Argentina Legalizes Abortion

The Organization for World Peace
January 4, 2021
by Catherine Kreider

Argentina entered the new year with the national legalization of abortion, making it the sixth and most populace Latin American country to decriminalize pregnancy termination. Argentina joined the relatively small group of pro-abortion countries in the primarily Catholic region of the world, abolishing section 86 of its 1921 criminal code that only allowed for legal abortions in the case of rape and if the pregnancy was health risk-averse to the mother. As Pope Francis’s birthplace, Argentina’s transition towards legalizing abortion marks a significant societal shift within Latin America towards expanding women’s reproductive rights. The 1 January 2021 vote to legalize abortion followed years of campaigning by woman’s rights groups, with the movement for legal abortion becoming particularly widespread throughout the country after a series of brutal femicides, including the murder of a 14-year-old pregnant girl in 2015.

Continued: https://theowp.org/reports/argentina-legalizes-abortion/

Nigeria – Challenges in accessing abortion care for women

Challenges in accessing abortion care for women

ON DECEMBER 23, 2020
By Okon Taye

Accessing abortion care is one of the problems women in Nigeria are facing which has led to maternal deaths.

The Performance Monitoring for Action, PMA research has revealed that 10 per cent of women had no direct interaction with the abortion provider.

Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/12/challenges-in-accessing-abortion-care-for-women/

23.12.2020

Performance Monitoring for Action group

Health

Human Rights

Unsafe Abortion

Welcoming positive change in US foreign policy

The incoming Biden administration is set to adopt policies that promote equality and human rights around the world, says Katherine Zappone

Katherine Zappone
TUE, 15 DEC, 2020

One of many reasons to welcome Donald Trump’s departure from the White House is that a deeply damaging and harmful piece of foreign policy is expected to exit with him.

The so-called ‘Global Gag Rule’, a policy which prohibits US aid to foreign nongovernmental organisations who refer to or advocate abortion services, has cost the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls in the poorer regions of the world during the past four years.

Continued: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-40190628.html

Group urges Nasarawa to consider burden of unsafe abortion

December 14, 2020
Mohammed Yangida

A researched body called Performance Monitoring Accountability (PAC) in collaboration with the Nasarawa state Ministry of Health weekend advised government at all levels on the burden of unsafe abortion- related maternal deaths and injuries on women.

Nasarawa state director, Public Health, Dr. Ibrahim Adamu Alhassan, gave the advice in Lafia, Saturday, at a one- day seminar on abortion survey dissemination to mitigate the rate of abortion.

Continued: https://www.blueprint.ng/group-urges-nasarawa-to-consider-burden-of-unsafe-abortion/

14.12.2020

Featured

News

Dr. Ibrahim Adamu Alhassan

Nasarawa state Ministry of Health

Performance Monitoring Accountability

Zimbabwe: Unsafe Abortions Are a Major Public Health Concern

13 DECEMBER 2020
By Muchaneta Chimuka

Unsafe abortion cases are rife among youth and adults in Zimbabwe owing to high medical costs, restrictive abortion laws and lack of or inadequate youth friendly clinics that offers sexual reproductive health services, negative attitudes by service providers towards patients, lack of knowledge on how and where to seek services among others.

The 2020 #VoiceandChoice Barometer notes that 24% of all pregnancies in Southern Africa end in abortion. Although no Southern African country totally bans abortion, most conditions under which women can obtain abortions remain restrictive.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202012140629.html

Malawi Muslim Council Endorses Abortion Bill

8 DECEMBER 2020, Nyasa Times (Leeds)
By Chipambano Mbewe

A group of Sheikh's leaders from different Muslim organisations in the country which are under the Qadriyyah Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM) through Qadriyyah Ulama Council in Malawi (QUCM) has come out to openly support the controversial proposed Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

The grouping officials on Monday came out in the open to support the bill which has been sharply criticised by some Christians and Muslims.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202012081173.html

Lesotho: Unsafe Abortion – a Growing Concern in Lesotho

8 DECEMBER 2020
By Majara Molupe

Maseru — There is increasing concern in Lesotho over increasing numbers of unsafe abortion. This unsafe abortion is carried out by individuals who do not have expertise to dabble in such practice.

Abortion in Lesotho is criminalised and any person who willingly causes or induces the termination of a pregnancy commits can face imprisonment of up to three years. Criminalising abortion means healthcare providers are unable to provide much needed health care for women.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202012080817.html

Battery acid, cassava sticks and clothes hangers: We must end the global gag rule

Critics say the policy has led to deep cuts in funding for family planning

Nelly Munyasia, Womba Wanki
2 Dec 2020

On 23 January 2017, United States President Donald Trump issued an expansion of the Mexico City Policy, or “global gag rule” (GGR), last implemented under George W Bush. The GGR blocks US global health assistance to any foreign nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) that perform abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the woman; provide counselling on, or referrals for, abortion; or lobby for the liberalisation of abortion law. This stance is enforced even if the NGOs use non-US funds for these aspects of healthcare.

She Decides — a global women’s rights movement, of which we’re both members — was a direct response to the reinstatement of the GGR and its devastating effect on the lives and freedoms of women and girls. We are, therefore, encouraged by early indications that president-elect Joe Biden is expected to rescind this devastating rule as one of the new administration’s first acts.

Continued: https://mg.co.za/africa/2020-12-02-battery-acid-cassava-sticks-and-clothes-hangers-we-must-end-the-global-gag-rule/

Women’s movement sweeps Latin America to loosen abortion restrictions

Dec 1, 2020
By Daina Beth Solomon and Cassandra Garrison

MEXICO CITY/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Several weeks pregnant and about to start a job away from home, Lupita Ruiz had no doubts about wanting to end her pregnancy, despite knowing she could face jail time for having an abortion under a law in her state of Chiapas in southern Mexico.

She asked friends for help until she found a doctor two hours from her town who agreed to do it in secret.

Continued: https://www.capebretonpost.com/news/world/womens-movement-sweeps-latin-america-to-loosen-abortion-restrictions-526103/

Jamaica’s Teen Mother Crisis Gets Government Attention.

By Jonathan Mason
November 30, 2020

KINGSTON, Jamaica–November 29th,2020–HIV/AIDS Officer at the United Nations Population Fund Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, Dr. Denise Chevannes, is urging interested parties to focus on adolescent pregnancy prevention, as one of the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She noted that COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem of adolescent pregnancy and has left more girls susceptible to teenage pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/jamaicas-teen-mother-crisis-gets-government-attention/