Category: Reproductive Rights

ALHR supports the introduction of exclusion zones in NSW to stop harassment at abortion clinics and calls for the decriminalisation of abortion in NSW

Like the Abortion Law Reform (Miscellaneous Acts Amendment) Bill 2016 introduced last year by Dr Mehreen Faruqi, the Summary Offences Amendment (Safe Access to Reproductive Health Clinics) Bill 2017, introduced in the NSW Legislative Council by the Hon Penny Sharpe MLC on Thursday creates safe access zones of 150 metres around abortion clinics. However, the Bill introduced by Dr Faruqi goes further and also includes provisions to finally decriminalise abortion in NSW and requiring doctors to refer patients on if they themselves have a conscientious objection to abortion.

https://alhr.org.au/alhr-supports-introduction-exclusion-zones-nsw-stop-harassment-abortion-clinics-calls-decriminalisation-abortion-nsw/

Anger as tampon tax is used to help fund anti-abortion group

A new row has broken out over the so-called tampon tax after it emerged that a quarter of a million pounds from a controversial levy on women’s sanitary products is to be given to an anti-abortion organisation.

Under pressure from campaigners after failing to honour a pledge to scrap the 5% VAT on sanitary products, former chancellor George Osborne said that more than £10m a year would be redistributed from the tax receipts to women’s charities.

But there was consternation on Saturday night among women’s groups and politicians who had campaigned on the issue after it emerged that £250,000 of that money is going to Life, a charity that campaigns against abortion and has been at the centre of controversy over the information provided by a network of unregulated pregnancy counselling centres.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/01/tampon-tax-anti-abortion-group-anger

Postnatal mental illness is not a new phenomenon, it is only a chronically ignored and underfunded one.

Suicide is the leading cause of maternal death in pregnancy and the first year of a child’s life; it absolutely need not be. Postnatal mental illness is not a new phenomenon, it is only a chronically ignored and underfunded one.

The recent revelation that each day more than eight Australians kill themselves was startling and confronting but perhaps even worse was learning that another 200 of us attempt suicide every day and do not succeed.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/01/postnatal-depression-is-not-a-new-phenomenon-only-a-chronically-ignored-one?
https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-suicide-one-of-the-leading-causes-of-maternal-death-in-australia-65336
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/mental-illness-isnt-the-only-reason-for-suicide-20170330-gvaa1p.html

Malcolm Turnbull Says He’s ‘Pro Choice’. He Also Said He Would Take Action On Climate Change

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is calling for a ban on foreign aid funding for abortion services and there’s a real danger that some on the cross bench, and perhaps even our Prime Minister, will listen – even though this would lead to the deaths of thousands of women.

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as President was to reinstate and expand George Bush’s Global Gag Rule; an executive order banning US foreign aid from going to organisations that discuss or perform abortions.

In Australia, the ACL has taken its cue from Trump and gleefully announced a push for Australia to copy President Trump’s order.

https://newmatilda.com/2017/03/31/malcolm-turnbull-says-hes-pro-choice-he-also-said-he-would-take-action-on-climate-change/

Cuts to sole parent benefits are human rights violations

Sole parents in Australia are economically vulnerable and are experiencing ongoing cuts to their social security. Legislation limiting welfare benefits that was rushed through the Senate last week will make many of them poorer – but how is this a human rights issue?

Australia is party to many United Nations human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The covenant contains a right to social security, which countries owe to everyone. It requires countries to guarantee that the rights in the covenant are upheld without discrimination.

https://theconversation.com/cuts-to-sole-parent-benefits-are-human-rights-violations-74844

Dystopian dreams: how feminist science fiction predicted the future

Margaret Atwood’s evergreen dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale is about to become a television drama. Published in 1985, it couldn’t feel more fresh or more timely, dealing as it does with reproductive rights, with the sudden accession to power of a theocracy in the United States, with the demonisation of imagined, pantomime villain “Islamic fanatics”.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/25/dystopian-dreams-how-feminist-science-fiction-predicted-the-future?

Endometriosis: Health system ‘oblivious to suffering’ of one in 10 women affected by ‘silent epidemic’

Scientists are working to find answers — but, although it is as common as asthma and diabetes, endometriosis is allocated only a fraction of the millions of dollars they each receive in research funding.

  • There is no cure
  • Hysterectomy is not a cure
  • Pregnancy is not a cure
  • It does not always cause infertility
  • Diagnosis can only be made via surgical intervention
  • Endometriosis pain does not only occur during periods

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-24/endometriosis-health-system-oblivious-to-suffering-of-women/8331534?section=health&smid=Page%3A+ABC+News-Facebook_Organic&WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic&sf65570360=1

RU486 abortion drug laws pass in Northern Territory

The Northern Territory has decriminalised abortion and widened access for women, including use of the RU486 termination drug.

After a years-long public campaign and failed attempts during the previous administration, the Labor-led parliament voted 20 votes to four on Tuesday in favour of a bill to amend the NT Medical Services Act and the criminal code. Labor members were given a conscience vote.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/ru486-abortion-drug-laws-pass-in-northern-territory/news-story/17be5725f4eb9ce6a11b09821678abe0?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-21/nt-abortion-debate-hears-from-all-sides-of-parliament/8374464?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/22/abortion-decriminalised-in-northern-territory-after-long-campaign?

‘Do mad people get endometriosis or does endo make you mad?’

The suggestion that endometriosis is a form of mental illness or is somehow caused by poor mental health seems to be deeply rooted in the history of the condition, which is in many ways reminiscent of descriptions of “women’s hysteria”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/22/do-mad-people-get-endometriosis-or-does-endo-make-you-mad?

Texas Senate Passes Bill Allowing OBs To Keep Info From Pregnant Women

“It seems to be all about restricting and further limiting a woman’s right to exercise her choice as to what she’s going to do in the case of serious detects in the fetus, congenital defects in the fetus,” said Sen. Rodriguez.

On Monday, in front of a gallery that included a handful of activists dressed in costumes from “The Handmaid’s Tale, legislators passed Senate Bill 415, effectively banning dilation and evacuation, a safe and common procedure used in many second trimester abortions except when a woman faces a health emergency.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/texas-senate-passes-bill-allowing-obs-to-keep-info-from-pregnant-women_us_58d0870fe4b00705db521fb2