Category: Reproductive Rights

Gender-critical campaigners slam trans woman activist over breastfeeding photo | Daily Mail Online

Mika Minio-Paluello – a former Labour special adviser – was seen during Wednesday night’s News At Ten doing the washing up while she spoke of how the soaring water bills.

Gender critical campaigners today criticised a trans woman activist after she (sic) posted an image of her (sic) breastfeeding on a bus.

Mika Minio-Paluello – a former Labour special adviser – was seen during Wednesday night’s News At Ten programme doing the washing up while she (sic) spoke of how the soaring water bills were ‘tough if you’re a mum’.

Afterwards, Ms Minio-Paluello, who was born male, complained about viewers ‘obsessing’ over a breast pump that could be seen in the footage and said it belonged to a housemate. She (sic) added that ‘trans women can breastfeed’ before sharing a photo of herself (sic) doing so on a bus.

Trans women can make themselves lactate by taking a combination of medicines that tricks the body into making milk. In 2018, a 30-year-old transgender woman became the first officially recorded to breastfeed her baby and was able to produce 227 grams of milk a day.

Trans women can make themselves lactate by taking a combination of medicines called the Newman-Goldfarb protocol. It was originally developed for biological women who adopted or had a child via surrogacy and wanted to breastfeed.

However, the regimen is not completely risk free. The drug can pass into breast milk in small amounts and can sometimes give babies an irregular heartbeat as a result.

Experts have urged caution about transwomen using the Newman-Goldfarb protocol to lactate. They have warned that long-term health implications from using the treatment, for both adult and baby, are unknown.

There are also very few studies and no scientific consensus about the nutritional quality of the breastmilk produced.

Source: Gender-critical campaigners slam trans woman activist over breastfeeding photo | Daily Mail Online

Abortion rights – and wrongs| Dr Jocelynne Scutt |UK

Monday, 12 June 2023. Carla Foster, 44, is sentenced at Stoke on Trent Crown Court to 28 months’ imprisonment. The charge? Using abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy after the legal cut-off point of 24 weeks.

During the pandemic, women suffered an upsurge in violence at home. Some will have endured sexual abuse leading to pregnancy. Some will have been in Carla Foster’s position, one exclusive to them as women, with little choice but to take pills beyond the Abortion Act time limit. Some, like Carla Foster, will have been reported to police by their doctors, thus breaking patient confidentiality.

A recent Freedom of Information Act request discovered that at least 36 women and girls are being subject to police investigation for ending their pregnancies – and how many more prosecutions can be anticipated?

Ironically, despite notions of Northern Ireland as “backward” when it comes to abortion, from 2019, it is the rest of the United Kingdom that lags, leaving women subject to 1861’s criminal law.

Pregnancy termination must be recognised as a health issue, not for second opinion, not for criminal laws and imprisonment based in sex discrimination and misogyny. Second class citizenship must be ended. It is no place for a woman.

Dr Emma Milne, an association professor at Durham University and expert on abortion law says, “The nature of the law means that women have no right to an abortion. We only have the right to ask a doctor if they will allow us to have an abortion. In 2023, that’s an incredibly bizarre and unjust situation for us to be in.” And, as noted, it’s not ‘a’ doctor – it’s two.

Source: Abortion rights – and wrongs

Brenda Matthews was ripped from a loving family twice. But she was born too late to be officially recognised as Stolen Generations

The woman is Brenda Matthews, née Simon, born 1970.

This birth year renders her officially ineligible for being recognised as part of the Stolen Generations: the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act was repealed and the Aboriginal Welfare Board abolished in 1969. She was removed from her family four years later, in 1973.

She describes her mother’s memory of doing the household chores with a friend one day, “a few days” after she took her sick child Karla to the local hospital. “A car pulled up outside and two Welfare Department officers got out.” Her friend asked if they’d come to inspect the house. “Welfare officers were often inspecting Aboriginal homes to check if they were clean, which was often an excuse and a precursor to taking the children.”

But they had arrived “to take the kids”, on mysterious charges of neglect. Local knowledge about collusion between the local hospital matron and the Welfare Department does not escape mention.

After three months in a home, Brenda was fostered by a White family, who had a daughter of a similar age. “She is my younger sister and I love her,” recalls Brenda in the book. They believed they had adopted Brenda, and that a single mother had given her up. Five years later, she was returned home, with almost no transition. “I was ripped from both these families,” she writes later in the book, looking back.

The trauma impacts of these separations can be read through this life story, not least when 18-year-old Brenda tells no one she is pregnant and ends up giving birth alone in her bedroom:

I think deep down inside, I’m scared of this baby being taken from me because I was taken away from my Mum and Dad. I don’t want history to repeat itself.

Baby Keisha enjoys unbroken bonds with her parents and both extended families. Later, she is joined by four brothers, then by four more siblings, through her mother’s marriage to stepfather Mark. By the end of this book, Keisha has two children of her own – who become central to Brenda’s commitment to her story, her families, and a future free from cruel intervention.

Source: Brenda Matthews was ripped from a loving family twice. But she was born too late to be officially recognised as Stolen Generations

Is Public Perception Finally Turning Against Surrogacy? — Women’s Liberation Front

In a recent episode of The Kardashians, Khloé Kardashian spoke out about her negative experience with surrogacy after using another woman to give birth to her new son in 2022.

“I felt really guilty that this woman just had my baby. Then I take the baby and go to another room, and you’re separated,” Kardashian said. “I felt it was such a transactional experience.”

Kardashian’s remarks shed light on the commodification of women’s bodies and the impact on the children born through surrogacy — an issue radical feminists have been raising for nearly half a century since the practice began to rise to prominence.

Last month, feminist activist group SCUM made headlines with their disruptive non-violent protest against surrogacy at the Cannes Film Festival. The protest featured a heavily pregnant woman with a barcode printed across her belly, and the message “STOP SELLING US.” The protest appeared to be met on social media with widespread support.

Source: Is Public Perception Finally Turning Against Surrogacy? — Women’s Liberation Front

California moves to provide surrogates to gay male couples in the name of ‘fertility equality’ | The Post Millennial | thepostmillennial.com

California Bill SB 729 seeks to redefine “infertility” to be a status, as opposed to a medical condition. Changing the definition to “a person’s inability to reproduce either as an individual or with their partner without medical intervention” would classify gay men as infertile.

The bill, which passed the Senate last month, would require insurance companies to cover in-vitro fertilization procedures. With the change in definition, this would also include forcing the firms to cover surrogacy for gay males.

An organization called Men Having Babies boasted that the bill will “remove financial barriers” for gay men who wish to rent a woman’s womb to have a child who has the DNA of one of the males in the relationship.

Source: California moves to provide surrogates to gay male couples in the name of ‘fertility equality’ | The Post Millennial | thepostmillennial.com

Interview with Anna Kerr of the Feminist Legal Clinic, Australia – Hague Mothers

There needs to be a presumption in favour of children remaining with their mothers where the mother is the primary care-giver. The onus should not be on a mother to prove that she should retain care of her own child.

Anna Kerr

In this interview, Anna Kerr explains why she believes that the operation of the Hague Convention has become a feminist issue and offers a powerful assessment of the barriers domestic abuse survivors face when trying to break free of their abusers. She also suggests ways in which these barriers might be overcome – an approach which requires significant cultural and social shifts as well as legislative change.

Listen to the interview here

Source: Interview with Anna Kerr of the Feminist Legal Clinic, Australia – Hague Mothers

Free period products available across the ACT as new bill passes

Free period products will soon be available across the ACT as the Period Products and Facilities (Access) Bill is expected to pass today.

Introduced by Suzanne Orr MLA, this legislation in the ACT is a step towards ensuring period products are provided free-of-charge across the country.

According to Share the Dignity’s Period Pride Report – ‘Bloody Big Survey’, 15 per cent of respondents in the ACT have been unable to afford period products at some point in their life.

An Australian charity, Share the Dignity has been campaigning and advocating for change in the menstrual equity space for 8 years, saying they’re “elated at the news”.

Source: Free period products available across the ACT as new bill passes

Emma Pallant-Browne shuts down online trolls over visible period stain

 

British athlete Emma Pallant-Browne is championing the realities of getting a period as a female in sport after receiving criticism for her race photos.

The photos in question showed a spot of blood on Pallant-Browne’s race uniform as she competed in The Professional Triathletes Organisation’s European Open in Ibiza.

Nevermind that she finished the triathlon in an impressive fourth place, some men on the internet just couldn’t get over the blood.

One male triathlete, Xavier Coppock, commented on her Instagram photo saying: “Not the most flattering pic of @em_pallant – surely you can crop it a bit better”.

Giving a powerful response, Pallant-Browne wrote back, telling him, “thanks for caring but definitely something I’m not shy to talk about because it’s the reality of females in sport”.

A decorated athlete, Pallant-Browne has won 18 half ironman championships, podiumed 33 times and claimed silver in the world championships.

Source: Emma Pallant-Browne shuts down online trolls over visible period stain

Australian women’s access to abortion is a postcode lottery. Here’s what needs to change

When the American legal precedent protecting women’s right to an abortion in the United States, Roe versus Wade, was overturned last year, women around the world felt anxious.

In Australia, despite abortion being legal, there was increasing concern about women’s ability to access abortion. This led to a Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive health care.

This inquiry has now concluded. A key recommendation is that:

all public hospitals within Australia […] provide surgical pregnancy terminations, or timely and affordable pathways to other local providers.

This recommendation has been welcomed by abortion advocates around the country. But why is a recommendation like this necessary? Why don’t hospitals already provide abortions?

The reasons for this are complex. Abortion remains very stigmatised in our community. Few gynaecologists want to perform the procedure.

Training on how to provide abortion has not been a routine part of gynaecology or GP training and there is a shortage of trained providers, particularly for complex cases.

Hospitals haven’t felt obligated to provide abortions. To date, no-one has held them accountable for providing this essential service. There has also not been any regional-level planning to ensure services are locally available.

The Senate inquiry recognises many public hospitals, particularly women’s hospitals, that receive public funding are faith-based and will not allow abortions to be delivered at their premises, even if the doctors and nurses want to offer them.

While the recommendations are a step in the right direction, action is needed to translate these recommendations into actual services on the ground. The government’s response is eagerly awaited.

Source: Australian women’s access to abortion is a postcode lottery. Here’s what needs to change

‘Censorship’: Breastfeeding tweets removed after government request

EXCLUSIVE: The Australian government has requested Twitter remove posts complaining that men can’t breastfeed.

The posts — by a local mum and breastfeeding advocate Jasmine Sussex — are now available overseas but not in Australia.
Critics have called it the “policing of opinions” on social media by the Australian government and say they are “disturbingly reminiscent of the censorship we see in totalitarian regimes.”
Ms Sussex, who has spent decades helping new mums breastfeed, was told her tweets earlier this month raising concerns about a biological man inducing breastfeeding “violated Australian laws” and Twitter removed them locally.
She said she was surprised the Australian government would censor debate about the topic which she believes is an “unethical medical experiment” on newborns.
Ms Sussex has now put in a Freedom of Information request to the Australian eSafety Commissioner over the suppression, saying she believes they are the government agency behind the take-down orders.
Women’s Forum Australia’s Rachael Wong said it was only a few days ago that the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls condemned intimidation or “silencing” of women who express concerns relating to sex and gender identity, saying such attempts violated freedoms of thought, belief and expression.

Source: ‘Censorship’: Breastfeeding tweets removed after government request