The Latest Casualties of Idaho’s Abortion Ban: Babies

An entire obstetrics department shuttered. Give the Idaho GOP a round of applause!

Abigail Weinberg
March 25, 2023

An Idaho hospital is ending its labor and delivery services in the wake of a Texas-style, near-total abortion ban signed into state law last year.

Citing the state’s “legal and political climate,” Bonner General Health plans to stop delivering babies and providing other obstetrical services in mid-May, according to a press release. While the release doesn’t explicitly blame Idaho’s restrictive abortion laws for the decision, the implication is clear: “Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving,” it says, while the state legislature “continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care.”

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/the-latest-casualties-of-idahos-abortion-ban-babies/

25.03.2023

Commentary

Abigail Weinberg

American Medical Association

Bonner General Health

closure of maternity wards

As South bans abortion, thousands turn to Illinois clinics

By AMANDA SEITZ
Mar 25, 2023

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) — Dr. Colleen McNicholas is fresh off performing two abortions when a ringing phone quickly stops her.

“Oh, ugh,” she said, eyes widened, before she darted off to another room.

Just the day before, 58 women had abortions at the Fairview Heights’ Planned Parenthood clinic, 15 miles east of St. Louis. But the new day is still stacked with appointments; as many as 100 abortion and family planning patients might walk through the doors.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-bans-illinois-clinic-south-travel-demand-a30afcbd022cdeeb92b9aa5788421687

25.03.2023

Commentary

Alamo Clinic

Andrea Gallegos

Dr. Colleen McNicholas

Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood

Abortion Laws Stand Between Pregnant Texans and the Care They Need

Doctors are left to guess at whether helping their patients will land them in prison.

BY SARA HUTCHINSON
MARCH 24, 2023

Doctors have a code, a set of principles meant to guide their practice: Give care. Act justly. Respect patients. Do no harm. But for Texas doctors, especially obstetrician-gynecologists, following those seemingly straightforward principles has become a legal and ethical minefield.

Physicians are finding themselves torn between providing medically appropriate care and staying in compliance with the state’s draconian anti-abortion laws. The stakes couldn’t be higher: risking major fines and up to life in prison for doctors on one side, and on the other, often putting women’s lives at risk because of delays in care or refusals to provide formerly routine procedures. As a result, medical decisions regarding pregnancy complications now involve a host of new stakeholders—hospital administrators and lawyers—who may put questions of institutional risk above patient well-being.

Continued: https://prospect.org/health/2023-03-24-abortion-laws-pregnant-texans/

USA – The Abortion Battle Over Rising Deaths in Pregnant Women

BY KATHERINE FUNG
ON 3/24/23

A massive spike in U.S. maternal deaths has abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups debating the cause of the nation's most fatal odds for expectant mothers in more than half a century.

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week said that maternal mortality—deaths that take place during pregnancy or within 42 days after delivery—shot up by 40 percent in 2021. The figure reaffirms America's position as the most dangerous wealthy country to live in when pregnant or while giving birth.

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-battle-over-rising-deaths-pregnant-women-1789982

Beatriz vs El Salvador: The landmark case that could change the most restrictive abortion laws in the Americas

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is investigating how a 21-year-old, who was diagnosed with lupus and carrying a fetus that would not survive outside the womb, was not allowed to terminate the pregnancy

Noor Mahtani, San Salvador
MAR 23, 2023

“When my daughter was told she was pregnant and had lupus, the doctors said she could not continue with her pregnancy, because both of their lives were in danger. They said that there was only one way she could be saved, but that they couldn’t do it. They couldn’t allow an abortion.” That’s how the mother of Beatriz, a young woman who lost her life after being denied an abortion, began her testimony in the landmark case: Beatriz vs El Salvador.

For the first time, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) is investigating the total ban on abortion in El Salvador, where it is a crime under any circumstances, and punishable by up to 50 years in prison. A favorable ruling for the family of Beatriz (whose real name remains under seal) could ease the most restrictive anti-abortion law on the continent and set a precedent for the region.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-03-23/beatriz-vs-el-salvador-the-landmark-case-that-could-change-the-most-restrictive-abortion-laws-in-the-americas.html

Oxfam Supports Reproductive Rights for Women Around the World

March 23, 2023
Marevic Parcon and Melissa Fuller

Oxfam is dedicated to addressing the challenges faced by people in the Philippines and Canada to access reproductive health services.

The Oxfam Confederation is networked in 87 countries as part of a global movement for change. Its mission is to build lasting solutions to poverty and injustice, focusing on improving lives and promoting women’s and girls’ rights. Reproductive justice is a particular area of focus for the organization.

Continued: https://www.healthinsight.ca/wellness/sexual-health/oxfam-supports-reproductive-rights-for-women-around-the-world/

23.03.2023

Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network

Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights

She was one of Alabama’s last abortion doctors. Then they came for everything she had

Dr Leah Torres has endured the ire of the anti-abortion movement without backing down – but now she faces her most daunting challenge

by Poppy Noor
Wed 22 Mar 2023

Dr Leah Torres doesn’t tell people what she does when she meets them, which makes it hard to make friends. She removes her name from every piece of trash before she puts it out for recycling, in case people walking past see her name and find out where she lives. If a package addressed to her arrives on her porch, she calls everyone she knows to identify who sent it before she opens it – it could be a bomb.

Once, coming back from work in the piercing August Alabama sun, she noticed a gray sedan parked in her driveway. Instinctively, she fled to a neighbor’s house – she barely knew him – but asked if he could walk her home anyway. The car turned out to be a stranger’s; the driver had just pulled over to send a text message. “Still, you never know,” says Torres, her big, almond-shaped eyes conveying concern.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/22/alabama-last-abortion-doctor-leah-torres

Scotland – Secular Society urges urgent review of charity status for “crisis” pregnancy centres

20 March 2023
by Robert Armour

Ministers are being urged by campaigners to review the charitable status of ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ giving unethical advice to pregnant woman.

These centres are organisations outside the NHS that offer advice to women with unplanned pregnancies. Many are registered charities.

Continued: https://tfn.scot/news/charity-urges-urgent-review-of-charity-status-for-crisis-pregnancy-centres

20.03.2023

News

anti-choice charity

crisis pregnancy centres

National Secular Society

NHS

revoking charity status

‘Dobbs did not break us’: How West Virginia’s Katie Quiñonez plans to keep helping women

Lindsay Schnell, USA TODAY
Mar 19, 2023

Katie Quiñonez is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and across the country. The program launched in 2022 as a continuation of Women of the Century, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Meet this year’s honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.

When the U.S. Supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, the case guaranteeing women a constitutional right to abortion access, last summer, Katie Quiñonez felt utter devastation.

But heartbreak wasn’t the only emotion coursing through the executive director of the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia – she felt determination, too.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/life/2023/03/19/katie-quinonez-west-virginia-usa-today-women-year/11248803002/

19.03.2023

USA Today Women of the Year

Women's Health Center of West Virginia

Gender equality isn’t possible without abortion and contraception

Access to reproductive health protects women and girls, uplifts them and allows them to prosper.

Banchiamlack Dessalegn, Africa Director at MSI Reproductive Choices
Published On 18 Mar 2023

It is Women’s History Month and the world is bursting with proclamations of support for gender equality and women’s rights. But too often, the general narrative celebrating historical progress on gender issues leaves out abortion and contraception, sidelining the fact that without them, gender equality would have been – and still is – impossible.

This year, millions of women and girls will be denied access to abortion, forced to carry unintended pregnancies to term or resort to unsafe termination. Abortion continues to be unjustly restricted across the world, most recently in the United States, where new state bans are being introduced with the Supreme Court’s decision to rescind the legal protection of abortion established in the 1970s.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/18/gender-equality-isnt-possible-without-abortion-and-contraception

18.03.2023