Getting an abortion in New Zealand is a needlessly complicated, time-sensitive process. There are many points at which your abortion experience could go wrong, potentially leaving you with a life-long commitment to parenting that you never wanted or intended.
http://alranz.org/flowchart-test-nz/?
Category: Reproductive Rights
PARAGUAY – Child who was pregnant following sexual abuse dies from complications of delivery
The death of a 14-year-old rape victim who has died during childbirth in Paraguay has been in all the news media there.
A 37-year-old man who lives in the same building as the girl’s family, who is accused of raping and impregnating the girl, was apparently arrested only on 22 March 2018, according to Ricardo González Borgne, head of the National Secretariat for Children and Adolescents. “In 70% percent of cases, sexual abuse in Paraguay comes from inside the family, e.g. a stepfather, uncle, brother, grandfather. This is one of the most disturbing features. It is a cultural issue [sic] that relates to the theme of education and strengthening the rights of children,” said Borgne.
In May 2015, we published the story of a 10-year-old girl who became pregnant after being abused by her stepfather and was refused an abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy, which made the news. This girl survived childbirth, but according to Amnesty International (quoted in the Guardian last week) she has not yet received the housing that the government promised to give her at the time.
According to an article we published in 2013, in 2009 a quarter of the women for whom there are records who presented to a hospital with complications after an abortion were less than 20 years old, and almost a third of maternal deaths were in young women aged 15-24 years old. These figures are considered as only the most visible part of the problem, being from deaths that were recorded in the health statistics system.
The latest data from the Ministry of Health, from a survey of reproductive health issues in childhood, including adolescent pregnancy, showed that about 15% of the women who gave birth in Paraguay did so at least once before the age of 18 years.
http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/paraguay-child-who-was-pregnant-following-sexual-abuse-dies-from-complications-of-delivery/?
Why female condoms are so hard to find – Vox
Amazon has hundreds of types of male condoms available, in all shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors. You can walk into pretty much any gas station, supermarket, or pharmacy and easily buy a male condom.
How many types of female condoms are available in the US? Just one. And you need a prescription to get it.
https://www.vox.com/videos/2018/3/21/17147752/female-condoms-access-prescription-birth-control-contraception?
Babies for sale in Malaysia
In this Southeast Asian nation, where legal adoption can take years, people are handing over thousands of dollars to baby sellers and turning to corrupt officials to help register the children they buy as their own.
A baby’s price can range from about $400 to $7,500, with their value determined by race, skin colour, gender and weight.
“The lighter skin, if a male, higher price. The darker skin, a girl, lower price. And then if you’re a mix, higher price. This is how it works,” explained Hartini.
The babies offered for sale come from a variety of women. Some are poor migrant workers who, by law, are not allowed to have children in the country. Others come from Malaysian women, including some who are forced to give up their babies to avoid the stigma associated with having a child out of wedlock.
In this Muslim-majority country, having a child out of wedlock is not just frowned upon; it’s a Shariah offence for a Muslim woman to have sex with a man who is not her husband. The punishment is up to three years in prison, whipping and a fine of up to 5,000 ringgit (about $1,155).
The buyers are often childless couples desperate to start a family and frustrated with the country’s convoluted adoption procedures. But activists say some babies are bought for more sinister purposes, sometimes by syndicates who groom children for paedophiles.
https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/malaysia-babies-for-sale-101-east/index.html
ALHR: Government must do more to protect reproductive health rights – Lawyers Weekly
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) spoke earlier this week in response to comments from Nationals MP George Christensen and incoming Senator Amanda Stoker, who – at an anti-abortion rally held in Queensland this past Sunday – said they would lobby Treasurer Scott Morrison to cease funding of family planning services that include abortion, both in Australia and internationally.
ALHR Women and Girls’ Rights Committee co-chair, Associate Professor Rita Shackel, said the organisation was concerned that members of the federal government appeared to be supporting the denial of access to abortion services, as well as the continued criminalisation of such services.
“Such a position is inconsistent with Austalia’s human rights obligations. Reproductive rights are recognised by international law as belonging to all women and girls everywhere and include the right to access safe and legal abortions,” she said.
Anna Kerr, ALHR Women and Girls’ Rights Committee co-chair, agreed with Associate Professor Shackel’s comments, adding that the government should be “unambiguously supporting” women and girls’ right to autonomy over their own bodies and health.
https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/politics/22941-alhr-government-must-do-more-to-protect-reproductive-health-rights?
ALHR – Turnbull Government must publicly reject attacks within its ranks on the human rights of women and girls ’
ALHR has also called on the Federal Government to do more to ensure that Australia is meeting its international obligations to guarantee the reproductive health rights of women and girls’. The calls come in response to comments by MP George Christensen and incoming Senator Amanda Stoker at an anti-abortion rally in Queensland on Sunday.
MP George Christensen said that he intends to petition the Treasurer Scott Morrison to cease funding of family planning services that include abortion in Australia and around the world.
Anna Kerr, Co-Chair of ALHR’s Women and Girls’ Rights Committee added, “Members of the Australian Government should be unambiguously supporting women and girls’ right to autonomy over their own bodies and health. Those who seek abortions should not be treated as criminals and nor should organisations devoted to protecting women and girls, especially victims of violence, be targeted for their pro-choice policy positions.”
https://alhr.org.au/rights-women-girls/
'Saving the children' are the three most dangerous words uttered by white people
The story was splashed across the front page in three bold lines: “Save our children.” It relied on quotes from the federal assistant minister for children and families, David Gillespie, who said now was the time to place Aboriginal children with white families.
“Foster care is not ideal but there is a reluctance to put them in a more permanent situation for fear of creating another stolen generation,’’ Gillespie said in the paper.
[T]he idea that Aboriginal children are not being placed in white families is a lie. The kinship and Aboriginal child placement principles in many states and territories recognise the need for Aboriginal children to be kept in communities, or in extended families. But often, in practice this principle has fallen far short of its aims.
There was also the issue of child protection agencies not consulting with families about child placements, and children, even those placed in kinship care, being separated from their respective communities and cultures.
In Victoria, as reported by the Guardian’s Calla Wahlquist, a third of First Nations children are placed with Aboriginal kin, and 41.6% are placed with non-Indigenous carers.
The greater lie is that Aboriginal children are not being taken away and are being kept in dangerous situations for fear of a stolen generation. That does not gel with the statistics: Aboriginal children are being taken away at exponential rates and these rates have grown every year since Kevin Rudd gave his apology to the stolen generations and promised it would “never happen again”.
While non-Indigenous children are more likely to be taken away for physical and emotional abuse, Aboriginal children are largely taken away because of “neglect”, which is often seen as a subjective term based on cultural interpretation.
[O]f course there are some children who need to be taken away. But there should be a concerted effort to place children with families – with aunties, uncles or grandparents and, if not, other members of the community. And there should be a concerted effort to support Aboriginal mothers and fathers so they can raise their children in a safe and loving environment.
If children are taken away from their families they are placed in the care of the minister. Shouldn’t there be accountability? How can we be assured that they are not placed in more danger than what they were in, given the state of the child protection system?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/14/saving-the-children-are-the-three-most-dangerous-words-uttered-by-white-people?
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/nationals-mp-advocates-adoptions-for-child-abuse-victims-including-indigenous-kids
Masturbation hacks and consent advice: how YouTubers took over sex education
With UK schools increasingly falling short, vloggers such as Hannah Witton and Laci Green have stepped up to offer guidance on everything from body confidence to sexual pleasure.
When Lily was at school, she remembers the boys and girls being separated for a sex education class. The boys were given one booklet; the girls another. “In the boys’ booklet, there was a section on masturbation and there wasn’t in the girls’ booklet,” she says. “A girl put her hand up and said: ‘Why don’t we have that?’ and one of the teachers said: ‘Girls don’t do that, that’s disgusting.’ It shouldn’t be a shameful thing to talk about. It can be a bit awkward and embarrassing, but we should be talking about it.”
The videos that have done particularly well, she says, include those on masturbation, “especially female masturbation, which for some reason is still taboo. A lot of people either don’t want to admit it’s happening or feel too ashamed to talk about it. There is a general shame and stigma around that topic, in terms of actually doing it but also talking about it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/12/sex-education-consent-advice-youtube-hannah-witton-laci-green?
Why do women over 50 have trouble getting a job?
Women aged over 50 tend to suffer from harsher discrimination than their younger counterparts. And this happens in a number of areas in life – including when it comes to getting a job. Matthew Tukaki spoke about the topic with Feminist Legal Centre solicitor, Anna Kerr, as well as the CEO of Hesta, Debbie Blakely, and Kim Borrowdale from Suicide Prevention Australia.
https://www.talkinglifestyle.com.au/podcast/why-do-women-over-50-have-trouble-getting-a-job/
The creepy history behind why women give birth lying down.
[A]ccording to a paper written by Professor Lauren Dundes and published in the American Journal of Public Health, women didn’t always give birth lying down. It’s a relatively new concept.
“Since Louis XIV reportedly enjoyed watching women giving birth, he became frustrated by the obscured view of birth when it occurred on birthing stool, and promoted the new reclining position,” Professor Dundes wrote in the American Journal of Public Health.
During her research Professor Dundes found the French obstetrician, François Mauriceau, also played a role in making the lying down position more popular as he thought it was more “convenient”.
According to a 2013 survey, conducted by Evidence Based Birth, 78 per cent of Australian women now choose to give birth lying down.
https://www.nowtolove.com.au/parenting/pregnancy-birth/lying-down-birth-history-45385
https://www.mamamia.com.au/why-women-give-birth-lying-down/?
https://theconversation.com/stand-and-deliver-upright-births-best-for-mum-and-bub-13095
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1647027/pdf/amjph00256-0102.pdf
