Category: Reproductive Rights

When Cristiano Ronaldo confirmed through his Instagram account that he had been the father of twins, he received more than 8 million “likes,” and 290,300 articles were published on the subject worldwide, 71,000 of them containing the phrase “very happy.” There was only one thing that did not appear anywhere: the mother’s name. Who? How was your pregnancy and how do you feel after birth? How many times a day do you think about your children you will never see again? Ronaldo does not mention it, and the only thing that is known about her is that she is American and that she received €200,000 for the babies.

The media perspective is generally that of the buyers—their feelings, their desires (often called “needs”) abound. Mothers remain anonymous, as if they were workers in a baby factory.

No one seems to raise their voice to say the obvious: this is a blatant crime against the rights of women and children. According to Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, each child has the right to his or her parents. Surrogate motherhood, whether paid or altruistic, violates this fundamental right. In surrogacy, children lose their mothers, and mothers lose their children. It is not to add, it is to remove. And, as this is an industry (do not be fooled by the romantic poems of generous women who do it for free—altruistic surrogacy does not account for even 2% of cases) the reasons are economic. Let me be perfectly clear: surrogacy is the sale of babies. The rich buy, the poor sell. There is nothing progressive or postmodern about this practice: it is the same old exploitation of women and the poor.

http://www.stopsurrogacynow.com/cristiano-ronaldo-a-woman-is-not-a-factory/

We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern and outrage over both the recent demand for the retraction of Rebecca Tuvel’s article, “In Defense of Transracialism,” which was published in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy on March 29th, and Hypatia’s temporarily acquiescing to this demand by removing the article in its online form for a period of time.

Many of us have watched in astonishment and horror over the last few years as identity politics has been used as a cudgel to disappear the material condition and facticity of the world, be it social or scientific. Instead of nurturing dialogue with one’s interlocutor, a climate of taking irrational, unscientific, and reactionary dogma has been championed by the academy and the media. Anyone who has dared to question, critique, or even — as in the case of Tuvel — subject it to rigorous logical scrutiny in an effort to expand its application, has been met with shaming at best and abuse at worst.

http://www.feministcurrent.com/2017/05/25/open-letter-hypatia-controversy/
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hypa.12327/full

A Monmouthshire GP is being investigated over complaints about her giving gender-change hormones to children as young as 12.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, of campaign group Transgender Trends, which raises concerns about gender treatment among children, said she was “very concerned” by the move toward “earlier and earlier” treatment for “younger and younger” children.

“Teenagers [and children] are not really equipped to make long-term decisions and benefit and risk calculations. We should not be fixing their identity at that age with medication that is irreversible,” she added.

She said cross-sex hormone treatment can effectively put patients on the path to sterilisation, alongside other changes, which is a “huge ethical issue”.

“These are huge, life-changing effects on children’s bodies, on children’s lives, and we need to be very, very cautious before presenting this treatment pathway to minors,” she said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-41213534

Jacinda Ardern has said Labour will decriminalise abortion in New Zealand if it wins this month’s general election.

In a fiery 90-minute televised leaders’ debate on Monday night in Auckland, Ardern stated unequivocally that abortion “shouldn’t be in the Crimes Act”. Her stance was met with a round of applause and cheering from the 400-strong studio audience of undecided voters.

“People need to be able to make their own decisions,” said Ardern. “I accept there will be people out there who will disagree with abortion, and I want them to have that as their right, but I also want women who want access to have it as their right too. This is about everyone being able to make their own decision.”

Prime minister and National leader Bill English, who is a practising Catholic, said he thought the status quo was “broadly satisfactory”.

“If the changes came before parliament I would be opposed to liberalising the law,” said English, to silence from the audience. “I support the current law and I would not set out to change it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/05/jacinda-ardern-decriminalise-abortion-new-zealand-election?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

We are approaching a biotechnological breakthrough. Ectogenesis, the invention of a complete external womb, could completely change the nature of human reproduction. In April this year, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced their development of an artificial womb. The “biobag” is intended to improve the survival rates of premature babies and is a significant step forward from conventional incubators.

Researchers at Cambridge University, meanwhile, have also kept a human embryo alive outside the body for 13 days using a mix of nutrients that mimic conditions in the womb.

Women’s rights are never more emotive than when it comes to a woman’s right to choose. While pregnancy occurs inside a woman’s body, women have some control over it, at least. But what happens when a foetus can survive entirely outside the body? How will our legislation stand up when viability begins at conception? There are fundamental questions about what rights we give to embryos outside the body (think of the potential for harvesting “spare parts” from unwanted foetuses). There is also the possibility of pro-life activists welcoming this process as an alternative to abortion – with, in the worst case, women being forced to have their foetuses extracted and gestated outside their bodies.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/04/artifical-womb-women-ectogenesis-baby-fertility?