Category: Reproductive Rights

Transgender man found pregnant during sex-transition, willing to be a father

RAn Italian transgender man while going through a mastectomy (removal of breasts) during his(sic) transition to become a man was found five-months pregnant. The trans man namely, Marco, had his(sic) hysterectomy (removal of uterus) due and was going through an advanced stage of the sex-change, before his(sic) pregnancy was noticed at the hospital in Rome.
Marco, as per the reports, is now willing to keep the pregnancy and give birth to his baby. Interestingly, Marco will biologically be the baby’s mother but will be registered as its father.Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/world/transgender-man-found-pregnant-during-sex-transition-willing-to-be-a-father-2861950

Source: Transgender man found pregnant during sex-transition, willing to be a father

‘Horrifying numbers’ of women and girls will die because of UK aid cuts, say MPs | Global development | The Guardian

British aid cuts have had a “devastating” effect on women and girls around the world, forcing sexual and reproductive health programmes to be cancelled, according to a new cross-party report by MPs.

Nearly 300,000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth globally in 2020, according to the parliamentary committee, which said aid should be used to combat this problem, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where 70% of the deaths happened. It also said 2.4 million children died in their first year – most of them in sub-Saharan Africa or central and southern Asia.

Sarah Champion, the IDC chair, said: “A girl in South Sudan is more likely to die in childbirth than to finish secondary school. Even here in the UK maternal deaths are at their highest level in 20 years, but almost 95% of maternal deaths globally are in poorer countries.”

An analysis of the potential impact of government policy on disadvantaged groups, known as an equality impact assessment, presented to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in July 2023, warned that the cuts could mean nearly 200,000 more unsafe abortions were performed in Africa.

The UK cut its official development assistance (ODA) from £11.7bn in 2019 to £7.6bn in 2022. Funding for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) was cut by a third.

Source: ‘Horrifying numbers’ of women and girls will die because of UK aid cuts, say MPs | Global development | The Guardian

Protect Women and Children in NSW | Petition

Sign the petition calling on NSW MPs to protect women and children.

Dear Premier The Hon. Chris Minns, Attorney-General The Hon. Michael Daley, Minister for Women The Hon. Jodie Harrison, and Members of the NSW Parliament,

We call on you to protect women and children and reject the anti-women, anti-children reforms being proposed in NSW, including:

  • The introduction of self-ID, which will allow anyone to change their legal sex (including children), enabling males to legally identify as female and access women-only spaces;
  • Fully deregulated prostitution, which will remove protections for prostituted persons, and further entrench the sexual objectification and exploitation of women and girls;
  • Removing bans on commercial surrogacy, which will encourage the commodification of vulnerable women as wombs for rent and children as products for sale; and
  • The criminalisation or restriction of care for individuals struggling with gender dysphoria that doesn’t simply affirm a person’s ‘gender identity’.

These regressive reforms endanger, discriminate against, and/or commodify and exploit women and children, and in some cases, put at risk the rights and freedoms of NSW citizens, and subvert best medical practice. They are out of step with evolving research and developments taking place overseas.

We urge you to listen to the concerns of women’s and children’s advocates and the broader community being raised about these harmful reforms, and to protect the rights and welfare of all NSW citizens.

Source: Protect Women and Children in NSW

23/01/2024 | Press release | Fight against human trafficking: Council and European Parliament strike deal to strengthen rules | Council of the EU

Today the Belgian presidency of the Council and representatives of the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement to add forced marriage, illegal adoption and surrogacy as types of exploitation covered by the EU’s anti-trafficking law. The update of the directive on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings will also require EU countries to make sure that people knowingly using services provided by victims of trafficking can face sanctions. Other amendments concern the strengthening of victims’ support and assistance as well as prevention measures.

Council and European Parliament negotiators agreed to explicitly mention in the directive that the exploitation of surrogacy, forced marriage and illegal adoption are types of exploitation which fall under the scope of the definition of trafficking. The trafficking for the exploitation of surrogacy, which is when a woman agrees to deliver a child on behalf of another person or couple to become the child’s parent(s) after birth, will target those who coerce or deceive women into acting as surrogate mothers.

Including these forms of trafficking in the EU anti-trafficking law will take into account the prevalence and the relevance of these forms of exploitation.

The Council and EU Parliament have also decided to include a new aggravating circumstance in the law to take into account the amplifying effect that information and communication technologies (ICT) can have as regards trafficking. This includes the fact that the perpetrator facilitated or committed the dissemination, by means of ICT, of images, videos or similar material of a sexual nature involving the victim.

Sanctions on legal persons, such as companies, held accountable for trafficking offences will also be beefed up. They will from now on cover the exclusion from access to public funding, including tender procedures, grants, concessions and licences, and the withdrawal of permits and authorisations to pursue activities which have resulted in committing the offence.

Source: Council of the EU

‘Gaslit by doctors’: UK women with endometriosis told it is ‘all in their head’ | The Guardian

A study carried out by academics at Manchester Metropolitan University found women with the disease felt “gaslit” by doctors due to their lack of understanding of the condition.

Dr Jasmine Hearn, senior lecturer in health psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University and lead author of the paper, said: “The biggest challenge is the disbelief, the dismissal and the sense of shame and embarrassment. Women are expected to tolerate much higher pain levels than men in general, so when women go [to the GP] with extreme pain, they are at that point of desperation and need to be taken seriously.”

The study exposed a need for change in the way women’s pain was treated and investigated by doctors, Dr Hearn added.

There is currently no cure for endometriosis and treatment is designed to manage the symptoms, often by keyhole surgery to remove or destroy excess tissue. These procedures may give months or years of pain relief, but the problem often recurs. In the most severe cases, a full hysterectomy may be recommended, but even that may not fully resolve the condition.

The new paper concluded that doctors needed better training and to change the way they handle reports of symptoms that suggest possible endometriosis.

Source: 12fthttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/21/gaslit-by-doctors-uk-women-with-endometriosis-told-it-is-all-in-their-head?CMP=share_btn_link

Why is the Midwifery Council erasing the words “women” and “mothers”?| NZ Petition

Parliament should seek an investigation into the Midwifery Council’s revised Scope of Practice for midwives which removed references to “women” and “mothers

Source: Why is the Midwifery Council erasing the words “women” and “mothers”?

The potential consequences of Pope Francis’ call for a ban on surrogacy

Pope Francis may have made waves with his announcement that priests would be allowed to bless same-sex couples, an extraordinarily liberal view for the leader of the Catholic Church, but his latest comments on surrogacy are drawing some criticism for being unnecessarily restrictive.

During an address on Monday, Francis said surrogacy turns children into “an object of [human] trafficking.” Calling for a worldwide ban on the practice, Francis added that surrogacy was “deplorable” and “represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”

Francis also called surrogacy the basis of a “commercial contract,” which is in line with a common criticism of the practice — it exploits people financially.

The Catholic Church has traditionally turned against surrogacy due to religious law, but Francis appears to be taking the stance that it violates human rights.

Source: The potential consequences of Pope Francis’ call for a ban on surrogacy

Making a point | The Monthly

In a soft-furnished clinic within Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital, a revival is under way for the first things most of us put in our mouths. Here, nipples are being made anew. “We do around 10 a fortnight,” says tattoo artist Jenny Langdon. A neat blonde woman whose own skin is devoid of ink, Langdon works most days as a plastics clinical nurse consultant next door at the Royal Melbourne, but on Thursdays she works at Australia’s first nurse-led nipple tattoo clinic.

The clinic is the last stop for many breast cancer patients.

Grief about disfigurement can be so powerful that some patients wait for years before receiving new nipples. “Some ladies get out of the shower and avoid looking in the mirror,” says Langdon. Many are left feeling androgynous and drained of vitality. Nipples are libidinal pathways carrying different facets of femininity, and their loss can generate a primal grief for those who’ve breastfed. Decades after ceasing lactation, some women report their nipples aching when hearing a baby cry. (Mamma, from which mammal, mummy and mammary are derived, is Latin for breast.)

Plastic surgery remains dominated by male surgeons, with mostly women as their patients.

Source: Making a point | The Monthly

US woman could face a year of prison after suffering a miscarriage

A woman in the United States has been charged with abuse of a corpse after experiencing a miscarriage at 21 weeks pregnant.

Brittany Watts, 33, could face a year in prison or a $3,731 fine in Ohio, where abortion is legal but highly restricted.

Watts began experiencing signs of a “non-viable pregnancy” at 21 weeks and five days when she passed thick blood clots. A day later, she was waiting in urgent care at the cut-off time for legal abortion, which is 21 weeks and six days.

A doctor told her that while the foetal heartbeat was still present, her water had broken prematurely and the foetus wouldn’t survive. If she didn’t have her labour induced (amounting to an abortion to deliver the non-viable foetus), her case records show she would face “significant risk” of death.

Watts waited to be seen by urgent care as hospital officials were deliberating over the legalities of performing an abortion for her. After eight hours and without receiving treatment, she returned home where she miscarried in a toilet.

Police later found Watts’s foetus wedged in the pipes. Testimony and autopsy confirmed that the foetus died in utero before passing through the birth canal and no injuries to the foetus were found.

Nevertheless, Watts was charged with abuse of a corpse – a fifth-degree felony – and last month, her case was sent to a grand jury. Before this, she had no criminal record.

Source: US woman could face a year of prison after suffering a miscarriage

Wagga Wagga women are exposing Australia’s birth trauma crisis

NSW’s inquiry into birth trauma and obstetric violence — thought to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world — has so far received more than 4,000 submissions.

[W]hen the NSW parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma held its most recent hearing on Tuesday, the atmosphere was suffocatingly formal. Seated at a long table in the centre of the mirage room, hemmed in on all sides by politicians, parliamentary staff, microphones, TV cameras and members of the public, women who have given birth at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital and other healthcare facilities in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (LHD) spoke about the worst experiences of their lives.

Last year, 30 such women filed a joint complaint with the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) detailing their experiences of birth trauma and obstetric violence before, during and after giving birth at Murrumbidgee LHD healthcare facilities.

Since that group complaint, the inquiry has received more than 4,000 submissions. The vast majority are anonymous testimonials from women whose birthing experience was turned from one of hope and anticipation into a living nightmare.

Source: Wagga Wagga women are exposing Australia’s birth trauma crisis