Kenya – Hospitals unprepared for post-abortion care, study finds

Sunday, May 04, 2025
By Kamau Maichuhie

A new study has lifted the lid on the unpreparedness of health facilities to deal with post abortion care in the country.

The study titled “Incidence of Induced Abortions and the Severity of Abortion-related Complications in Kenya released on Friday, shows only 18 percent of Level Two and Three facilities offer post-abortion care in the country, thus putting thousands of women at risk.

The study further indicates that only 24 percent of referral-level facilities could provide comprehensive post-abortion care (PAC) services.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/hospitals-unprepared-for-post-abortion-care-study-finds-5027950

USA – Carol Downer, Feminist Leader in Women’s Health, Dies at 91

She opened clinics, worked to educate women about their reproductive health, and promoted an abortion technique she felt was safe enough for laypeople.

By Penelope Green
Jan. 26, 2025

Carol Downer, a leader in the feminist women’s health movement who drew national fame for her role in a case known as the Great Yogurt Conspiracy — so named because she was charged with practicing medicine without a license for dispensing yogurt to treat a yeast infection — died on Jan. 13 in Glendale, Calif. She was 91.

Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her daughter Angela Booth, who said she had suffered a heart attack a few weeks earlier.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/health/carol-downer-dead.html

How Japanese doctors who do abortions see the introduction of medical abortion pills in Japan

by Kumi Tsukahara, for International Campaign for Safe Abortion newsletter
12-13 January 2022

The situation of abortion in Japan is really not well known to the rest of the world, hidden as it is behind the wall of language, and conversely, most Japanese doctors don't know about the situation of abortion provision overseas. As was reported in the ICWRSA newsletter on 9 January 2022, Linepharma has applied for approval of combined mife-miso medical abortion pills.

In response to this, the Japan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology (JAOG) released a comment: "For the time being, prescriptions [of these pills] should be made only by doctors who are qualified to perform abortions at medical institutions where hospitalization is possible.” The president of JAOG said: "Doctors should not only prescribe the medications, but also perform subsequent management such as surgical operations in case of failure to expel the uterine contents, so a reasonable management fee is necessary.” He also said that it would be desirable to set the fee for the prescription of the pills at the same level as that for surgical abortion (D&C in Japan), which costs about 100,000 yen (= ± US$ 876).

Continued: https://mailchi.mp/safeabortionwomensright/21-jan-2021?e=372dd34034

12.01.2022

dilatation and curettage

Japan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Kumi Tsukahara

medication abortion

vacuum aspiration

Thailand’s abortions are modern and safe. They’re also out of reach for most women

Thailand’s abortions are modern and safe. They’re also out of reach for most women (Video)

By Teirra Kamolvattanavith
Sep 26, 2019

The man on stage pulled a thin plastic tube out of a dragon fruit before a captivated audience. A little “blood” seeped out; the audience gasped. The man was a gynecologist, the dragon fruit was standing in for a uterus, and with the tube he was demonstrating vacuum-aspiration abortion.

“Abortion has been performed for thousands of year, but in the last century, we have new technology that’s made the process completely safe, like this equipment right here,” said Sunya Patrachai, an OB/GYN professor at the renowned Mahidol University, as he waved the tiny suction tube in the air. “Yet, only 30 percent of all doctors performing abortions in Thailand use this method.”.

Continued: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/thailands-abortions-are-modern-and-safe-theyre-also-out-of-reach-for-most-women-video/

USA – On the frontline: 12 hours in a besieged abortion clinic

On the frontline: 12 hours in a besieged abortion clinic
Rachel is a doctor who provides abortions. She commutes 10 hours each way to work in an area of Alabama that would otherwise not provide the procedure at all

by Vegas Tenold and Glenna Gordon in Montgomery, Alabama
Wed 24 Jul 2019

Rachel hunches down in the seat of a Chevrolet rental, adjusting her disguise in the mirror. She pulls down a fedora to partly cover her face, but isn’t convinced it offers enough cover. She puts on a pair of oversize sunglasses.

While the combination conceals her face, it is also not an inconspicuous sight in the pre-dawn Friday hours in a run-down neighborhood in Montgomery, Alabama.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/24/abortion-wars-alabama-12-hours-besieged-clinic?fbclid=IwAR1zjee5iFH6IoCuynmJCOteXiy51LcP8IBhSf7ibER2uH0SUI3YJ4MvX_s

USA – The New Abortion Underground Starts With Information

The New Abortion Underground Starts With Information
The threats against safe abortions are changing—where women once feared the coat hanger, the symbol of the handcuff is now more ominous. Is arming activists with information the first step in keeping abortion accessible?

By Meghan Racklin
January 22, 2019

A papaya, it turns out, is a good model of a uterus in the early stages of pregnancy. Well—the papaya is a bit bigger, actually. And the average uterus has more of a tilt. But overall, the fruit is a close replica.

That’s what I’m told during a training session hosted by the Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP). Under the guidance of our instructor, a doctor and RHAP fellow, I insert a thin metal instrument into the top of my papaya to create an opening before inserting a small suction device called an aspirator. There’s a slight slurping sound as the papaya seeds are sucked into the aspirator’s main chamber. Slurp. Slurp. Slurp. And then it’s done.

Continued: https://www.glamour.com/story/the-new-abortion-underground-starts-with-information

India – The Abortion Pill: The How, The Why, And Everything In-Between

The Abortion Pill: The How, The Why, And Everything In-Between

By Guest Writer
December 14, 2018

One would think that the legalisation of abortion would lead to safer options for Indian women. But the truth is far from it. Despite the legal approval to terminate a pregnancy, India continues to witness millions of incidents of unsafe abortions, making it the third leading cause of maternal mortality in India.

There is a battery of reasons that indicate why a developing country like India continues to see unsafe abortions such as the moral objection, stigma, lack of awareness, cost of abortion, legal loopholes to name a few.

Continued: https://feminisminindia.com/2018/12/14/abortion-pill-information/

14.12.2018

World Health Organisation

How stigma and restricted access stop Indian women from seeking safe abortions

How stigma and restricted access stop Indian women from seeking safe abortions
When women who approach doctors are denied abortion, they are forced to break the law and opt for unsafe abortion. The result? Unsafe abortions is the third leading cause of maternal mortality in India.

Haripriya Suresh and Shiba Kurian
Friday, November 30, 2018

For her first termination of pregnancy, Aishwarya* had gone to a gynaecologist, but was flat out denied by the doctor, who said she would not perform the abortion. The doctor then referred her to a colleague, who turned out to be an IVF specialist. The second doctor, too, denied her the abortion, and instead asked her to carry the pregnancy to term and have a baby. Aishwarya was seven weeks pregnant at the time, but the IVF specialist refused to give her a medical kit, and stated that she was too far along, and asked her to come in for a prohibitively expensive surgery to abort.

“I walked out of the hospital, went to my neighbourhood pharmacy, asked for the kit, and I self-medicated,” Aishwarya says.

Continued: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/how-stigma-and-restricted-access-stop-indian-women-seeking-safe-abortions-92505

30.11.2018

India Safe Abortion Youth Advocates

International Institute for Population Sciences

Ipas Development Foundation

Justice Jasti Chelameswar

Lakshmy Iyengar

maternal deaths

maternal mortality

medical methods of abortion

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (Amendment) 2002

mifepristone

misoprostol

MTP Act

MTP Act Amendment Bill

Population Council

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act

self-induced abortion

self-managed abortion

self-medication

sex selection abortion

Suyash Khubchandani

vacuum aspiration

Vinoj Manning

women's abortion stories

World Health Organisation

Self-managed Abortion Highlights Need to Decriminalize Abortion Worldwide

Self-managed Abortion Highlights Need to Decriminalize Abortion Worldwide
Most of the world's decades-old abortion laws don't reflect the advent of the abortion pill, and they permit the punishment of people who end their own pregnancies and nonmedical providers.

Nov 12, 2018
Patty Skuster, Kinga Jelinska & Susan Yanow

In countries with a range of laws regulating abortion, there is growing evidence that people are safely self-managing their abortions outside a clinical context—sourcing and using misoprostol alone or in combination with mifepristone, on their own and with the help of family and friends, or with community-based support.

Recognizing the potential of abortion pills to expand access to safe abortion, feminist collectives across the world have mobilized to create reliable resources about self-managed abortion. Activists run telephone hotlines, email help desks, and groups to provide information about self-management. Women often obtain the medicines through online services, community distribution networks, or pharmacies.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2018/11/12/self-managed-abortion-decriminalize/

Philippines – Secret service: Underground doctors induce safe abortions

Part 3 of 3: Secret service: Underground doctors induce safe abortions
A group of medical doctors in the Philippines risk careers to help women, in the belief that it is their duty to ensure the mental and physical well-being of their patients

By Natashya Gutierrez
August 20, 2018

MANILA, Philippines – Amanda had gotten pregnant twice.

The first time she got pregnant, her then-boyfriend left her after finding out she was expecting.

“I decided to keep the child and now have a very close relationship with my son,” she wrote in an online forum for Filipina women.

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/209891-underground-doctors-induce-safe-abortions-philippines