Kenya should consider withdrawing from Geneva Consensus Declaration that restricts abortion

By Kelvin Mokaya
July 7, 2023

Evidence shows that restricting access to abortion does not reduce the number of abortions. What it does is increase the likelihood of an unsafe procedure. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in countries with the least restrictive abortion laws, less than one per cent of abortions are typically unsafe. In the most restrictive, that number goes up to 31 per cent.

Over the past two decades, the health evidence, technologies and human rights rationale for providing safe, comprehensive abortion care have evolved greatly. However, despite these advances, the World Health Organisation estimates that there are approximately 22 million unsafe abortions annually, resulting in 47,000 deaths and five million complications that end in hospital admission.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health-opinion/article/2001476716/kenya-should-consider-withdrawing-from-geneva-consensus-declaration-that-restricts-abortion

07.07.2023

Opinion

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Guttmacher Institute

World Health Organisation

Uganda rejects UN definition of abortion as a human right

Monday, September 26, 2022
By JANE NAFULA

Uganda has joined several other African countries to oppose the contentious United Nations Human Rights Committee’s definition of abortion as a human right.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines abortion as termination of pregnancy prior to 20 weeks gestation.

Continued: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/uganda-rejects-un-definition-of-abortion-as-a-human-right-3962018

Who wins the battle over Lagos abortion policy?

By CHINYERE OKOROAFOR
On Sep 19, 2022

The Lagos State abortion policy seeks to achieve safe termination of pregnancy within the ambits of the law. However, like many new policies, the initiative is mired in controversies, with opposition to it coming from many sides, including the Catholic Church. In this report, CHINYERE OKOROAFOR examines the issues.

On 28 June 2022, the Lagos State Government unveiled a 40-page policy document on safe termination of pregnancy. It was designed to reduce “preventable deaths” usually caused by unsafe abortion procedures. The policy is meant to guide medical practitioners and other stakeholders on when it is lawful or unlawful to terminate a pregnancy.

Continued: https://thenationonlineng.net/who-wins-the-battle-over-lagos-abortion-policy/

The safety concern in abortion debate

Mohammad Javed Pasha
July 31, 2022

Abortion is a public health concern besides being a sensitive issue with religious, moral, cultural and political dimensions. More than a quarter of the world’s people live in countries where the procedure is permitted only in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormalities or to save the pregnant person’s life. Abortions still occur in these countries, nearly half of them are unsafe, performed by unskilled practitioners or in unhygienic conditions, or both.

Abortions performed in unsafe conditions claim the lives of tens of thousands of women around the world every year and leave many times that with chronic and often irreversible physical and mental health problems becoming a drain on the resources of public health systems. Controversy, however, often overshadows the public health impact. An estimated 73 million abortions occur globally each year. Unsafe abortions accounts for up to 13 percent of deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide. Globally, at least 7 million women are treated every year for complications from unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/978303-the-safety-concern-in-abortion-debate

31.07.2022

Commentary

Featured

International Conference on Population and development

maternal deaths

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

Mohammad Javed Pasha

World Health Organisation

Ireland – Politicians set to hear calls for less restrictive abortion regime

Women’s council plans to address 12-week limit and poor national coverage

Tue, Apr 26, 2022
Cormac McQuinn

Politicians will hear calls for a less restrictive abortion regime, including extending the current 12-week limit to allow terminations on request “up to viability”.

The National Women’s Council (NWC) and the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) will suggest reforms to the rules on abortion when representatives appear before the Oireachtas Health Committee on Wednesday.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/politicians-set-to-hear-calls-for-less-restrictive-abortion-regime-1.4862475

Activist faces trial in Poland for aiding abortion

Justyna Wydrzyńska faces a three-year prison term for providing abortion-inducing tablets to a pregnant woman.

By Anna Koslerova, Al Jazeera
Published On 4 Apr 2022

Justyna Wydrzyńska, 47-year-old mother of three, who has been helping women access abortion for more than 15 years, is set to face trial in Poland this week for violating the country’s strict abortion law.

She could be imprisoned for a maximum of three years if found guilty of providing abortion-inducing tablets to a pregnant woman.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/4/pro-choice-activist-faces-trial-in-poland-for-aiding-abortion

Opinion – Abortion on demand in Namibia

2022-04-01
Staff Reporter

‘Abortion on demand’ in Namibia has been ignorantly and harmfully connotated as the moral decay of a nation in that individuals who seek this essential health service (on demand), do so because they are irreligious, reckless and uncouth and not because it is a fundamental right and is just another normal reproductive healthcare procedure, which many people overlook with gay abandon. Some have gone as far as calling it premeditated murder, whilst others accuse individuals who seek this health care service of casting a ‘curse’ on the nation (using biblical overtones), as if choosing to terminate a pregnancy at one’s own volition will suddenly compromise the image of Namibia to all the many deities supposedly keeping score on the nation’s puritanical history.

The history of the current ‘Abortion and Sterilization Act No.2 of 1975’ cannot
be understated, as it has already been established that this restrictive law
was inherited 47 years ago from the apartheid administration which had
colonised Namibia.

Continued: https://neweralive.na/posts/opinion-abortion-on-demand-in-namibia

What can be done to protect women from unsafe abortions?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) explains changes are necessary to protect women and girls from the health consequences of unsafe abortions

February 2, 2022
Open Access Government

Preventing women and girls from accessing an abortion does not mean they stop needing one.

According to Amnesty International, attempts to ban or restrict abortions do nothing to reduce the number of abortions, it only forces people to seek out unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/unsafe-abortions/128787/

02.02.2022

Featured

News

Amnesty International

Özge Tunçalp

WHO and HRP multi-country survey on abortion

World Health Organisation

How the US abortion rights battle is affecting women across the world

US anti-choice groups are supporting local agencies in countries across Africa and are spreading stigma and false information about sexual and reproductive health, often putting women’s lives at risk

By Sarah Shaw
December 23, 2021

As the US Supreme Court prepares to rule on what would be the greatest abortion rights rollback since Roe v Wade enshrined access to terminations in law in 1973, the effect of its decision could send shockwaves across the world.

While the effect of US abortion policies overseas is not a new phenomenon, it’s likely that any move to constrain or repeal Roe v Wade would have an unprecedented chilling effect on abortion rights globally.

Continued: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/us-abortion-rights-battle-how-affect-woman-across-world-1365601

Sri Lanka – Better family planning and counselling needed to reduce unsafe abortions: Local study

Dec 20, 2021
BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody

Until the laws for the legalisation of abortion for more conditions are enacted in Sri Lanka, family planning services and counselling should be offered especially in pre-marital, pre-pregnancy and post-pregnancy periods in order to reduce the number of unsafe abortions.

This recommendation was made in an original article on “Abortion and its legalisation: An overview of the opinion of doctors in the Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila” which was authored by ….

Continued: https://www.nation.lk/online/better-family-planning-and-counselling-needed-to-reduce-unsafe-abortions-local-study-155590.html

20.12.2021