The teen said she was ‘still in school’ and ‘not ready to have a baby’
Category: Reproductive Rights
Backlash As A Man Is Appointed Scotland’s First ‘Period Dignity Officer’ | HuffPost UK News
Former tennis star Martina Navratilova has led the backlash over the decision to appoint a man as Scotland’s first “period dignity officer”.
Critics say the job, which involves promoting access to free sanitary products in schools and colleges across the Tay region, should have gone to a woman.
Gina Davidson, of radio station LBC, said the move “is the epitome of mansplaining”.
Navratilova said choosing Grant for the role is “fucking ridiculous”.
She added: “Have we ever tried to explain to men how to shave or how to take care of their prostate or whatever? This is absurd.”
Source: Backlash As A Man Is Appointed Scotland’s First ‘Period Dignity Officer’ | HuffPost UK News
Erasing mothers is not ‘progress’ | The Spectator Australia
Everywhere you look, mothers are being erased. In the name of inclusion and diversity:
- Barnardos has cancelled its ‘Mother of the Year’ award
- Volunteers from the Australian Breastfeeding Association have been investigated for their use of the word ‘mother’ on social media
- The Labor Party has removed the word ‘mother’ from its policy documents
Sadly, mothers are also being erased, not just from our speech, but from children’s lives. There have been some recent high-profile cases of men ‘creating’ children through surrogacy, with the intention of raising them without a mother.
A mother and her baby share an intimate and irreplaceable bond – even before the child is born.
Beyond birth and breastfeeding, mothers continue to relate to their children in a unique way. Compared to fathers, mothers have higher levels and more receptors of the hormone oxytocin, which is responsible for human bonding.
A man cannot simply decide to call himself a mother; a woman cannot call herself a genderless ‘parent’ or a ‘father’. The word ‘mother’ has a biological referent in the real world and so we must insist on using it.
When we delete mothers from our vocabulary and from children’s lives, we are sending the message that there’s nothing special about mothers – any adult will do. But the reality is that every human being needs and longs not just for a generic parent, but for their genetic mother. Babies spend nine months preparing to meet the mother they already know and share a relationship with. After birth, mother-infant bonding is of the utmost importance for a child’s healthy development.
Earlier this year, a Victorian man made headlines by becoming the first single man to become a father through surrogacy in that state. Predictably, this was celebrated as a win for equality. But having children is not a ‘right’ that can be asserted regardless of biology or the best interests of the child.
A donor-conceived woman describes her struggle:
‘I cannot put into words the pain of not knowing who my biological mother is and not being able to have/have had a relationship with her. I really do think about this at least once a day, and it is deeply mentally, emotionally, and psychologically troubling.’ (Them Before Us, Chapter 7, Loc 3015)
But the ‘modern family’, where mothers (or fathers) are treated as optional, is a deliberate denial of what children need and naturally long for. Motherlessness is always something to be mourned, not celebrated.
Mothers matter. Our wombs, breasts, and hormones make us unique and indispensable. Every baby looks for ‘Mama’ from the moment of its birth. We are not parents! We are mothers – and no good will come from erasing us.
Source: Erasing mothers is not ‘progress’ | The Spectator Australia
People planning for pregnancy overcharged, discriminated against, obsetricians’ group claims – ABC News
A national obstetricians’ group wants the Human Rights Commission to intervene so people are no longer charged the highest rate for pregnancy care.
Key points:
- Obstetricians want private health insurers to stop charging gold-level cover for pregnancy and birth care
- They claim it is a form of discrimination against women and has written to the Human Rights Commission
- The public health system faces increasing pressure and busy maternity wards
Canberrans to have access to free abortions under new ACT government commitment – ABC News
From mid-next year, ACT residents will have access to free medical and surgical abortions up to 16 weeks of gestation..
- ACT Minister for Women Yvette Berry says the move will allow Canberrans “to make a choice … without being influenced by financial barriers”
- Free access to abortion services will also be available to ACT residents without a Medicare card
- The government expects the services will be available without out-of-pocket costs by mid-next year
Source: Canberrans to have access to free abortions under new ACT government commitment – ABC News
US justice department sues Idaho over six-week abortion ban | Australasian Lawyer
This is the Biden administration’s first legal action against states that have restricted access to the procedure
The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Idaho over the state’s law banning abortion after six weeks, saying that federal law requires doctors and hospitals to perform medically required abortions to preserve the pregnant person’s health.
Source: US justice department sues Idaho over six-week abortion ban | Australasian Lawyer
Court: ‘Transgender’ Individual Attempted to Murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh – Women Are Human
US — Maryland. The male individual accused of traveling from his California home to the suburbs of Washington, DC with the intent of murdering Justice Brett Kavanaugh “identifies as a woman,” court documents show. Nicholas John Roske used the pseudonym ‘Sophie’ on Reddit forums, where he described himself as “a 24 year old MtF [male-to-female] college graduate looking for a woman to cuddle and watch movies with… If this turns into making out, etc that’s cool.” On Discord, the usernames of Mr Roske’s two accounts were Sophie42#6535 and AmericanSophie#1595.
According to court documents, Mr Roske told a detective that he sought to “give his life a purpose” by stopping the Supreme Court from overturning Roe v Wade, a landmark 1973 decision which found that the nation’s Constitution conferred the right to an abortion. Roe v Wade has since been overturned.
Spain responsible for obstetric violence – UN women’s rights committee finds | OHCHR
GENEVA (14 July 2022) – A woman in Spain who underwent premature labour induction and a caesarean section without her consent was subjected to obstetric violence, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has found.
The Committee published its Views today after reviewing a complaint filed by a Spanish national, N.A.E., who has been suffering lasting physical and mental trauma as a result of her experience during childbirth.
The Committee urged Spain to provide N.A.E. with appropriate reparation for the damage that she has suffered to her physical and psychological health.
The Committee also requested that Spain respect women’s autonomy and ability to make informed decisions about their reproductive health by providing them with complete information at every stage of childbirth and by requiring that their free, prior and informed consent be obtained for any invasive treatment during childbirth.
The experts on women’s rights also requested that Spain provide obstetricians and other health workers with adequate professional training on women’s reproductive health rights. In addition, Spain was also asked to provide specific training for judicial and law enforcement officials, as well as to develop, publicise and implement a charter of patients’ rights.
Source: Spain responsible for obstetric violence – UN women’s rights committee finds | OHCHR
Where Women Reign: An Intimate Look Inside a Rare Kingdom
In the shadow of the Himalayan mountains, at the edge of the lush, expansive Luga Lake, live the Mosuo people. Their complex social structure is said to be one of the last semi-matriarchal societies in the world, following a maternal bloodline and the practice of “walking marriage.” Women may choose and change partners as they wish, a structure that favors female agency over male dependence.
The matriarchs Klüppel met were “often very funny, and very active”, at odds with the German culture she is used to. “I saw an 80-year-old women carrying things I could no way carry myself,” she says. “Their bodies are really tense with power. I realized that physical strength really depends on what you do with your body – the women have more strength than the men!”
Though female dominance in the workspace is a rarity elsewhere in the world, the Mosuo’s “walking marriage” system is arguably the most unique – and exoticized – part of their culture. Progressively feminist or selectively misandrous, depending on how you look at it, tradition dictates that the Mosuo women’s partners only visit them at night, and these partners have very little to do with their children’s upbringing. Mosuo children stay with their mother’s families for life, and as such, the woman is the head of the household.
At a time when female empowerment is the global topic de jour, it seems painfully ironic that a culture where women truly prevail is on a steady decline.
Source: Where Women Reign: An Intimate Look Inside a Rare Kingdom
Experts slam Queensland government plan to replace ‘maternity leave’ with new term | 7NEWS
Women would be denied long-standing legal rights under a plan to replace the term “maternity leave” with “birth-related leave”, opponents say.
The proposal to introduce ‘gender neutral language’ is one of a number of changes being considered to Queensland’s workplace laws, following an independent five-year review.
But opponents have labelled one of the proposals – to scrap the term “maternity leave” because the language implies ‘gendered division’ of parental care – as regressive and alarming.
Gribble, who last week gave evidence at a public hearing into the proposed changes to the Act, said the planned amendments were an attempt to deny women their legal rights.
“It is very concerning they are not recognising maternity leave is a right that women hold, and it exists to enable them to recover from pregnancy and birth and care for their newborn baby, including breastfeeding,” Gribble said.
“Removing that recognition in legislation, with the explicit aim of encouraging or promoting the idea that it shouldn’t be normal for mothers to be the primary caregivers of their newborns, is alarming.”
As well as proposing to drop the “maternity leave” definition, the bill also seeks to remove gendered language such as “she” to “employee”.
Principal at the Feminist Legal Clinic, Anna Kerr, has described as a “travesty” the Queensland government’s proposal to drop the term “maternity leave”.
“The failure to acknowledge the need for sex-based rights in relation to childbearing is clearly an attack on women’s rights and should be strongly resisted,” Kerr said.
Karleen Gribble says there has been a desire to gain equality by saying men and women are the same, “but when it comes to reproduction, the roles they play are very different and the repercussions are very different”.
Source: Experts slam Queensland government plan to replace ‘maternity leave’ with new term | 7NEWS