Category Archives: Abortion

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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Salesforce offers to help staff leave Texas as abortion law takes effect

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Software company sends message to workforce addressing access to reproductive healthcare

The cloud-based software giant Salesforce is offering to help relocate employees out of Texas following the state’s enactment of its extreme new abortion law.

Referring to the “incredibly personal issues” that the law creates, a message to the company’s entire workforce sent late on Friday said any employee and their family wishing to move elsewhere would receive assistance.

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The disappeared in Mexico, Afghan female footballers and a giant puppet: human rights this fortnight in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms from Thailand to Texas

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Biden administration sues Texas over ‘clearly unconstitutional’ abortion ban

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  • Law bans abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected
  • Kamala Harris says reproductive rights are ‘non-negotiable’

The Biden administration sued Texas on Thursday over the state’s extreme abortion law, which amounts to a near total ban on abortion, calling the law “clearly unconstitutional”.

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the law that went into effect last week after the supreme court refused to block it and bans almost all abortions in the state was one “all Americans should fear”.

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Biden administration sues Texas for ‘unconstitutional’ abortion law – video

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The US attorney general has announced that the Biden administration is suing Texas over the state’s 'clearly unconstitutional' abortion law, which amounts to a near-total ban on abortion. Senate Bill 8 bans abortion around six weeks after a pregnancy starts, and is enforced by private citizens being invited to report any woman seeking an abortion after this time, with a prize of $10,000 (£72,000) for each report.

Merrick Garland said the law that came into effect at the beginning of September was one 'all Americans should fear' because it opened the possibility for other constitutional rights to be put in danger by 'bounty hunting' private citizens

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Mexico activists celebrate abortion ruling as a sign of culture change

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Justices decision to decriminalise abortion was based on human rights arguments and will mean fewer criminal investigations

Activists in Mexico have hailed a supreme court decision to decriminalise abortion, saying it would stop the legal prosecution of women who terminate their pregnancies – and those reported to the authorities after suffering miscarriages.

The decision, handed down unanimously on Tuesday, declared that criminal sanctions for abortion in the northern state of Coahuila were unconstitutional. The decision sets precedent, according to lawyers involved in abortion cases, and will be applicable across the country.

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Jen Psaki mocks Texas governor’s pledge to ‘eliminate’ rape amid criticism of abortion ban – video

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked for her response to Texas governor Greg Abbott’s latest defense of the six-week abortion ban in his state. Abbott pledged to 'eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas' when he was asked why rape and incest victims should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Psaki said in response: 'If governor Abbott has a means of eliminating all rapists or all rape from the US then there’d be bipartisan support for that'. She went on to say that no leader in the history of the world has been able to eliminate rape and that is one of the many reasons that women in Texas should have access to safe abortions through their healthcare. 

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AOC on Texas governor’s ‘disgusting’ abortion remarks: ‘He is not familiar with a female body’

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Congresswoman explains basic biology to Greg Abbott after he claimed six weeks was ample time to get an abortion

Democrats including New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have decried Greg Abbott’s “deep ignorance” after the Texas governor inaccurately defended his state’s new anti-abortion law, saying that it does not require victims of rape and incest to carry pregnancies to term because it provides ample time for a person to get an abortion.

The law, which took effect on 1 September, is the most extreme anti-abortion measure in the US and essentially bans most abortions, offering no exceptions for rape or incest.

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Texas abortion ‘whistleblower’ website forced offline

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Site was removed from GoDaddy before being censored by new host Epik, known for providing services to far-right groups

Troubles are mounting for a Texas website used to report violators of the state’s extreme anti-abortion legislation after the site was forced offline by two different web hosting platforms.

The site ProLifeWhistleblower.com was removed from its original web host by the provider GoDaddy on Friday before being suspended by its new host, an agency known for providing services to far-right groups.

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Mexico’s supreme court rules criminal penalties for abortion unconstitutional

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Court orders Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from criminal code, clearing a path to decriminalisation across Mexico

Mexico’s supreme court has struck down a state abortion law, ruling that criminal penalties for terminating pregnancies are unconstitutional, in a decision which advocates say provides a path to decriminalisation across the country.

In a unanimous 10-0 ruling, the top court ordered the northern state of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code – with several justices arguing the prohibitions on voluntarily interrupting a pregnancy violated women’s rights to control their own bodies.

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DoJ vows to protect women seeking abortions in Texas after radical state ban

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Move by US attorney general Merrick Garland comes after strictest anti-abortion law in US took effect last week

US attorney general Merrick Garland announced on Monday that the federal government will take action to protect those in Texas trying to obtain an abortion in the wake of the strictest anti-abortion law in the US taking effect last week.

The US justice department said that it will not tolerate violence against anyone seeking abortion services in the state and that federal officials are exploring all options to challenge the ban on almost all terminations, with new state law also empowering the public to enforce the law in a way critics decry as promoting vigilantism.

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‘Roe v Wade is a husk’: anguish and anger in Texas after abortion ruling

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Climate of fear descends on state for clinic workers, patients and others after the supreme court’s conservative majority decision on Wednesday

Anti-abortion bounty hunters began calling Amy Hagstrom Miller’s chain of four independent abortion clinics in Texas just hours after the supreme court issued a two-paragraph order that effectively ended access to 85% of abortion services in the state.

Related: After the Texas abortion ban, clinics in nearby states brace for demand

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Republicans in six states rush to mimic Texas anti-abortion law

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North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas and Florida eye similar measures to new Texas ban after six weeks

Republican leaders in as many as six US states are rushing to follow the lead of Texas in adopting an extreme abortion ban that critics, including Joe Biden, have slammed as unconstitutional and built to encourage vigilantism among the public.

Abortion rights advocates are bracing to resist a flurry of initiatives from Florida to North Dakota in the wake of the new Texas law, the most extreme in the US, which the conservative majority on the supreme court refused to block.

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