JANUARY 21, 2021
By Emma Batha
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - President Joe Biden’s decision to scrap a “deadly” Trump-era policy banning funding for aid groups that discuss abortion could unleash billions in dollars for life-saving services in developing countries, women’s rights groups said on Thursday.
“It’s very, very good news. It sends a strong message that reproductive rights are human rights,” said Evelyne Opondo, Africa director at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
US medical adviser’s speech to WHO signals major turnaround on global health policy by Biden administration
Michael Safi, The Guardian
Thu 21 Jan 2021
The Biden administration will repeal anti-abortion restrictions on American aid and join the international vaccine-sharing scheme Covax, Anthony Fauci has announced in remarks signalling a major turnaround in US global health policy.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced the changes in a speech to the World Health Organization on Thursday morning after being chosen to head the US delegation to the global health group in one of the first acts of Joe Biden’s presidency.
By Reuters
Jan. 21, 2021
TEGUCIGALPA (REUTERS) - Members of the Honduran Congress voted on Thursday to amend the constitution making it much harder to reverse existing hard-line bans on abortion and same-sex marriage, as lawmakers double down on socially conservative priorities.
Lawmakers voted to require a three-quarters super-majority to change a constitutional article that gives a fetus the same legal status of a person, and another that states that civil marriage in the Central American nation can only be between a man and a woman.
A constitutional reform would require a three-quarters majority in congress to overturn Latin America’s most draconian ban
Jeff Ernst in Tegucigalpa
Thu 21 Jan 2021
Legislators in Honduras are pushing a constitutional reform through Congress that would make it virtually impossible to legalise abortion in the country – now or in the future.
The measure, called a “shield against abortion” by its proponents, comes in response to the feminist “green wave” movement sweeping across Latin America that recently achieved its biggest victory yet with the legalisation of abortion in Argentina.
Jaevion Nelson
Published: Wednesday | January 20, 2021
The men of the cloth and their surrogates, including those in the Love March Movement (who betray everything their name suggests), have awkwardly awakened from their deep slumber.
It’s funny when you think how easily topics like buggery, gambling and abortion jolt them into ‘action’.
The London government has warned that it may intervene directly if abortions are not made more freely available in Northern Ireland soon.
By Adam Kula
Wednesday, 20th January 2021
Robin Walker MP, the minister for state for Northern Ireland, made the comments in the House of Commons as he was quizzed about the current law in the Province.
The whole issue dates back to summer 2019.
At that time MPs in Westminster passed a law which said if the Northern Irish devolved government was not restored by late October, then the London government would act to change the law on terminations, bypassing the NI Assembly altogether – a move which outraged anti-abortion groups.
United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
19 January 2021
GENEVA – UN human rights experts* today condemned a proposed bill that would basically block any potential progress on women's and girls' sexual and reproductive rights in Honduras, a country where one in four girls has been pregnant at least once before reaching age 19**.
The Constitutional amendment presented by a
deputy from the National Party and Vice-President of the Honduran Congress on
11 January would incorporate the absolute prohibition of abortion in article 67
of the national Constitution.
Continued: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26675&LangID=E
"We have a ton of work to do to undo the harm over the last four years," said Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson.
Jan. 18, 2021
By Chloe Atkins, NBC News
President-elect Joe Biden is poised to roll back several of the Trump administration's most restrictive sexual and reproductive health policies, including limits on abortion.
Reproductive rights advocates expect Biden to quickly overturn Trump-era rules, like banning federal funds for foreign and national health organizations that promote and provide abortion and giving employers more freedom to deny free contraceptive coverage for their workers.
Abortion rights advocates focused on public health consequences of prohibition and disproportionate impact on women in poverty
By Taylor Boas, Mariela Daby, Mason Moseley and Amy Erica Smith
Jan. 18, 2021
Early on Dec. 30, Argentina became only the second democratic country in Latin America to legalize abortion. The Senate’s 38-to-29 vote on a bill passed by the legislature’s lower house was celebrated by masses of green-clad activists in the streets of Buenos Aires. In recent years, these activists have been mobilizing in larger and larger numbers for reproductive rights.
Abortion legalization failed in 2018. What changed?
In 2018, a similar bill was passed by Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies but came up short in the Senate. By 2020, advocates for legalization had President Alberto Fernández on their side; Fernández had defeated antiabortion incumbent President Mauricio Macri in 2019.
Scores of Dominican women die each year from botched attempts to end unwanted pregnancies
Michelle Del Rey in Santo Domingo
Mon 18 Jan 2021
As Argentina becomes the first major Latin American country to fully legalize abortion, activists in the Dominican Republic fear their own government is banishing its women to the dark ages by upholding a total ban first implemented in 1884.
The Dominican Republic is one of four countries in Latin America – along with Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador – where abortion is illegal in all circumstances.
Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jan/18/dominican-republic-total-abortion-ban
Facebook
Google+
Twitter
LinkedIn