html

UK accused of ‘Trump tactics’ after ‘devastating’ £131m cut to family planning aid

Millions of the world’s poorest women and girls will ‘pay the price’ of the UK government reneging on its commitments, say aid workers

Kerry Cullinan
30 April 2021

The UK government has been accused of “using tactics reminiscent of the Trump era” after cutting millions in aid for family planning.

Boris Johnson’s government is set to slash its commitment to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) by 85% – from an expected contribution of £154m to just £23m – in an enormous blow for women and girls in the poorest countries where health services have already been decimated by COVID-19.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/uk-accused-of-trump-tactics-after-devastating-131m-cut-to-family-planning-aid/

Abortion and the right to choice: Is MTP (Amendment) Act 2021 a breakthrough for India?

Gayatri Vinayak
Mon., April 5, 2021

Rajya Sabha recently passed a bill to allow abortions of up to 24 weeks for special categories of women, up from the existing 20 weeks gestation period.

Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill 2021, which amends the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, special categories of women, including victims of incest, rape victims, minors and differently-abled women, will be allowed to undergo abortion till 24 weeks.

Continued: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/abortion-and-the-right-to-choice-is-mtp-amendment-act-2021-a-breakthrough-for-india-112220154.html

The pandemic has caused as many as 1.4 million unintended pregnancies. Here’s how that impacts women’s lives.

Abigail Higgins, The Lily
Mar. 22, 2021

When the world ground to a halt a year ago, millions of women saw their contraceptive supplies dry up and their routes to replenish them cut off.

New research by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found that 12 million women couldn’t get the family planning services they needed, leading to an estimated 1.4 million unintended pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/the-pandemic-has-caused-as-many-as-14-million-unintended-pregnancies-heres-how-that-impacts-womens-lives/

Southeast Asia – Less Contraception Use In A Pandemic?

Athira Nortajuddin
15 March 2021

Just last year when over half of humanity was confined to their homes due to COVID-19 preventive measures, Karex, a Malaysian contraceptives manufacturer predicted a global condom shortage as the pandemic shuttered factories and disrupted supply chains.

This came as Malaysia, one of the world’s top rubber producers and a major source of condoms, imposed a nationwide lockdown – known locally as the Movement Control Order (MCO). The MCO was implemented sometime in mid-March 2020 for several months.

Continued: https://theaseanpost.com/article/less-contraception-use-pandemic

Argentina’s Abortion Legislation Sparks Hope in Caribbean

February 14, 2021
By Kate Chappell (IPS)

HAVANA TIMES – It was a joyful, tearful celebration in the early morning hours of Dec. 30, 2020 for countless Argentinians when they heard the news: the senate had legalized terminations up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Prior to this, activists have said that more than 3,000 women died of botched, illegal abortions since 1983. And across the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, this renewed sense of optimism was compounded after President Joe Biden rescinded what is known as the “global gag rule,” which essentially denied funding to international non-profit organizations that provided abortion counseling or referrals.

Now, women and campaigners across LAC are hopeful that these developments will spur lawmakers to consider decriminalizing abortion in their countries, sparing women their lives, economic well-being, dignity and access to a range of options to make the best choice for their reproductive and overall health.

Continued: https://havanatimes.org/features/argentinas-abortion-legislation-sparks-hope-in-caribbean/

How lawmakers made it nearly impossible to legalize abortion in Honduras

By Tatiana Arias, CNN
Sun January 31, 2021

(CNN)This week, lawmakers in Honduras changed the country's constitution to make it virtually impossible to legalize abortion in the future -- an extreme election-year move that critics warn will further endanger women's health.

On Thursday, the country's Congress ratified a January 21 amendment to constitutional Article 67, which now specifically prohibits any "interruption of life" to a fetus, "whose life must be respected from the moment of conception."

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/americas/honduras-abortion-ban-ratified-intl/index.html

31.01.2021

anti-choice ignorance

anti-choice misogyny

Catholic Church

clandestine abortion

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

Doctors Without Borders

emergency contraception

evangelicals and abortion

Gloria Bonilla

Human Rights Watch

Juan Orlando Hernandez

Margaret Wurth

Merly Eguigure

Movimiento de Mujeres por La Paz

Neesa Medina

Oswaldo Canales

religion and abortion

sexual violence

Shield Against Abortion in Honduras

United Nations Population Fund

Visitación Padilla

Women's Rights Center

Health Providers Worldwide Welcome Biden Reversal of Anti-Abortion Rule

By restoring funding cut off by his predecessor, President Biden ended four years of what abortion rights advocates called a concerted assault on women’s reproductive health in the developing world.

By Bhadra Sharma, Ruth Maclean, Oscar Lopez and Rick Gladstone
New York Times
Jan. 29, 2021

KATHMANDU, Nepal — When President Donald J. Trump scrapped tens of millions of dollars in aid to women’s health care providers around the world four years ago, the Family Planning Association of Nepal was forced to dismiss more than 200 people and close clinics in at least four parts of the country, one of Asia’s poorest.

Family planning education and birth-control distribution slowed or stopped in Nepal, which relies heavily on American financial assistance for public health programs. While abortion is legal in the country, the options for safe procedures were abruptly narrowed.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/world/asia/gag-rule-abortion.html

End of US ‘global gag rule’ raises hopes for women’s healthcare at crucial time

‘The gag rule has had a trickle down impact by affecting access to other lifesaving services.’

28 January 2021
Claire Porter Robbins

When the Trump administration reinstated the “global gag rule” in 2017, the
International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) lost some $100 million in funding in the following years, impacting a spectrum of healthcare projects in 32 countries and going well beyond the intended goal of preventing abortions.

A health clinic in Haiti’s southern coastal town of Jacmel was one of the first casualties.

Continued: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2021/1/28/global-gag-rule-abortion-access-biden-mexico-city-policy-haiti-namibia

Biden to drop Trump’s antiabortion ‘global gag rule.’ Here’s what that means for abortion access worldwide.

By Miriam Berger
Jan. 28, 2021

Soon after he took office, President Donald Trump reinstated and expanded a policy known by its critics as the “global gag rule,” which bars U.S. funding for organizations abroad that perform abortions — or offer information about them.

On Thursday, a week into his presidency, Biden is expected to issue an executive order rescinding the policy.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/01/28/biden-trump-abortion-global-gag-rule-faq/