Category Archives: Abortion

The Mississippi and Texas laws threatening US abortion rights

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As the supreme court hears new challenges to Roe v Wade, American abortion rights hang in the balance

According to recent polls, Americans overwhelmingly support Roe v Wade, the 1973 US supreme court ruling that protects a woman’s right to an abortion. But two new legal challenges to that decision could jeopardise the ability of American women to access abortions – and have knock-on effects for reproductive rights across the globe.

Guardian US health reporter Jessica Glenza has been reporting on laws that severely restrict abortion access in Mississippi and Texas; she tells Nosheen Iqbal that this is a ‘perilous moment’ for reproductive rights in the US.

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Migrant caravan and Qatar’s tarnished World Cup: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Pakistan to Poland

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The agony of choosing termination for my baby who had foetal anomaly

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There is a silence around the death of a baby, and a greater hush around the issue of termination for foetal anomaly. Laura Doward shares her life-changing experience

I’m looking at my name, handwritten in capital letters, neat as a button. Considering asking for another form to rewrite it, make it shakier.

“Foeticide,” the doctor is saying.

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Poles march against abortion ban after pregnant woman’s death

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Protesters link woman’s death by septic shock to new restrictions on ending unviable pregnancies

“Her heart was beating too,” thousands of protesters across Poland chanted on Saturday during demonstrations sparked by the death of a pregnant 30-year-old woman in hospital. Her family say that the hospital staff refused her life-saving health care because they were afraid of breaking the country’s strict abortion law.

Demonstrators were joined by senior opposition politicians, including Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council.

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Polish activists protest after woman’s death in wake of strict abortion law

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Demonstrations and candlelit vigil after woman, 30, dies of septic shock in 22nd week of pregnancy

A Polish hospital has said that doctors and midwives did everything they could to save the lives of a pregnant woman and her foetus in a case that has put the spotlight on the country’s new stricter abortion law.

The 30-year-old woman died of septic shock in her 22nd week of pregnancy. Doctors did not perform an abortion, even though her foetus was lacking amniotic fluid, according to a lawyer for the family.

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More than 30,000 Polish women sought illegal or foreign abortions since law change last year

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Tens of thousands have travelled to other European countries including England for legal terminations since near-total ban, campaigners say

At least 34,000 women in Poland are known to have sought abortions illegally or abroad since the country introduced a near total ban on terminations a year ago.

According to Abortion Without Borders (AWB), an organisation that helps women access safe abortion services, more than 1,000 Polish women have sought second-trimester abortions in foreign clinics since the country passed draconian new laws.

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Sir David Amess obituary

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Dedicated Conservative politician who served as Southend West’s MP for nearly 25 years

Sir David Amess, who has died aged 69 after being stabbed while holding a constituents’ surgery at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, was the Conservative MP for Southend West in Essex. Though he spent more than half his life in the Commons without ever attaining ministerial office, the likelihood is that he would not have wanted it any other way.

He devoted his career to the promotion of his constituencies – first Basildon, then from 1997 Southend West – and to dealing with their voters’ concerns. He had a high local profile and was always willing to meet constituents, advertising his regular weekly surgeries in advance.

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Biden administration to ask supreme court to halt Texas abortion ban

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Government will ask court to reverse appeals court decision leaving in place the law that all but bans abortions in the state

The Biden administration said on Friday it will turn next to the US supreme court its attempt to halt a Texas law that has banned most abortions since September.

The move by the justice department comes after an appeals court on Thursday night left in place the law known as Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions at roughly six weeks, or before most women know they are pregnant. The appeals court, the fifth circuit, is among the most conservative in the nation.

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Texas’ restrictive abortion law temporarily reinstated one day after being blocked

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A New Orleans-based appeals court quickly granted the state’s request to set aside a suspension until the case is reviewed

A federal appeals court on Friday night allowed Texas to temporarily resume banning most abortions, just one day after clinics across the state began rushing to serve patients again for the first time since early September.

Abortion providers in Texas had been bracing for the 5th US court of appeals to act quickly, even as they booked new appointments and reopened their doors during a brief reprieve from the law known as Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks.

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Texas abortion ban temporarily blocked | First Thing

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US federal judge rules law violates right to abortion in first legal challenge to Senate Bill 8. Plus, Alaska hospitals ration care

Good morning.

Texas’s near-total abortion ban has been temporarily blocked after a US federal judge ruled that it violated the constitutional right to abortion, in the first legal challenge to Senate Bill 8.

Is Texas’s law unique? In some ways, yes. While other states have passed similar laws, SB8 delegates enforcement to private citizens, not prosecutors.

What has SB8’s effect been? Planned Parenthood said the number of patients at its Texas clinics fell by nearly 80% in the two weeks after the law took effect.

What did the federal judge say? “Women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the constitution,” Robert Pitman wrote.

How bad are conditions? The conflict has driven 400,000 people into famine-like conditions, while up to 7 million people need food assistance in regions such as Tigray, Amhara and Afar, according to the UN.

Meanwhile, whistleblower Frances Haugen accused Facebook of “literally fanning ethnic violence” in countries including Ethiopia because it is not properly monitoring its service outside the US.

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US judge temporarily blocks Texas’ near-total abortion ban in blow to contentious law

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Judge excoriates ‘unprecedented scheme’ to deny women abortion right as law faces uncertain future

A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the near-total ban on abortion in Texas, dealing the first legal blow against the contentious law and throwing its future into uncertainty.

The law, known as Senate Bill 8, banned most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state and, until now, had withstood a wave of early challenges.

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US congresswomen including Cori Bush share their own abortion stories – video

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Democratic lawmakers including Missouri representative Cori Bush shared personal stories behind their decisions to have abortions during a House oversight committee meeting about reproductive rights on Thursday.

Representatives Barbara Lee of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington also shared their stories during the committee hearing

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Abortion pledge adds to scepticism over women’s rights in China

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Analysis: plan to reduce abortions as birthrates plunge draws comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale

Far-reaching proposals from Beijing on “women’s development” have sparked concern over a pledge to reduce abortions, with feminists and academics pointing to the government’s history of control over women’s reproductive rights.

On Monday China’s state council published its latest 10-year outline for women’s development. The lengthy document contained guidelines for China’s gender-based policy, but it was a short phrase that caught particular attention: a pledge to “reduce abortions conducted for non-medical reasons”.

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China to clamp down on abortions for ‘non-medical purposes’

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Policy uses women as tool for economic goals and could endanger their lives, says rights group

China’s pledge to limit abortions puts women’s bodies under the state’s control just as the one-child policy did and could endanger the lives of women seeking abortions, rights groups have said.

The Chinese government announced on Monday that it would seek to reduce abortions for “non-medical reasons” – a move seen as being in line with its attempts to accelerate birthrates.

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San Marino votes in referendum on lifting abortion ban

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Landlocked state within central Italy is one of last places in Europe with total ban on abortion

Residents in San Marino are voting over whether or not to lift a ban on abortion following a tense referendum campaign.

The extremely conservative landlocked state within central Italy, which has a population of about 33,000, is one of the last places in Europe that has a total ban on abortion.

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Cecile Richards marks a year since RBG death with abortion rights battle cry

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Former Planned Parenthood president cites Texas law and says Republicans are on brink of ending right to abortion

Marking the first anniversary of the death of the supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cecile Richards warned that after nearly 50 years, Republicans are on the brink of ending the right to abortion.

Related: Women can say no to sex if Roe falls, says architect of Texas abortion ban

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Texas anti-abortion law shows ‘terrifying’ fragility of women’s rights, say activists

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Campaigners fear ban emboldens anti-choice governments as more aggressive opposition, better organised and funded, spreads from US

The new anti-abortion law in Texas is a “terrifying” reminder of the fragility of hard-won rights, pro-choice activists have said, as they warn of a “more aggressive, much better organised [and] better funded” global opposition movement.

Pro-choice campaigners have seen several victories in recent years, including in Ireland, Argentina and, most recently, Mexico, where the supreme court ruled last week that criminalising abortion was unconstitutional. Another is hoped for later this month when the tiny enclave of San Marino, landlocked within Italy, holds a highly charged referendum.

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Facebook and Google condemned over ads for ‘abortion pill reversal’

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Adverts promoting ‘dangerous, unproven and unethical’ procedure shown millions of times, study finds

Facebook has served “abortion reversal” adverts 18.4m times since January 2020, according to a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), promoting an “unproven, unethical” and “dangerous” procedure.

Google shows the adverts on more than four-fifths of searches related to abortion across a number of US cities, according to the CCDH research, targeted at search terms such as “unwanted pregnancy” and “abortion pill”.

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Biden administration asks court to block enforcement of Texas abortion ban

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US justice department seeks temporary restraining order while lawsuit challenges the statute as unconstitutional

The Biden administration has formally asked a federal judge to block enforcement of a new Texas law that effectively bans almost all abortions in the state under a novel legal design that opponents say is intended to thwart court challenge.

The US Department of Justice’s 45-page emergency motion seeks a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction lifting the abortion ban while its lawsuit challenging the statute as unconstitutional proceeds through the courts.

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‘No one wants to get sued’: some abortion providers stop working in Texas

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Legal threats have driven away half the doctors at a top clinic, as the state’s new law has a chilling effect on providers and those who need care

This story was originally published by The 19th.

On 31 August, there were 17 abortion providers serving at the four locations of the Whole Woman’s Health clinics in Texas. On 1 September – the day that the nation’s most restrictive active abortion law went into effect – there were just eight.

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