Female genital mutilation is still rife in Indonesia where there are no laws to protect women from the practice, which some believe is a religious requirement.
Category: Reproductive Rights
A new survey shows what really interests ‘pro-lifers’: controlling women
According to their own survey responses, anti-abortion voters are hostile to gender equality in practically every aspect.
The Catholic church, an unabashedly misogynist institution that to this day refuses to allow women into positions of power, had long opposed abortion (but not for all that long – until about 150 years ago, the Catholic view was that abortion was permissible through the first few months of pregnancy).
The birth control pill brought with it an avalanche of opportunities and freedoms, and women, finally fully able to have sex for fun and prevent pregnancy, took full advantage. The ability to delay a pregnancy – and later, the ability to legally end one – meant that women didn’t have to choose between romance and ambition (and it meant women could be choosier about romance, making a more considered decision about who and whether to marry).
This undermined the whole rightwing Christian project, which was, and remains, thoroughly invested in a nuclear family with a father at the head. And indeed, rightwing arguments against abortion used to invoke conservative gender tropes much more often – that abortion undermined the traditional family, for example.
Baby Born From Uterus Transplant Of Deceased Woman In World’s First
About a dozen babies have been born via transplanted uteruses to date — but as a result of transplanted uteruses from living donors. So far, doctors have attempted to facilitate births via uterus transplant a total of 50 times. This is the first time that a baby was successfully born via a uterus transplanted from a deceased woman.
Source: Baby Born From Uterus Transplant Of Deceased Woman In World’s First
A cry from the heart: Surrogacy scandals in Ukraine
Both Australian couples had opted to use Lotus in Kiev, Ukraine after following Sam Everingham’s advice provided in seminars run by Families Through Surrogacy (now renamed Growing Families). Everingham concedes that his business invites speakers from Ukraine and promotes their ‘educational talk’ on its website for which he gets paid. The 7.30 Report revealed that ASIC figures show that “in the past 5 years, Mr Everingham’s company earnt $2 million in revenue.” Asked on camera about these damning surrogacy stories in Ukraine, Everingham defends his advice stating, “they [the couples] have to take responsibility for their decision.” The families say they are not so sure. Also asked by Tracy Bowden if his company is assisting people to do something that is illegal in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (where it is a criminal act to engage in international surrogacy) Everingham responds, “We don’t believe those laws are right.” This is an outrageous statement to make and we hope that action will finally be taken against Everingham and his company, such as prohibiting them to run seminars on international surrogacy in states where going overseas is punishable by jail terms or fines over $100,000.
Source: A cry from the heart: Surrogacy scandals in Ukraine | Stop Surrogacy Now
NSW AUSTRALIA – Law reform process in parliament postponed by NSW Premier due to anti-abortion pressure
A committee hearing in the upper house of the NSW parliament on the bill to decriminalise abortion in New South Wales (NSW) opened on 14 August. . ..
As the debate opened in the upper house, however, outside, reports said “thousands” of anti-abortion protesters held a rally. In a brief video of the rally, most participants appeared to be men holding up placards with disembodied fetuses saying “Who will protect me?”. According to other media, participants were carrying crosses and pictures of Jesus. They heard speeches from anti-abortion MPs and religious leaders. Anti-abortion opponents in parliament claimed meanwhile that they had been denied any opportunity to participate in the process.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who supports decriminalisation, dismissed claims that the bill was rushed through. “I have been in parliament for nearly 17 years and I can’t remember a bill having so much debate in the lower house,” she said. However, pressure from members of her own party led her to delay the vote in the upper house until the week of 17 September, after the imminent 3-week parliamentary recess. The debate continues this week, but amendments will be considered and the vote taken only in September.
[A] clear majority of voters in New South Wales either strongly support or somewhat support removing abortion from the criminal code, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, published this week.
Enhanced maternity pay packages don’t discriminate against men – what new ruling means for shared parental leave
The UK Court of Appeal ruled in late May that it is not sex discrimination for employers to enhance maternity pay but only provide the statutory rate of shared parental pay.
The court found that women on maternity leave are in a materially different situation to men taking shared parental leave, and so, as the positions are incomparable, there can be no discrimination.
That pay gap? Gender discrimination is increasingly to blame
The gender pay gap may have narrowed slightly in recent years, but the reasons behind why it exists at all are growing increasingly concerning, with gender discrimination accounting for around two fifths of it.
Gender discrimination is up 10 per cent as a contributing pay gap factor since 2014, while the input of “occupational segregation” has dropped from 20 to 8 per cent.
Source: That pay gap? Gender discrimination is increasingly to blame
Why are women are being erased from breastfeeding advocacy?
Breastfeeding is an issue that affects mothers and their children — there is no need for gender neutral language.
The erasure of women and mothers from breastfeeding support has been a slow but steady creep over the past couple of years. Both internally and externally, pressure on peer and professional breastfeeding organizations to update language and imagery in order to centre the experience of individuals and families who identify as transgender and non-binary has increased. “Mother” should become “lactating parent,” “breastfeeding” should become “chestfeeding” or “human milk feeding,” and so on. Rather than expand the terminology to “mothers and _____,” the demands have typically been to eliminate references to women or female bodies in order to demonstrate respect and care. This has also been accompanied by an increasing number of attempts to normalize induced lactation in fathers and trans-identifying males, with total disregard for the impact these interventions have on mothers and babies (including the lack of evidence regarding male milk composition or the safety of the accompanying drug regimens for a baby consuming the resulting milk).
Source: Why are women are being erased from breastfeeding advocacy?
There’s no I in LGBT
A report from Global Philanthropy Project in 2016 showed that investment in intersex initiatives accounts for only 1% of all global LGBT+ funding.
Warnings over surge in youth transgender cases
Clinicians are calling for an urgent national inquiry into the safety and ethics of giving unproven hormone drug treatment to ever younger children who are confused about sex and gender.
The first national figures, obtained under freedom of information legislation from major hospitals in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland, show 2415 children were referred for gender treatment between 2014 and last year, with a 41 per cent increase in Victoria. Girls as young as nine are believed to be put on “puberty blocker” drugs, and boys from about 11.
A poorly understood surge in children and teens identifying as transgender — especially girls whose body perception can be more fraught — has arrived in the past five to 10 years.
“Who gave ethics approval for this treatment (at children’s hospitals) when it lacks any scientific basis and therefore is an experiment?” Professor Whitehall said. “We should give the psychiatry and psychology a full run before we start castrating children.”
Professor Whitehall said there was no rigorous long-term evidence that puberty blockers were safe and reversible for younger children, and studies in adults and sheep suggested damage to the growing human brain could not be ruled out.