Category Archives: Abortion

US effort to remove ‘sexual health’ from UN agreement may violate law, say senators

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Trump administration may have violated Siljander amendment by lobbying to remove protections, four Democrats said in letter

The Trump administration may have violated federal law by lobbying more than 70 countries to remove protections for “sexual and reproductive health” from a UN agreement, according to a letter from four US senators seen by the Guardian.

The letter from the senators, all high-ranking Democrats, focuses on an effort from the Trump administration to remove “sexual and reproductive health” from a high-level UN agreement on universal health coverage.

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Northern Ireland set to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage

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Equality campaigners celebrate ahead of a midnight deadline for new laws to come into force

Northern Ireland is poised to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage after an 11th-hour attempt by the region’s assembly to block change collapsed into farce.

Equality campaigners celebrated on Monday as the clock ticked towards midnight when laws extending abortion and marriage rights were due to come into force, ushering in momentous social change as Northern Ireland aligned with the rest of the UK.

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‘We have made history’: Mexico’s Oaxaca state decriminalises abortion

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Lawmakers voted to scrap restrictions on abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in a win for reproductive rights advocates

Women’s rights activists in Mexico are celebrating after the southern state of Oaxaca decriminalised abortion in a move that activists hope signals broader reforms to ensure reproductive rights in what is still a conservative and deeply Catholic country.

Lawmakers voted 24-10 on Wednesday to scrap restrictions on abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, despite vocal opposition from the Catholic Church. Opponents – including priests and the religious – screamed “killers!” at the lawmakers as the vote occurred, while women in the green handkerchiefs of the pro-choice movement chanted, “Yes we can!”

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G7 leaders told to scrap discriminatory gender laws from statute books

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Gender equality advisory council says states must begin enshrining equal rights in law

The G7 leaders have been told to get rid of discriminatory gender laws that still exist on their statute books and begin enshrining equal rights in the legal system.

All G7 countries, including the UK, still have discriminatory laws on their statute books or substantial loopholes that allow discrimination, the G7’s gender equality advisory council said at a key summit session attended by all leaders, including the US president, Donald Trump.

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Taylor Swift: Trump thinks his presidency is an autocracy

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Exclusive: songwriter discusses her political awakening in a Guardian interview

Taylor Swift has spoken of her disillusionment with American values in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.

The 29-year-old songwriter said she began feeling conflicted about what the US stood for when “all the dirtiest tricks in the book were used and it worked”. The Pennsylvania-born musician described the atmosphere in her home country as “gaslighting the American public into being like, ‘If you hate the president, you hate America.’”

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‘We lose so many women’: the tragedy of unsafe abortion in Kibera

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With terminations outlawed in Kenya, women and girls in its largest slum have to rely on expensive and unreliable under-the-counter pills, toxic chemicals or other homemade remedies. The consequences can be fatal

Podcast: The women fighting back in Kenya’s biggest slum

Edita Ochieng sashays up in her “This is what a feminist looks like” T-shirt – bright and new in a place where clothes are aged and faded.

“Got them,” she stage-whispers, a flash of silver foil in her hand. Four pills carefully cut from a longer strip. Ochieng has just been attempting to buy abortion pills from among the numerous kiosk-sized “quack” chemists in the Nairobi slum of Kibera. Just to show how easy it is.

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How a conference call sparked America’s abortion obsession – video explainer

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White evangelical Christians are on the frontline of the US's anti-abortion movement. But not so long ago this group was not interested in the politics of terminations. Its members are a crucial faction of Donald Trump's base, motivating him to further restrict abortion rights. How did it all change? Leah Green investigates how a group of men turned abortion into a tool that shaped the course of American politics

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NSW set to decriminalise abortion as health minister says it’s ‘time for change’

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Independent MP Alex Greenwich to introduce bill developed by cross-party working group

The New South Wales health minister has declared it’s “time for change” when it comes to abortion law, ahead of the introduction of a new bill which would see pregnancy terminations regulated as a medical procedure around the state.

Currently abortions in NSW are dealt with under the Crimes Act 1900.

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Europe’s patchwork of abortion laws is absurd. Rights must be made universal | Prune Antoine

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I was stunned to discover that abortions, strictly speaking, are still not legal in Germany

When I was 30, in 2011, I had an abortion. I was living in Berlin, a city known, since the fall of the Wall, for championing freedom. Or at least it was until attention turned to my womb. Born in France in the 1980s, and brought up on the internet, the Erasmus European studies programme and love without borders, I was under the happy illusion that everything relating to women’s bodies – from abortion to assisted reproduction – was covered by rights secured after long, hard struggles.

Related: Brexit effect forces women to go to Netherlands for abortions

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El Salvador: woman whose baby died in toilet birth back in court

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Evelyn Beatriz Hernández was jailed for murder after she was ruled to have induced abortion

A 21-year-old woman who gave birth to a baby in a toilet in El Salvador has returned to court for a second trial for murder in a case that has drawn international attention because of the country’s highly restrictive abortion laws.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernández, who says she was raped and had no idea she was pregnant, had already served 33 months of her 30-year sentence when the supreme court overturned the ruling against her in February and ordered a fresh trial with a new judge.

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El Salvador rape victim jailed for murder after stillbirth faces retrial

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Pro-choice activists say Evelyn Beatríz Hernández’s case will be important in determining the stance of the country’s new leader

A teenage rape victim in El Salvador who was convicted for murdering her child and jailed for nearly three years after a stillbirth will face a retrial next week, her lawyers said on Wednesday.

Evelyn Beatríz Hernández was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2017 for aggravated murder by a female judge who ruled the teenager had induced an abortion, which is a crime under any circumstance in the Central American nation.

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MPs vote in favour of extending same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland by 383 to 73 – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political news, including the row over the UK ambassador’s leaked memos and latest on Tory leadership contest

Jeremy Hunt, the underdog in the Tory leadership contest, has told President Trump on Twitter his comments about Theresa May “disrespectful and wrong”.

1/2 @realDonaldTrump friends speak frankly so I will: these comments are disrespectful and wrong to our Prime Minister and my country. Your diplomats give their private opinions to @SecPompeo and so do ours! You said the UK/US alliance was the greatest in history and I agree... https://t.co/hNeBWmyyVN

2/2...but allies need to treat each other with respect as @theresa_may has always done with you. Ambassadors are appointed by the UK government and if I become PM our Ambassador stays.

MPs have voted to introduce same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, unless the power-sharing executive is revived by 21 October, by 383 votes to 73 - a majority of 310.

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Global gag rule linked to abortion rise in African countries that accept US aid

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Study finds Trump-backed policy led to increase in pregnancies and reduction in use of modern contraceptives

A US government policy that restricts funding to organisations that conduct or support abortions has been linked to a 40% increase in terminations in African countries that depend on American foreign aid, according to new research.

Related: Medical experts criticise BBC for use of phrase 'heartbeat bill'

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Biden stumbles over abortion rights while Warren receives cheers

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In a first-of-its-kind forum, the former vice-president claimed a ‘100% voting record’ – before his mic suddenly cut out

In the first presidential forum on reproductive rights in recent memory, former vice-president Joe Biden told an audience of mostly female Planned Parenthood supporters he had a “100% voting record” on reproductive rights.

In fact, his record on the subject is mixed, as a question to the former vice-president suggested.

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Biden in 2006 video: ‘I do not view abortion as a choice and a right’

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CNN unearths clip highlighting Democratic presidential candidate’s inconsistent record on the issue

A 2006 video of Joe Biden unearthed by CNN on Thursday shows the then senator saying he does not see abortion as “a choice and a right”.

“I do not view abortion as a choice and a right,” the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate said in a videotaped interview with Texas Monthly. “I think it’s always a tragedy. I think it should be rare and safe,” he added. “I think we should be focusing on how to limit the number of abortions.”

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Trump’s anti-abortion global gag rule harming women in Africa and Asia, report says

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‘People are dying as a result of the policy’ that bans aid to foreign groups who provide or promote abortions, says author of report

The Trump administration’s anti-abortion restrictions on US global health aid funding have significantly damaged health care for women in Africa and central Asia, according to a new report.

Restrictions on funding also include limiting access to funds for sex education, and shifting funds to anti-LGBTQ and pro-abstinence groups such as Focus on the Family, researchers say.

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US abortion policy is ‘extremist hate’ and ‘torture’, says UN commissioner

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Trump administration’s ban on terminations is a crisis directed at women, warns Kate Gilmore

The US policy on abortion is a form of extremist hate that amounts to the torture of women, the UN deputy high commissioner for human rights told the Guardian.

The attack on women’s rights was a “crisis”, organised and well-resourced by very extremist groups.

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Threat to Missouri abortion clinic leaves neighboring providers scrambling

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With reproductive rights under aggressive attack, clinics across state lines are bracing for an influx of women seeking care

Dr Erin King felt a weight lift off her shoulders – at least for a few minutes.

The executive director of Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois had spent a week “scrambling” to prepare for an influx of patients from St Louis – just about a 10 minute drive across the Mississippi River – as Missouri threatened to close its last legal abortion provider by the end of the week at midnight.

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