Category: Reproductive Rights

Sofia Vergara’s embryo court battle with ex takes bizarre turn

THE battle over Sofia Vergara’s embryos took an extraordinary turn Tuesday — when a right-to-live lawsuit was filed on behalf of the fertilised eggs against their mum.

In an April 2015 op-ed in the New York Times, Loeb outlined why he wants to protect the embryos — and potentially implant them in a surrogate.

“A woman is entitled to bring a pregnancy to term even if the man objects,” Loeb wrote.

“Shouldn’t a man who is willing to take on all parental responsibilities be similarly entitled to bring his embryos to term even if the woman objects?”

He says he had asked Vergara to let him have the embryos, offered to pay all the expenses and raise the two girls himself.

She would have no parental responsibility and would be declared an egg donor, but the actress refused, he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/opinion/sofiavergaras-ex-fiance-our-frozen-embryos-have-a-right-to-live.html
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/hook-ups-break-ups/sofia-vergara-sued-by-her-own-embryos-legal-battle-with-ex-takes-bizarre-turn/news-story/120aeb2dee1f6eabbcaebf275d53ee54

INDIA – 10-year-old girl delivered by caesarean section, and another case emerges

The news travelled around the world: the child refused an abortion by both a district court in Chandigarh and the Supreme Court of India, in both cases on the grounds that abortion was too risky at 28 weeks and then again at 32 weeks, was delivered by c-section last week and will be kept in hospital for some 10 days. Although the hospital was reported to say that the child and the 2.2kg premature infant were both “doing fine”, the facts are other: The girl was put through major surgery. She was told a large stone had to be removed from her stomach. How will she feel when she is old enough to know better? Her abusive uncle is in prison. Her parents are shattered from the discovery of the abuse, the publicity the story generated and two failed court cases in which the girl’s interests were the least important item on the agenda and the facts about the safety of abortion at 28 weeks of pregnancy were absent.

The statistics on the scale of sexual abuse of children in India speak for themselves. The BBC reports that according to UNICEF and Indian government data:

> A child under 16 is raped every 155 minutes, a child under 10 every 13 hours

> More than 10,000 children were raped in 2015

> 240 million women living in India were married before they turned 18

> 53.22% of children who participated in a government study reported some form of sexual abuse

> 50% of abusers are known to the child or are “persons in trust and care-givers”.

http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/india-10-year-old-girl-delivered-by-caesarean-section-and-another-case-emerges/?

Tanya Plibersek Just Declared That “For Labor To Be Pro-Women It Must Be Pro-Choice”

For the Labor party to be pro-women it must be pro-choice, the party’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said on Wednesday night in a passionate speech about how far Australia still has to come to ensure women have reproductive freedoms.

“We need to make sure that women have autonomy over their bodies,” Plibersek told those gathered at a Canberra event organised by Emily’s List, a financial and support network for progressive Labor women candidates.

“Reproductive freedom is intimately tied to gender equality. For Labor to be pro-women, we must be pro-choice.

“Australia still has unfinished business on reproductive health.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/tanya-plibersek-just-declared-that-for-labor-to-be-pro?utm_term=.han4n8dG3a#.dujd76e2EZ

An Australian Woman Has Been Convicted After Taking Abortion Drugs

The mother-of-five was 28-years-old when she fell pregnant in September 2015.

Nineteen weeks into the pregnancy the woman was told by her partner that he didn’t want to have the child, Blacktown Local Court in NSW heard in May.

“At about 26 weeks into the pregnancy her boyfriend again urged her to terminate the pregnancy,” a judgement handed down by Magistrate Geoff Hiatt in July, but made public on Monday, read.

The woman then contacted a number of clinics in NSW and interstate, but was told they would not terminate the pregnancy as it was past 20 weeks.

Abortion is a crime in NSW where a pregnancy can only be terminated if a doctor believes it is necessary to prevent serious risk to the life or health of a woman.

Most abortions in NSW happen at private clinics but terminations in the second trimester due to serious foetal anomalies might happen at a hospital.

“The accused eventually found someone she believed was in Darwin, known as ‘Patrick’, who was prepared to facilitate a termination,” Hiatt said in his judgement.

“Patrick told her a termination was possible up to 30 weeks and he would send her pills for the payment of $2,000.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/ginarushton/an-australian-woman-has-been-convicted-after-taking

Some Gen Y mothers feel forgotten but we have more power than we think

Kate describes the ‘forgotten women’ as part of the great middle class of Australia. They are not poor, but not rich. Once told they could do anything with their careers, they have gotten themselves educated and started climbing the ladder in professional careers. If they go on to have children, however, they find the system is seriously rigged against them. From unaffordable childcare, to inflexible work practices, continued social norms regarding who does what at home, and school hours that simply don’t match an office career. . . .

“What they are finding is that they can get an education, get a profession, but still once they have children – and the second child seems to be the tipping factor – the way the childcare system is arranged can be a disincentive for me to keep working, particularly working full-time.” . . .

Kate adds that a Productivity Commission would be able to take a helicopter view by taking submissions across the board regarding what’s getting in the way of women’s workforce participation. “It would also look at women who are retiring into poverty because of the superannuation gap and also the gender pay gap.”

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/gen-y-mothers-feel-forgotten-power-think/

Men still prefer mothers to stay at home: 12 charts on attitudes to work and family

The Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey is Australia’s only nationally representative household longitudinal study, following the same individuals and households since 2001.

The good news is that despite the fact men still prefer women not to work, we are progressing: across the board there have been positive shifts in the way we view working women.

Despite educating women better than 143 other countries, women in Australia struggle to effectively participate in the workforce, which means they struggle to attain economic independence. In 2016 Australia ranked 55th for women’s workforce participation, a figure that has also steadily slid back throughout the past decade.

The price too many women are paying for caring, for being directly and indirectly discriminated against, for being unable to work as much as they would like, or bearing the cost of raising their family, is poverty.

https://theconversation.com/men-still-prefer-mothers-to-stay-at-home-12-charts-on-attitudes-to-work-and-family-81897
https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/men-who-prefer-women-not-to-work/

It’s time for Australia’s Forgotten Women to rise

They are our qualified women. Engineers, lawyers, nurses, teachers, economists, accountants, architects, analysts and a wide array of other professionals who we, as a nation, have heavily subsidised so that they can receive a higher education and make a valued contribution to our society.

We have invested a fortune in them. We have told them since they were little girls that they can achieve anything in life. But after they become mothers, they discover the cruel truth: the system is rigged against them.

According to the Grattan Institute, if Australia had the same level of working mothers as Canada, an increase of just 6%, there’d be a $20 billion boost to our economy. We’d dramatically lift the nation’s productivity (without a shred of industrial unrest) and significantly increase the amount of HECS debt that is repaid to the government. Rivers of revenue gold! And we’d be harnessing a massive cohort of educated women, whose contributions to innovation, research, healthcare, education, management, leadership and myriad fields of endeavour would benefit the entire nation.

The solution is surprisingly simple: if childcare was tax deductible for working parents – sensibly capped and coupled with subsidies for low-income earners – childcare would be more affordable and more educated mothers would work, and for longer hours.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/soapbox/time-forgotten-women-australia-rise/

Sweden to cut aid to groups applying Trump abortion ban

A Swedish government agency on Tuesday threatened to cut aid to NGOs which have suspended abortion services over fears of losing US funding due to a decree signed by President Donald Trump.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), which aims to tackle global poverty, said it has decided that “partner organisations that receive aid to work on sexual and reproductive health and rights but also accept the president’s orders, can no longer receive aid”.

http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/sweden-to-cut-aid-to-groups-applying-trump-abortion-ban/?

UN experts call for resistance as battle over women’s rights intensifies

A group of UN independent experts* has warned that women’s rights are facing an alarming backlash in many parts of the world. They said that it is critically important to press on with further setting of standards on gender equality, including through the repeal of all laws that discriminate against women on traditional, cultural or religious grounds and laws that exclusively or disproportionately criminalize action of behavior by women and girls.

“We feel it is time to reiterate the backlash against the progress which has been made in promoting and protecting women’s human rights. The polarization in the battle for rights is being demonstrated increasingly, and regressive positions have become a serious threat to the human rights legal framework.”

http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/un-experts-call-for-resistance-as-battle-over-womens-rights-intensifies/?

Thanks for caring, now your Superannuation’s worth half as much as men

Can you guess how much unpaid childcare is worth in Australia?

An estimated $345 billion, according to a March 2017 report by PwC, which would make it the largest industry in the formal economy.

The majority of the work is being undertaken by women.

But don’t expect to get financially rewarded for it.

Such caring responsibilities, as well as the gender pay gap and other factors are contributing to a significant divide between the superannuation savings of women and men.

We are retiring with around half as much (53%) superannuation as men, according to new research today from think tank Per Capita and the Australian Services Union.

It’s not hard to see why.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/eds-blog/thanks-caring-now-superannuations-worth-half-much-men/