It’s time for a permanent repeal of the global gag rule

by Maniza Habib, opinion contributor
Sept 8, 2024

Project 2025, the policy agenda created by conservative activists and spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation, envisions sweeping changes to U.S. government policy. Among them, buried within the more than 900-page document, is a vast expansion of the global gag rule, which family planning providers across the world warn threatens abortion rights worldwide, even in countries where it is currently legal.

Project 2025 refers to the rule by its more innocuous sounding name, the “Mexico City Policy,” but a gag order is what it is. It prohibits foreign non-governmental organizations that receive U.S. funding from promoting, providing or referring patients to abortion services (with some exceptions for rape, incest and pregnancies that are life-threatening), or even advocating abortion law reform. Just mentioning the a-word would jeopardize their U.S. funding and their work, and for many non-profits, their very existence. So they aren’t allowed to talk about it.

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4866475-project-2025-global-gag-rule/

08.09.2024

Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance

Only 1 in 3 people know that abortion is legal in India

Despite abortion being legal in India for the last 50 years, awareness about legality, safety and availability of abortion is quite low, Dr Vinoj Manning told Financial Express.com.

Written by Sushmita Panda
September 8, 2024

Abortion is legal in India, however, its landscape is complex in the country. India’s abortion rate, at 47 per 1000 women aged 15-44 is higher than the global average of 39, according to the 2018 Lancet Global Health report.

On International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September 2022, the Supreme Court of India extended the right to legal abortion to 20 weeks’ gestation for all women and to 24 weeks’ gestation under special circumstances. However, access and awareness of abortion rights continue to be a challenge.

Continued: https://www.financialexpress.com/business/healthcare-only-1-in-3-people-know-that-abortion-is-legal-in-india-vinoj-manning-ceo-ipas-development-foundation-3604710/

08.09.2024

Interviews/Podcasts

28 September

abortion stigma

International Safe Abortion Day

Ipas Development Foundation

lack of information

public support for abortion

Malawi – Knowledge gap spurs unsafe abortion

Unsafe abortion is a silent killer in Malawi. If abortion was not criminalized then one Lucy Ibrahim could have been the happiest married woman.

September 7, 2024
Nyasa Times

The 49-year old woman living in the slum location of Goliyo in the populous township of Ndirande in Blantyre opted for unsafe abortion due to prevailing restrictive law.

The mother of three, was forced to seek unsafe abortion while happily married because she got an unplanned pregnancy after she was forced to stop using family planning methods.

Continued: https://www.nyasatimes.com/knowledge-gap-spurs-unsafe-abortion/

07.09.2024

Nigeria – Expert Recommends Data for Promotion of Sexual, Reproductive Health, Rights

By Olubunmi Osoteku, Lagos
On Aug 30, 2024

A medical expert, Professor Adesegun Fatusi, has recommended the need for data-driven actions for bringing about tangible results in the promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). The expert disclosed that the fight against unsafe abortion and other sexual reproductive health issues remains a challenge due to conflicting voices on the matter.

… Highlighting that many individuals speaking out on abortion are driven by emotions, lack of data, misinformation, and imagination, Fatusi stressed that a shift towards evidence-based decision-making is crucial to addressing the challenge effectively. He said: “By allowing data to drive actions, interventions can be implemented with clear outcomes that everyone can understand.”

Continued: https://von.gov.ng/expert-recommends-data-for-promotion-of-sexual-reproductive-health-rights/

30.08.2024

Academic for Health Development

Adesegun Fatusi

Guttmacher Institute

John-Paul Akinduro

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Turkmenistan’s Crackdown On Abortion Puts Lives At Risk, Doctors Warn

August 27, 2024
By RFE/RL's Turkmen Service and Farangis Najibullah

ASHGABAT -- Medical sources in Turkmenistan say officials continue to limit women’s access to abortion, threatening doctors who perform them and denying women a consultation to discuss their options for unwanted pregnancies.

Several health-care workers in Turkmenistan told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that doctors were warned that performing an abortion will cost them their license, even if the procedure was carried out within the limits specified by law.

Continued: https://www.rferl.org/a/turkmenistan-crackdown-on-abortion--putting-lives-at-risk/33093207.html

27.08.2024

News

abortion law reform

clandestine abortion

The Progres Foundation

What happens in the US could have global implications for abortion

What could Project 2025 mean for abortion rights around the world?

Dr Anu Kumar
27 August 2024

It has been two years since the US Supreme Court blew up federal protection for abortion, handing states the power to enact abortion bans and realising the decades-long fever-dream of anti-rights actors.

Though a minority in the US, these extremists are loud and determined and won’t stop at our borders. Their plans for the future are outlined in Project 2025, which is already being implemented in the US and abroad through anti-abortion and anti-LGBTIQ+ initiatives and would be fully executed if radical conservative forces reclaim the White House.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/us-elections-project-2025-global-abortion-rights/

How USAID is helping Zanzibar accelerate progress towards reducing maternal, newborn mortality

Issa Yussuf in Zanzibar
Aug 20, 2024

ZANZIBAR: SINCE 2016, maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and infant mortality rate has been decreasing globally, particularly in two regions of central and south Asia and Australia and New Zealand.

With only six years to SDG 2030, researchers say that the goal of reaching a global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 livebirths remains elusive, as in many developing countries more than two hundred maternal deaths per 100 000 livebirths is still reported.

Continued: https://dailynews.co.tz/how-usaid-is-helping-zanzibar-accelerate-progress-towards-reducing-maternal-newborn-mortality/#google_vignette

20.08.2024

India – Noida: 38-year-old woman dies during abortion attempt, 4 held

By Ashni Dhaor, Noida
Aug 18, 2024

Greater Noida police have arrested four individuals, including three quacks, in connection with the death of a 38-year-old pregnant woman during an illegal abortion procedure.

The woman, identified as Mubina, was eight months pregnant at the time of the procedure, police officials said on Saturday. According to police, investigators are probing the possibility of the newborn still being alive after procedure, based on preliminary interrogation of suspects . Four additional suspects involved in the case are still at large, they added.

Continued: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/noida-news/noida-38-year-old-woman-dies-during-abortion-attempt-4-held-101723917001930.html

18.08.2024

Global health charities warn of ‘huge and terrible’ threat to abortion rights if Trump returns

‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say

Kat Lay, Global health correspondent
Fri 16 Aug 2024

Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.

Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/16/global-health-charities-warning-threat-global-gag-rule-abortion-rights-family-planning-women-trump-project-2025

Malawi – MPs need to engage constituents for the enactment of Termination of Pregnancy Bill

August 7, 2024
by Duncan Mlanjira

Abortion in one way is illegal but termination of pregnancy is legal – but it goes with it some restrictive conditions, which deny women and girls liberty to abort unplanned pregnancies and they resort to still go ahead through clandestine and unsafe abortion.

This has created a huge crisis in Malawi and from surveys done, each year, over 141,000 women and girls have abortions – almost all clandestine and the figure is likely to be higher because there are no records for those who successfully carried out the process.

Continued: https://www.nyasatimes.com/mps-need-to-engage-constituents-for-the-enactment-of-termination-of-pregnancy-bill/#google_vignette

07.08.2024