From America with cash: Right-wing groups want to end abortion in the UK

A right-wing political and media ecosystem pushing a US-style anti-abortion agenda is gaining traction in the UK

Sian Norris
19 April 2024

Conservative MPs, hard-right media personalities, and US-backed Christian anti-abortion charities are working to spread their anti-abortion agenda ahead of a parliamentary debate on legislation that would stop women being imprisoned for terminating a pregnancy after 24 weeks.

Emboldened by their success in the United States with the Dobbs decision – the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned the right to safe and legal abortion in the US – groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Edmund Burke Foundation are now seeking to rollback progress on reproductive rights around the world.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/us-anti-abortion-culture-war-uk-stella-creasy-amendement-/

Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom

BY AMANDA SEITZ
April 19, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to check her in. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.

Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/pregnancy-emergency-care-abortion-supreme-court-roe-9ce6c87c8fc653c840654de1ae5f7a1c

Fostering a supportive and non-judgmental environment for women seeking abortion care

18 April 2024

Ivonne Diaz, Director of Division of SRHR, and Laura Gil, Chair of Committee on Safe Abortion

As part of FIGO’s ongoing commitment to advancing sexual and reproductive rights, the FIGO Committee on Safe Abortion would like to commend and highlight the exemplary work of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG), which has recently issued guidance for healthcare professionals on involving the police following abortion and pregnancy loss.

The guidance is designed to foster a supportive and non-judgmental environment for women seeking care related to abortion, pregnancy loss, or unattended delivery. These guidelines emphasise the importance of treating women with dignity, respect and compassion, regardless of their reproductive choices or circumstances.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/blog/fostering-supportive-and-non-judgmental-environment-women-seeking-abortion-care

18.04.2024

Blog

FIGO

FIGO Committee on Safe Abortion

International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics

Ivonne Diaz

La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres

Spain and Italy clash over abortion laws

April 18, 2024
By Laura Gozzi, BBC News

Spain and Italy have clashed over a proposal by Italy's ruling right-wing coalition to allow anti-abortion groups into abortion clinics. The lower house of parliament in Rome is set to pass the bill on Thursday.

Spanish Equality Minister Ana Redondo weighed into the debate prompting a spat with Italy's Giorgia Meloni. Allowing the "organised harassment" of women in abortion clinics meant "undermining a right recognised by the law", Ms Redondo declared on X. "It is the strategy of the extreme right: to intimidate in order to row back on rights," she added.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68845011

Women’s bodies being turned into ‘battlegrounds’—UN

Agence France-Presse
April 18, 2024

GENEVA, Switzerland — Women’s bodies have become political “battlegrounds,” putting at risk 30 years of progress on sexual and reproductive health for women and girls, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

Though maternal mortality rates and unwanted pregnancy rates have been steadily falling, progress is now slowing or even flatlining on key measures, said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency.

Continued: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/232388/womens-bodies-being-turned-into-battlegrounds-un

18.04.2024

News

gender-based violence

United Nations Population Fund

USA – Fearing Legal Threats, Doctors Are Performing C-Sections in Lieu of Abortions

Some physicians are doing unnecessary and invasive surgery on pregnant patients “to preserve the appearance of not doing an abortion.”

MARY TUMA
April 17, 2024

When news that Lizelle Gonzalez was suing the local prosecutor’s office for more than $1 million in damages, after being falsely imprisoned for murder over an attempted self-managed abortion in 2022, reproductive rights advocates cheered the move as a pathway to justice for the wrongfully charged southern Texas woman. However, a revelation in the lawsuit gave them pause: At the same hospital that reported her self-induced abortion to authorities, Gonzalez underwent a “classical C-section” for the delivery of her stillborn child, instead of abortion care. Major invasive surgery, Cesarean sections carry much higher risk for health complications, like hemorrhaging, compared with D&E abortion, and can jeopardize subsequent pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/c-sections-abortions-terrifying-new-reality/

18.04.2024

Commentary

Abortion on Our Own Terms

Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health

American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Association of American Medical Colleges

Center for Reproductive Rights

Charlotte Lozier Institute

Dr. Daniel Grossman

Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi

Dr. Michele Heisler

Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act

forced C-sections

forced cesarean sections

Physicians for human Rights

Physicians for Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health Impact

Report: Decades of progress in sexual, reproductive health being rolled back

April 17, 2024
By Lisa Schlein

GENEVA — Decades of progress in sexual and reproductive health are being rolled back with the poorest, most vulnerable members of society at greatest risk of losing out on lifesaving services, according to the 2024 State of World Population report.

The report, issued Wednesday by the U.N. Population Fund, UNFPA, says, “The data are damning.”

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/a/report-decades-of-progress-in-sexual-reproductive-health-being-rolled-back/7573695.html

17.04.2024

News

2024 State of World Population Report

Dr. Natalia Kanem

International Conference on Population and development

maternal deaths

UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund

Women’s Bodies Being Turned Into ‘Battlegrounds’: UN

By Agnès PEDRERO

April 17, 2024

Women's bodies have become political "battlegrounds", putting at risk 30 years of progress on sexual and reproductive health for women and girls, the UN warned Wednesday.

Continued: https://www.barrons.com/news/women-s-bodies-being-turned-into-battlegrounds-un-21dd84a5

17.04.2024

Italy passes measures to allow anti-abortion activists to enter abortion clinics

Opposition parties say women’s rights dealt blow after package approved by Georgia Meloni’s cabinet

Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Tue 16 Apr 2024

Italian opposition parties have said women’s rights in Italy have been dealt a “heavy” blow after parliament passed a measure by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government allowing anti-abortion activists to enter abortion consultation clinics.

The measure forms part of a package of initiatives approved by Meloni’s cabinet that will be funded by the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, of which Italy is the biggest beneficiary, and was put to the lower house in a confidence vote on Tuesday. The package of measures is expected to comfortably pass in the senate, too.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/16/italy-passes-measures-to-allow-anti-abortion-activists-to-enter-abortion-clinics

‘Pregnancy is not a disease’: why do so many women die giving birth in Nigeria?

More than 80,000 Nigerian women died from pregnancy-related complications in 2020, a statistic activists say reflects a lack of political will to fix a broken medical system

by Kasia Strek in Lagos (The Guardian)
Tue 16 Apr 2024

Despite having the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria also loses more women to death in childbirth than most other countries in the world. In 2020, about 82,000 Nigerian women died due to pregnancy-related complications, a slight improvement on the previous year, but an increase on previous decades.

The causes of death included severe haemorrhage, high blood pressure (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), unsafe abortion and obstructed labour. Doctors and activists say high maternal mortality rates reflect a lack of trust in a broken public healthcare system and little political will to fix it.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/16/pregnancy-is-not-disease-why-do-so-many-women-die-giving-birth-in-nigeria-one-of-africas-richest-countries