NSW MPs vote down abortion decriminalisation, but change is unstoppable

Women have again been let down by the majority of MPs in the NSW Legislative Council who voted down a Greens’ bill to decriminalise abortion on May 11. The vote was 25 against and 14 in favour of Dr Mehreen Faruqi’s private members’ bill.

Faruqi said she was disappointed with the outcome and described those MPs who voted against the bill as “completely out of step with modern medical practice, community expectation and laws in almost all other states”. She said although some “politicians are completely out of step with community expectations”, the law would eventually be changed.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/nsw-mps-vote-down-abortion-decriminalisation-change-unstoppable

Can’t she just ‘express more milk’? The long road to a woman finally breastfeeding in the Federal Parliament

Senator Larissa Waters’ second daughter Alia made history yesterday, when she became the first baby to be breastfed in the Australian Parliament. Having only just returned to work following Alia’s birth a few weeks ago, Waters tweeted a photo of herself breastfeeding Alia, saying we need to see more babies in Parliament House.

The Parliament must be family-friendly for members. It should set an example to other workplaces, and ensure it’s as accessible as possible for women no matter what their circumstances.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/eds-blog/cant-just-express-milk-long-road-woman-finally-breastfeeding-federal-parliament/

Its time to decriminalise abortion

Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) has expressed its strong support for decriminalisation of abortion in NSW. The Abortion Law Reform (Miscellaneous Acts Amendment) Bill 2016 introduced by Greens MLC Dr. Mehreen Faruqi is due to be debated in the NSW Legislative Council this Thursday.

The current NSW laws are archaic and not reflective of community values or of internationally recognised human rights principles. According to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Australia has an obligation to protect the rights of women and girls to access health services, including family planning and to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights

https://alhr.org.au/time-decriminalise-abortion-nsw-protect-human-rights-3/

Time to Decriminalise Abortion

As law and criminology academics working at universities across NSW, we believe it is time for our Parliament to follow the lead of other Australian states and formally decriminalise abortion. Outdated abortion offences should be removed from the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) and privacy zones should be provided around abortion service providers and clinics.

Abortion is a health and welfare matter, not a criminal issue. People who have an abortion, and their doctors, should not face the risk of criminal prosecution.

Please support the Abortion Law Reform (Miscellaneous Acts Amendment) Bill 2016.

https://decriminaliseabortionnsw.squarespace.com/

We’re About To Have The Same Debate About Whether Abortion Should Be A Crime

Churches and anti-abortion groups have swung into action before legislation that would remove abortion from New South Wales’ Crimes Act is debated in the state’s parliament.

One of the bills, which could be debated as early as next week, was introduced by NSW Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi. It removes the procedure from the state’s Crimes Act and establishes safe access zones around hospitals and clinics where abortion is provided. It also requires doctors who conscientiously object to abortion to refer a patient to another doctor who doesn’t.

Legislation to decriminalise abortion was withdrawn from Queensland’s parliament in February after every single member of that state’s Liberal National opposition vowed to vote against it. Farqui said it was “disappointing but not entirely surprising” that the lobby was running a “scare campaign on abortion law reform based on inaccurate information”.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/were-about-to-have-the-same-debate-about-whether-abortion?utm_term=.gcWP1RgER#.yqzxv4754
[category: Aust, reproductive rights]

New evidence in France of harm from epilepsy drug valproate

A drug given to pregnant women for epilepsy and bipolar disorder caused “serious malformations” in up to 4,100 children, a French study suggests.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39657139
[global, reproductive rights]

Adoption Is A Feminist Issue, But Not For The Reasons You Think

The fact is, most people who relinquish their children for adoption or have their children taken away from them, both in the U.S. and internationally, do so as a result of economic and racial injustice.

Unfortunately, according to the National Pro-Choice Adoption Collaborative, over 95% of adoption agencies in this country are religiously affiliated. You likely won’t be surprised to hear that adoption professionals are often not giving thorough information about abortion as an option in their counseling practices — 40% of the mothers in the DAI study said it was never mentioned. But they’re also not presenting parenthood as a viable option, either.

Here’s a truth that can be hard to hear: Adoption is a trauma. The separation of parents and children, the dismantling of families, even at birth, is very often traumatic and can result in enormous amounts of suffering and lifelong consequences for first parents and adoptees, as well as the families and communities to which they belong.

Here’s an even harder truth: The adoption industry is a business. It generates billions of dollars each year and requires other people’s children in order to stay profitable.

Here’s the toughest truth yet: Those children are almost always the children of poor and working class people, people of color, native and indigenous people, and young people. The people who adopt them, who directly benefit from the economic and racial oppression of these groups, are most often middle and upper-middle-class people and are primarily white.

https://theestablishment.co/adoption-is-a-feminist-issue-but-not-for-the-reasons-you-think-93ba3824bcbb

Swedish court upholds ruling against midwife claiming conscientious objection – Safe Abortion : Women’s Right

A Swedish Labour Court has ruled that a midwife, in an appeal regarding a lower court’s verdict against her, confirmed the view that she had not been discriminated against by Jönköping County. The County decided not to employ her in a summer job in 2013 because she had refused to assist in abortion care and also objected to giving out the morning-after pill or inserting the IUD, on grounds of her Christian faith. She was subsequently refused positions at two other hospitals in the region as well.

On 14 April, the complainant announced that she had decided to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, which may always have been her aim and the aim of her US backers, given that issues of conscientious objection may be treated differently. Her backers are a large anti-abortion organisation from the USA, where tying up court time with legal challenges has become a full-time anti-abortionist occupation.

http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/swedish-court-upholds-ruling-against-midwife-claiming-conscientious-objection/?

Abortion Pill Telemedicine – At-Home Medication Abortion Safety

In Australia, where laws regarding the administration of abortion pills are different than in the United States, telemedicine looks to be an effective and convenient way to surmount the access barriers to safe abortion. Women in extremely remote areas, without a clinic nearby to perform an ultrasound or blood test, may still face difficulty, even with telemedicine. But the ability to terminate a pregnancy at home, without traveling to a designated abortion clinic, stands the chance to drastically improve access for women in Australia and the United States.

It would currently be illegal for women in the U.S. to receive abortion pills with a simple, over-the-phone consultation, like the 1,800 women in Australia were able to do. But relaxing those restrictions would radicalize access to an evidentially safe procedure for the millions of women who live far from abortion clinics. And with more and more anti-abortion laws being introduced in states every day, the number of women living far from abortion clinics is only increasing.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/a9241182/abortion-pill-telemedicine/

Europe’s Feminists and Catholics Unite Against Surrogacy

“To me, fighting surrogacy, it’s part of fighting the patriarchy,” Terragni said. “For thousands of years the patriarchy has tried to reduce women to livestock for reproduction, and this is a newer, more extreme form of it.”

Terragni explained that as a feminist activist she supports “the affirmation of feminine difference,” or the idea that women have a more central role in reproduction than men and that this primacy needs to be cherished and protected. “It’s something that the patriarchy has tried to take away from women, from the days of Aristotle, who described women’s wombs just as containers for semen.”

It’s because of this “affirmation of feminine difference” that she supports sperm donation for single women and lesbian couples, but opposes surrogacy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/left-wing-feminists-conservative-catholics-unite/520968/?utm_source=fbb