Unwanted Abortion: Man Slips Misoprostol to Woman with Wanted Child
A woman is suing her boyfriend for tricking her into taking misoprostol to kill her unborn baby. Here is the lawsuit filed in Florida. Remee Jo Lee was thrilled to be pregnant. Her boyfriend Andrew Welden took Remee Jo to his father, a doctor, to confirm the pregnancy. Andrew then claimed she had a bacterial [...]
USAID Report Highlights Family Planning over Maternal and Child Health
Once again the Obama administration reveals its priority to family planning over maternal and child health care needs of poor women and children in developing countries. Yesterday USAID released the 2012 Report to Congress: Health-Related Research and Development Strategy, which is an overview of the Agency’s 2011–2015 plan to implement and accelerate health programs to [...]
WHO Illegal Abortions Underway in Latin America
Here is an article about abortion hotlines in Latin America that use WHO guidance on DIY abortions. The volunteers that run the hotline are not medical practitioners of course, they are abortion activists. Now they no longer need to rely on information from IPPF and Marie Stopes, now they can rely on WHO info, except that info [...]
Why “Abortion as a Human Right” Is More Dangerous for Women
The World Health Organization and the UN Commissioner on Human Rights have both released guidelines that assume abortion is a human right and should have no limits. Abortion for all nine months, with no legal protections for mother or baby. Here is what happens when there are virtually no restrictions. In the state of Maryland, [...]
The Guttmacher Institute has a bad prescription for mothers in Uganda
The Guttmacher Institute released a brief report titled Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion in Uganda in which they make their case for why increased contraception and access to “safe” abortion will reduce maternal mortality. Briefly, their argument is that unintended pregnancy in Uganda is high, and this is because women don’t have access to contraceptives. Because [...]
Human Rights Alert: Forced abortion and sterilization in China.
Abortion and sterilization are quite different in China than in the US. In the US pro-life and pro-choice advocates debate whether abortion should remain a legal choice. As a result 55 million abortions have taken place in the US. In China fertility is controlled by the state. When women violate the one-child policy or related policies (such [...]
Irish Doctors Testify: “Needless Maternal Deaths” Not Occurring From Abortion Being Illegal
As the abortion debate continues in Ireland hearings commenced today in an Oireachtas committee, Ireland’s legislature where 3 expert obstetricians stated that they knew of no “needless maternal deaths” occurring due to abortion being illegal in Ireland. It was the first day of a 3-day scheduled hearing where some 40 witnesses and 20 organizations will give [...]
How the Council of Europe is imposing abortion on Ireland and Poland
How can a country, that refused abortion three times by referendums, be pressured to legalize it in the name of a Convention which does not enshrine a right to abortion? In Europe,Irelandis a symbol of resistance against abortion. Nevertheless,Irelandis on the point of giving in to the concerted pressure of the Council of Europe [...]
ICPD Global Youth Forum
Today marks the first day of the ICPD Global Youth Forum taking place from Dec 3rd to Dec 6th. Taking place in Bali, the forum is aimed at promoting global dialogue among youth. Youth (under 25) are encouraged to write recommendations and to vote on five core issues (1. STAYING HEALTHY. 2. COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION. 3. TRANSITIONS TO DECENT EMPLOYMENT [...]
WHO Prescribes Unsafe Abortion for Poor Women
A new manual by the World Health Organization (WHO) on how to do abortions is facing criticism for advocating substandard medical care and a ban on all limits to abortion. Aimed particularly at poor women in developing countries, the manual downplays medical oversight and recommends disposing of the “waste,” including babies’ remains, in sewers or [...]
US wins seat on HRC
Just elected or re-elected to the 47-member Human Rights Council are the US, Germany, Ireland, Argentina, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Montenegro, Pakistan, South Korea, Sierra Leone, the United Arab Emirates, and Estonia. The US received 131 votes from the 193 UN member states for its second 3-year term on the body. During its last [...]
Latvia: A remarkable Pro-Life campaign followed by an official conference in the Parliament on the “right to life”
Between August and October 2012 the small Baltic country of Latvia has been the place of a creative and effective Pro-Life campaign aimed at reopening the public debate over abortion, in a country with a very high level of abortion and a law demographic rate. A specific aim of the campaign is also to introduce [...]
Where debating stops
As a social scientist I have been taught that morality is merely relative to the time and context. Nothing can be claimed to be objectively True always since truth changes within and between social groups. But as the new PBS documentary “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” potently illustrates, some behaviors [...]
Post-Family Planning Summit: Pressure Governments Despite What Women Want
Now that the London Family Planning Summit is a memory and world leaders have gone home, what comes next? Melinda Gates is keeping the spotlight on her priority of encouraging women not to have children by writing articles from her travels that are posted on partner organizations’ websites. Partner organizations are hiring consultants and holding [...]
Child Survival Improves, While Maternal Deaths are Politicized
Good news came from UNICEF today. The number of children under age 5 dying globally has dropped nearly in half since 1990. (This, of course, would not include the number of babies who die before they are born.) In 1990, nearly 12 million children died. That dropped to 6.9 million in 2011. UNICEF and the [...]
Researcher Calls for Abortifacient to be Removed from WHO Drug List
A group of researchers led by Professor Allyson Pollock from the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health at Barts and the London School of Medicine concluded that there is insufficient evidence that Misoprostol – also know as Cytotec, can effectively treat women for postpartum bleeding. The team of researchers reviewed 172 studies finding that the [...]
Philippine Legislator Says High Maternal Mortality Figures Propaganda
In a senate speech Philippine legislator Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto pushed back against erroneous maternal mortality statistics being widely used by supporters of the RH bill claiming 11 Filipino women die daily from childbirth complications. Sotto had his staff research maternal deaths in the Philippines and found the figure to be less than half of what [...]
Nigerian Woman Responds to Gates’ Contraception Campaign
Zainab Usman wrote a thoughtful article on the Gates’ contraception campaign for ThinkAfricaPress.com that got picked up by AllAfrica.com. Zainab is a Nigerian freelance writer currently working in Brussels and “a budding political economist and political scientist with a keen interest in Current Affairs: Nigerian, African and International affairs.” In “Nigeria: Family Planning Is No [...]
Does Marriage or Sex Create Babies?
When is the one – and only – time that abortion and family planning advocates acknowledge the procreative aspect of marriage? Not in the debate over same-sex marriage, where they scoff at such notions. Nor in conversations on the sanctity of marriage. There is one time, however, in a twisted fashion they link marriage as [...]
US women welcome children after all
Melinda Gates take note: a new Guttmacher study says that those modern, long-term contraceptives she wants inject into developing countries aren’t working in her own. USAToday reports: Researchers thought unintended births overall might drop with the introduction of longer-acting contraceptive methods, says statistician William Mosher, the report’s lead author. But they’re not used by enough people to make a [...]