Category: Reproductive Rights

Women shouldn’t have to travel interstate for abortions, doctor says

Women who need surgical abortions between nine and 14 weeks of pregnancy will be left in the lurch throughout Australia unless state and territory governments learn from Tasmania and start preparing for the closure of private abortion providers, gynaecologist Dr Paul Hyland says.

Hyland has been Tasmania’s primary surgical abortion provider for 17 years, but was recently forced to close his Hobart clinic, the only provider of surgical abortions to women in the state. While public hospitals also carry out surgical abortions, these are not routine, and are usually reserved for women in later stages of pregnancy who are experiencing life-threatening and emergency complications.

There has been a rapid uptake of the pill RU486 since it was registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in 2012. The pill brings on a miscarriage, known as a medical abortion, and it has caused the demand for surgical abortions to decline rapidly in countries where it has been introduced. Hyland said this was one of the reasons it became financially unsustainable to keep his surgical abortion clinic open.

Hyland said other states would face similar problems if they did not start making abortions more readily available through the public system.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/20/women-shouldnt-have-to-travel-interstate-for-abortions-doctor-says?

Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand prime minister pregnant with first child

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has announced she is pregnant with her first child.

Ardern, who was sworn in to office in October, said in a Facebook post that she and her partner, Clarke Gayford, are expecting in June.

Gayford, a television presenter on a TV fishing show, would become a stay-at-home father, and accompany Ardern “as much as possible” with the new baby when she went back to work to allow the prime minister to spend time with her child.

“We’re going to make this work and New Zealand is going to help us raise our first child,” Ardern said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/18/new-zealand-jacinda-ardern-pregnant?

An Evening with Germaine Greer review – hour-long ramble misses the #metoo moment

Greer has long attracted criticism from feminist communities for her claims that transgender women are “not real women”. Now, to the discomfort of the audience, she doubled down, adding her proclamation that transgenderism is a way for men to do away with women altogether: “What if what is really happening is that women are going to get written out of the contract? Women are the people who give birth, but how long will that go on for? When will we have in vitro gestation? It’s around the corner, it’s practically there … If we didn’t have children, would they even put up with us?”

[ed: despite the criticisms made in this article, as usual Greer
is ahead of the pack and refuses to just focus on what’s
fashionable.]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/10/an-evening-with-germaine-greer-review-hour-long-ramble-misses-the-metoo-moment?

WHO | Preventing unsafe abortion

Key facts

  • Between 2010–2014:
  • 25% of all pregnancies ended in an induced abortion.
  • Around 25 million unsafe abortions were estimated to have taken place worldwide each year, almost all in developing countries
  • Each year between 4.7% – 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion
  • The annual cost of treating major complications from unsafe abortion is estimated at US$ 553 million
  • Almost every abortion death and disability could be prevented through sexuality education, use of effective contraception, provision of safe, legal induced abortion, and timely care for complications.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs388/en/?

German court rules transsexual woman can’t be ‘mother’

Berlin – Germany’s top court has ruled that a transsexual woman whose frozen sperm was used to fertilise an egg can only be registered as the child’s father.

The Federal Court said judges concluded “the transsexual person’s fundamental rights aren’t breached by the fact that existing ancestry law assigns her the legal status of parent according to her former sex and the specific contribution to procreation that resulted from this”.

https://www.news24.com/World/News/german-court-rules-transsexual-woman-cant-be-mother-20180104
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-gender-laws-transgender-mother-lgbt-rights-child-father-recognise-eu-a8143976.html

Here Is How Your State Or Territory Is Doing On Human Rights

Australia scored an F for women’s and girls’ rights, partly because of the nation’s patchy record on reproductive rights. Abortion is still a crime in two states and the minister for women, Michaelia Cash, recently crossed the floor to vote in support of Cory Bernardi’s anti-abortion motion. The federal government also dropped domestic violence off the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) agenda.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/here-is-how-your-state-or-territory-is-doing-on-human-rights?utm_term=.vv4a5LlLl#.okArnXEXE

The issue of childcare remains a massive barrier to work for women

While 29% of women suggested that it was very important that they be able to work “school hours” – which would enable dropping off and picking up children – only 8% of men suggested that was a very important incentive for them to return to work.

The barriers to work are only for those who actually are seeking either more hours or a return to the workforce. Most people who are not in the workforce or who are employed are quite happy with that situation.

Just 0.6% of men who are not in the workforce and who do not wish to be so cite caring for children as the main reason, compared with 14% of women.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/grogonomics/2017/dec/12/no-more-nappy-valley-but-childcare-still-an-issue-for-working-women?

New South Wales closes Australia’s last loophole allowing pregnant women to be sacked

New South Wales will close a loophole allowing employers to sack a woman who knew she was pregnant when hired.

The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the changes would make sure pregnant woman were not discriminated against.

“It’s unacceptable and out of step with modern standards for a woman to be overlooked for a role because she’s pregnant, or dismissed from a new position once it becomes apparent she’s carrying a child”.

The NSW government acknowledged Greens MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi who had been a fierce advocate for changing the laws.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/10/new-south-wales-closes-australias-last-loophole-allowing-pregnant-women-to-be-sacked?

Women harmed because vaginal mesh regulation ‘not fit for purpose’

We now know that women who received mesh implants have been part of a global experiment that in many cases has gone badly wrong.

Concerns have been growing about the serious complications suffered by some women who have had mesh implants and about the introduction of dozens of different devices, most of which have never been assessed in a clinical trial.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/06/woman-great-harm-due-loopholes-vaginal-mesh-regulation?

BRAZIL – Developments regarding Amendment No.181 banning abortion – Safe Abortion : Women’s Right

Amendment No.181, a provision to include protection of life from conception to the text of the Constitution of Brazil, was approved by the Special Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on 8 November. It would criminalize abortion under all circumstances. Since it was passed by 18 men to 1 woman, the mobilization against the measure has been intense.

[M]embers of the Congress have been overwhelmed by a stream of public statements and opinion pieces in the main news and media channels, depicting this measure as absurd.

Then a Joint Note by UN agencies – UNFPA, UN Women, Pan American Health Organization (WHO) and the OHCHR Regional Office for South America – was published on 20 November. It expressed grave concern that the measure, if passed, would create a great risk to the health and lives of women and girls.

http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/brazil-developments-regarding-amendment-no-181-banning-abortion/?