Australia- Expansion of medical abortion prescribers to be considered by NSW government

By Lani Oataway, ABC Central West
Feb 9, 2025

A New South Wales Health review of abortion legislation has recommended the government consider changing the law to allow endorsed midwives and nurse practitioners to prescribe medicine for early terminations.

It would mean at least 900 more health practitioners across the state could prescribe MS-2 Step — a two-part medication that stops pregnancy up to 63 days after a menstrual period — aside from doctors.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-10/medical-abortion-expansion-recommendation-nurse-practitioners/104909264


The Forgotten—and Incredibly Important—History of the Abortion Pill

Mifepristone took longer to get approved than most drugs—but not because it was unsafe.

Nina Martin,  Mother Jones
Feb 7, 2025

At his Senate confirmation hearings to head the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. surprised no one by admitting that he planned to order a new review of the safety of abortion pills. While Kennedy claimed that President Donald Trump has not taken a position—yet—on medication abortion, “he’s made it clear to me that he wants me to look at the safety issues,” Kennedy said. “And I’ll ask [agencies] to do that.”

This, of course, is exactly what anti-abortion groups have been pushing for. Since 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, abortion opponents have been ramping up unfounded claims that mifepristone and misoprostol are dangerous. Their efforts have included a flurry of letters to the new administration, explicit directives in the far right’s Project 2025 blueprint for the second Trump term, and a barrage of ever-more-extreme lawsuits and state bills.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/abortion-pill-forgotten-history-attacks-mifepristone-ru486-anti-abortion-extremists-new-book/


India – How Getting An Abortion Is Linked To Contraceptive Use

Many women seeking abortion are disbelieved or discriminated against based on the contraception choices they make or do not make. Some were even denied abortion unless they use a long-acting contraceptive or undergo sterilisation. These systemic denials and attitudes have classist, casteist implications.

By Menaka Rao
7 Feb, 2025

New Delhi: In 2021, 30-year-old Radhika (name changed) got pregnant. She is a Delhi resident and has two children, and did not want another baby. She was taking 21-day contraceptive pills at the time, but admittedly missed a day, before she got pregnant. She said that she went to a private doctor to seek abortion, and he was disparaging in his attitude.

“The doctor said, ‘Women like you come to us only when you are pregnant. Why aren’t you careful?’” Radhika recounted. “When I told him that I missed having my pill for a day, he asked, ‘How can you forget? Do you forget to have your food?’”

Continued: https://www.indiaspend.com/gendercheck/how-getting-an-abortion-is-linked-to-contraceptive-use-941291


Planning for the Worst in Trump’s Next Term: Prepare, Don’t Panic, and Don’t Comply in Advance

Amy Hagstrom Miller championed abortion rights in Texas, and she’s ready for the next fight.

Mary Tuma
January 30, 2025

In the frenetic days following the November election, longtime abortion provider Amy Hagstrom Miller spent a lot of time in meetings—some in person, some on Zoom—rallying her troops. As one of the most prominent and tenacious independent abortion providers in the country, with six Whole Woman’s Health clinics in four states, it was a safe bet that she and her staff of 125 would find themselves in the crosshairs of a Donald Trump presidency and the anti-abortion extremists his second term will empower.

Hagstrom Miller could feel the alarm and dread that washed over some of her employees as they contemplated an America in which the 1873 Comstock Act might be enforced to institute a national abortion ban, the abortion pill would come under myriad other relentless attacks, federal appointees would use their bureaucratic powers to target providers in states where abortion remains legal, and patients would face new risks to their physical safety and constitutional rights.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/trump-amy-hagstrom-miller-championed-abortion-rights-in-texas-and-amy-hagstrom-miller-is-ready-for-the-next-fight/


Australia – Doctors outraged by abortion ban at Orange hospital take complaint to ICAC

ABC News / By national regional affairs reporter Lucy Barbour
Sunday 19 January

Doctors "heartbroken and incensed" by last year's abortion ban at a regional New South Wales hospital say they have taken their concerns to the state's independent corruption watchdog.

In November, the ABC revealed that staff at Orange hospital in central west NSW had been directed to stop providing abortions to patients who did not have medical reasons for a termination of pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-20/doctors-complain-to-corruption-watchdog-over-abortion-ban/104820934


Empowering Women: Ethiopia’s drive to tackle unintended pregnancies, expand reproductive care

By Abraham Tekle
January 18, 2025

In a significant step toward improving women’s health and rights, Independent Physicians Associations (Ipas) has launched a groundbreaking seven-year project aimed at expanding access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for millions of women and girls in underserved communities.

The initiative, announced on January 14, by Ipas Ethiopia, is titled “Improving Access to Reproductive Health Information and Services to the Communities in Five Regions of Ethiopia.” It will focus on reaching over six million people across the Amhara, Central Ethiopia, Oromia, Tigray, and Benishangul Gumuz regions.

Continued: https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/43354/


Kentucky – She needed an abortion but KY’s ban prevented it. ‘Somebody is going to die,’ doctors warn

By Alex Acquisto
January 16, 2025

When Genevieve Postlethwait’s water broke in her sleep one July morning, she knew something was wrong. At 17 weeks pregnant, it was too soon for this to be normal.

That afternoon at her OB-GYN’s office, Genevieve and her husband saw their daughter’s moving shape on an ultrasound screen. But she looked different — opaque, hard to see, almost “squished,” the 35-year-old recalled. The ultrasound tech was “clearly rattled and didn’t know what to say.”

Continued: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article297484283.html


The Legacy of Dr. Warren Hern: Abortion Provider, Women’s Health Advocate and Target of Hate

1/17/2025
by Carole Joffe, Ms. Magazine

After more than 50 years of providing abortions, Dr. Warren Hern of Boulder, Colo., will retire on Jan. 22, 2025. For years, he has been one of the most high-profile abortion doctors in the United States—one of only a handful of providers to perform abortions in the late second trimester and third trimester of pregnancy.

…In a letter to Ms. executive editor Kathy Spillar reflecting on his five-plus decades in medicine, Hern described his role and his clinic as “providing the safest, most compassionate and highest quality outpatient abortion services available anywhere.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/17/warren-hern-late-abortion-care/


South-to-north learning exchanges enhance midwives’ skills in abortion care

16 January 2025
World Health Organization

Showing the power of global partnerships and collaboration, midwives from Rwanda shared their skills and knowledge of comprehensive abortion care at a major gathering in Berlin organized as part of a new south-to-north learning approach initiated by the UN Special Programme in Human Reproduction (HRP).

Comprehensive abortion care helps women make informed reproductive health decisions, while ensuring safe access to relevant medical and surgical procedures and quality aftercare. Given the leading role of midwives in supporting women’s health, strengthening their skills in this area is a critical step toward increasing access to safe abortion and improving health outcomes worldwide.

Continued: https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/south-to-north-learning-exchanges-enhance-midwives-skills-in-abortion-care


Gynaecologists Seek Urgent Action To Combat Nigeria’s Alarming Maternal Mortality Rate

By Chioma Umeha
On Dec 25, 2024

LAGOS – Experts in Obstetrics and Gynae­cology have decried Nigeria’s high maternal mortality rate even as they identified some contributing factors to the trend and urged the government to demonstrate the political will necessary to address the critical public health issue.

The experts stressed the urgent need for comprehensive strategies and interventions to improve maternal health outcomes and ensure the safety of mothers during childbirth.

Continued: https://independent.ng/gynaecologists-seek-urgent-action-to-combat-nigerias-alarming-maternal-mortality-rate/