Category Archives: Abortion

Poland delays abortion ban as nationwide protests continue

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Anti-government rallies continue over court’s ruling to restrict access to terminations

Poland’s rightwing government has delayed implementation of a controversial court ruling that would outlaw almost all abortion after it prompted the largest protests since the fall of communism.

“There is a discussion going on, and it would be good to take some time for dialogue and for finding a new position in this situation, which is difficult and stirs high emotions,” Michał Dworczyk, the head of the prime minister’s office, told Polish media on Tuesday.

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Pro-choice supporters hold biggest-ever protest against Polish government

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About 100,00o people take to the streets of Warsaw to oppose tightened abortion law

About one hundred thousand protesters took to the streets of the Polish capital, Warsaw, on Friday, in the largest demonstration of popular anger directed against Poland’s ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS) since it assumed office in 2015.

Protests have been held across the country since Poland’s constitutional tribunal declared earlier this month that abortions in instances where a foetus is diagnosed with a serious and irreversible birth defect were unconstitutional. Such procedures constitute about 96% of legal abortions in Poland, which already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.

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Polish hospitals begin turning away women seeking abortions

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Institutions appear to enforce controversial ban despite legislation not yet taking effect

Hospitals in Poland have been turning away women seeking abortions even though a court ruling that has instituted a near-total ban on terminations has not yet taken effect.

The ban, which outlaws one of the three narrow exceptions under which abortion is still permitted – that of severe foetal defects – has sparked huge protests in Poland.

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‘This is war’: opposition politicians in Poland take abortion protests to parliament – video

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Opposition politicians brought protests over a near-total ban on abortion in Poland to the floor of parliament.

Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, from the opposition Lewica (Left) party, led a protest of other opposition members wearing masks and T-shirts bearing the lightning bolt symbol of the 'Women's Strike' movement, which has been leading nationwide protests on the abortion ban.

They held up placards with slogans such as 'this is war' and 'legalise abortion', before walking to the benches where lawmakers from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party were sitting.

There have been protests across Poland after a court ruling said abortion due to foetal abnormalities, for which the majority of legal abortions are performed in Poland, was unconstitutional.

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Polish pro-choice protests continue with blockades and red paint

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Thousands march in opposition to ruling that could lead to near total ban on abortions

Thousands of protesters turned out in towns and cities across Poland on Monday as a political crisis sparked by an impending near total ban on abortion showed no sign of abating.

Drivers created a series of blockades in city centres and thousands of people marched to express their anger at a ruling by Poland’s constitutional tribunal that, if implemented, would ban terminations even in instances where a foetus is diagnosed with a serious and irreversible birth defect.

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Thousands join Poland protests against strict abortion laws

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Protests follow ruling that law allowing abortion of malformed foetuses is incompatible with constitution

Thousands of people marched in cities across Poland on Saturday in the third straight day of protests against a near-total ban on abortion, with some promising further action in the coming days.

The protesters were reacting to Thursday’s ruling by Poland’s highest court that an existing law allowing the abortion of malformed foetuses was incompatible with the constitution.

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Poland: scuffles erupt as thousands protest against abortion ban – video report

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Police in Warsaw clashed with protesters during demonstrations against a constitutional tribunal ruling that imposes a near-total ban on abortion. Tens of thousands of people rallied across Poland on Friday, defying the country's tight coronavirus restrictions

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Poland braces for more protests over abortion ban ruling

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Demonstrations planned amid anger over court decision banning almost all abortions

Protests are planned for various Polish cities this weekend amid public anger over a ruling banning almost all abortion in the country.

Poland already has some of the most draconian abortion laws in Europe, and on Thursday a constitutional tribunal ruled that one of the few exceptions to the ban – cases of severe foetal impairment – should also be made illegal. These cases, which hardline Catholic anti-abortion activists have called “eugenic abortion”, made up almost all of the small number of abortions performed legally in Poland.

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US signs anti-abortion declaration with group of largely authoritarian governments

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Move is part of a campaign by Trump administration to reorient US foreign policy in a more socially conservative direction

The US has today signed an anti-abortion declaration with a group of about 30 largely illiberal or authoritarian governments, after the failure of an effort to expand the conservative coalition.

The “Geneva Consensus Declaration” calls on states to promote women’s rights and health – but without access to abortion – and is part of a campaign by Trump administration, led by secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to reorient US foreign policy in a more socially conservative direction, even at the expense of alienating traditional western allies.

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Amy Coney Barrett: key moments from the supreme court confirmation hearings – video

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Amy Coney Barrett spent most of her time avoiding key questions during three days of Senate hearings to confirm her as a supreme court justice. 

Barrett would become the third justice on the court to be appointed by Donald Trump – and her confirmation would give conservatives a bulletproof, six-justice majority on the nine-member court, which decides cases by a simple majority.

Barrett, a conservative Christian who has criticized the high court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA), who has publicly opposed reproductive rights and who was a trustee at a school whose handbook included a stated opposition to same-sex marriage, is seen on the left as part of a power play by Donald Trump 

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Amy Coney Barrett dodges abortion, healthcare and election law questions

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  • Democrats press supreme court nominee with little success
  • Barrett argues she is not a pundit, on second day of hearings
  • US politics – live coverage

On the second day of hearings before the Senate judiciary committee, Democrats pressed supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on healthcare, election law and abortion rights – and met with little success.

Related: 'Slayer Pete': Buttigieg emerges as Biden's unlikely Fox News fighter

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Senators stir ghosts of Scalia and Ginsburg for Amy Coney Barrett hearing

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Amid talk of originalism, harking to a time when only white men with property could vote, Republican ears pricked up

Depending on your point of view, the woman seated before the Senate judiciary committee for her first day of questioning was either the female Scalia or the anti-RBG. Or maybe, of course, both.

Related: Amy Coney Barrett dodges abortion, healthcare and election law questions

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Covid drug given to Trump developed using cells derived from aborted fetus

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Trump touts Regeneron antibody cocktail as a potential ‘cure’ while he has consistently sought to restrict abortion access

One of the drugs taken by Donald Trump that he has touted as a potential “cure” for coronavirus was developed using human cells originally obtained from an elective abortion, a practice repeatedly denounced by the president and many of his supporters.

The drug is a monoclonal antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron. The president received an 8-gram infusion under a “compassionate use” exemption when he was hospitalized over the weekend after testing positive for Covid-19. There is no cure for Covid-19, and the drug is not approved.

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Italian women take legal action over foetus graves marked with mothers’ names

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More than 100 women launch action as activists say practice is serious violation of human rights and privacy

A group of more than 100 Italian women have asked prosecutors to investigate who is behind the burial for nearly a decade of foetuses in graves marked with the names of their mothers in a cemetery in Rome.

The practice only came to light last week after one of the women, whose curiosity was sparked after reading about the so-called “fields of angels” in local newspapers, discovered a plot with a wooden cross bearing her name and the date on which the foetus was buried at Prima Porta cemetery. She subsequently posted about her experience on Facebook.

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Revealed: Amy Coney Barrett supported group that said life begins at fertilization

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Barrett signed newspaper ad in 2006 sponsored by St Joseph County Right to Life, an extreme anti-choice group

Amy Coney Barrett, the Trump administration’s supreme court nominee, publicly supported an organization in 2006 that has said life begins at fertilization. It has also said that the discarding of unused or frozen embryos created in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process ought to be criminalized, a view that is considered to be extreme even within the anti-abortion movement.

The revelation is likely to lead to new questions about how Barrett’s personal views on abortion may not only shape reproductive rights in the US for decades to come if she is confirmed by the Senate, but how her appointment could affect legal rights for women undergoing fertility treatment, as well as their doctors.

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Argentina president under pressure to keep election promise on abortion

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Over 1,000 public figures call for Alberto Fernández to stay true to his election pledge despite distraction of coronavirus pandemic

Pro-choice campaigners are renewing pressure on president Alberto Fernández to make good on his electoral pledge to legalise abortion in Argentina.

More than 1,000 public figures, writers, journalists and artists added their names to an advert published in three Argentinian newspapers on Sunday, calling for the government to keep its commitment.

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Trump names Amy Coney Barrett for supreme court, stoking liberal backlash

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Donald Trump’s pick for America’s highest court, Amy Coney Barrett, is an “ideological fanatic” who threatens abortion rights, healthcare and the environment, activists warned on Saturday, before Trump unveiled his third supreme court nominee in the White House Rose Garden.

Related: 'Not special any more': how the Senate has failed the American people

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El Salvador woman freed after six years in jail following stillbirth

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Cindy Erazo was accused of aggravated homicide after an obstetric emergency

A woman sentenced to 30 years in jail after a stillbirth that was judged to be her fault has been released from jail in El Salvador.

Cindy Erazo, 29, from San Salvador, was granted conditional freedom on Wednesday after six years in jail.

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How Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death could affect Senate races – and Trump v Biden

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Susan Collins of Maine is among vulnerable Republican senators as polls indicate voters trust Biden more on justice picks

On the question of supreme court nominees, the Republican senator Susan Collins has repeatedly threaded the same political needle. It is one with a shrinking eye.

Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg changed America long before she joined the supreme court | Moira Donegan

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Selective abortion in India could lead to 6.8m fewer girls being born by 2030

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New study shows preference for a son is highest in north of country with Uttar Pradesh having highest deficit in female births

An estimated 6.8 million fewer female births will be recorded across India by 2030 because of the persistent use of selective abortions, researchers estimate.

Academics from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia projected the sex ratio at birth in 29 Indian states and union territories, covering almost the entire population, taking into account each state’s desired sex ratio at birth and the population’s fertility rates.

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