This frightening information comes from a new peer-reviewed study published on Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA.  

The study estimates that the rapes resulting in the staggering number of pregnancies occurred between July 1, 2022 and January 2024, in states where abortion has been almost completely banned. 

Out of the nearly 65,000 pregnancies, its estimated more than 5,500 occurred in states with rape exceptions and nearly 59,000 are estimated for states without exceptions.

Researchers found that more than 26,000 rape-caused pregnancies likely took place in Texas alone. 

In the states with rape exceptions for abortions – Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, West Virginia and North Dakota – survivors are required to report crimes to police in order to access abortion services. Research from 2022 has shown only 21 per cent of victim-survivors do so. 

“Thousands of girls and women in states that banned abortion experienced rape-related pregnancy, but few (if any) obtained in-state abortions legally, suggesting that rape exceptions fail to provide reasonable access to abortion for survivors,” researchers concluded.

“Survivors of rape who become pregnant in states with abortion bans may seek a self-managed abortion or try to travel (often hundreds of miles) to a state where abortion is legal, leaving many without a practical alternative to carrying the pregnancy to term.”

The Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling ended the constitutional right to abortion across America that the landmark Roe v. Wade 1973 ruling guaranteed. 

“Highly stigmatized life events are hard to measure. And many survivors of sexual violence do not want to disclose that they went through this incredibly stigmatizing traumatic life event,” said Samuel Dickman, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Montana, who led the latest study. 

“We will never know the true number of survivors of rape and sexual assault in the U.S.”

Data collection 

Researchers calculated the findings by combining data from multiple sources, including national data from a U.S Ceners for Disease Control and Prevention survey on intimate partner sexual violence from 2016 to 2017. 

The researchers also used a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey on criminal victimization to help determine the number of completed vaginal rapes among girls and women of reproductive age (defined as 15 to 45 years old). State-level rape estimates came from FBI crime reports as state-level data wasn’t available.

Considering that stigma and fear prevents many people from reporting rapes and sexual assaults, the authors noted that the numbers could be lower than reality.

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A bill proposing the changes was introduced to the West Australian parliament yesterday that removes the need for a woman to be referred for an abortion by a doctor, the need for mandatory counselling and the need for doctors who “conscientiously object” to abortions to refer patients to doctors who offer it. 

The bill also proposed the removal of the legal provisions from the state’s Criminal Code.

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said the bill aims at changing the laws to streamline access to abortion for the women of WA.

“Women go from GP to GP to GP seeking assistance for a medical abortion, for example,” Sanderson said on ABC Radio Perth yesterday. 

“By which time they’ve cycled around several doctors who are … unwilling to prescribe it, and then they’ve reached the gestational limit for a medical abortion.”

“They’re then up for hundreds of dollars and a surgical abortion and then they still need to find another GP to refer them to the clinic.”

“So we’re removing those early on barriers to make it easier and more streamlined for women to access what is essentially a decision for them and them alone.”

Women’s Interests Minister Sue Ellery said she is “confident that the Parliament of Western Australia in 2023 will reflect what the community wants.” 

“I’m proud to be part of a Government that is modernising Western Australia’s outdated abortion laws,” she said in a statement. “Women in this State have a right to make decisions over their bodies. These laws will enable women to make those decisions with dignity.”

“Abortion is a critical component of women’s healthcare and no woman should be forced to travel interstate or risk her own health because she can’t access an abortion.”

The proposed bill will also remove the need for abortions after twenty weeks to be assessed and approved by a panel of doctors a woman will likely never meet. 

Instead, it will be mandatory for a woman’s doctor to consult with another doctor who will need to agree with their decision. 

“What the law will do will provide more time for the women and their families to get a second opinion, to get other advice, and to make the best decision for them in a private and dignified way, where currently that is not the case,” Health Minister Sanderson said.

Unfortunately, the bill won’t be voted on until August, as parliament goes on its winter break from next week.

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Residents will be able to access medical abortions up to nine weeks gestation at a range of medical clinics, including trained GPs, telehealth services (such as Tele-Abortion, or Abortion Online — a Medical Abortion at home, with the Abortion Pill, for women who can’t easily access in-clinic abortion services) and MSI Australia — which offers surgical abortions up to 16 weeks gestation.

At this stage, free abortions will only be available through MSI Australia, while the ACT government works on expanding the initiative to other providers. 

The announcement comes eight months after the ACT Government pledged a $4.6 million commitment over four years to remove out-of-pocket costs for those seeking the healthcare service. 

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said that free access to abortions is the “first step” towards expanding people’s reproductive rights. 

“We’re really proud that the ACT is becoming the first jurisdiction to provide people with free surgical and medical abortions for anyone who needs it, up to 16 weeks,” Stephen-Smith said.

“This is about providing women and people who need an abortion with access to the right supports and services without stigmatisation or financial burden.”

“Abortion is a health service and not being able to access appropriate care in a timely way can have a detrimental impact on a person’s mental and physical health as well as socioeconomic consequences.” 

“The ACT Government will continue to invest in appropriate, accessible and equitable healthcare to ensure all Canberrans can access the right care, at the right time.” 

Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Women Yvette Berry said giving citizens access to free abortions was a key commitment in the ACT Women’s Plan 2016-26 — an initiative that also plans to cover the cost of providing selected patients with long-acting reversible contraception including the intra-uterine device (IUD).

“The ACT Government is committed to ensuring that women and people who can become pregnant can be in control of and make informed decisions about their health care based on what is best for them and their circumstances,” Berry said. 

CEO of independent think tank, Women’s Health Matters, Lauren Anthes is enthusiastic about the new initiative, though admits she wants to see more done to ensure everyone has access to the service, no matter their life circumstance. 

“We’ve learnt through our research how different barriers work together to make it really challenging to access what is a time-sensitive medical procedure,” Anthes told ABC. 

“We also have an issue in the ACT at the moment around gestational limits, which means that women who are over 16 weeks’ gestation can’t access surgical abortions — and that is due to facility and workforce limitations.” 

“It means that [those patients] will still need to go to NSW, and that’s a critical problem.”

MSI Canberra Clinic Nurse Unit Manager Melissa Ryan is excited about helping deliver free abortion care for people in the ACT.

“Abortion care is basic healthcare and it is wonderful that the ACT has stepped up and become the first jurisdiction in Australia to fund free access to abortion care,” Ryan said in a Facebook post. “We regularly see people who are struggling to pay for the cost of abortion care and this will make such a huge difference to the lives of countless people.”

“It means women and pregnant people in the ACT can make an informed decision without having to worry about the financial burden it will have.”

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The implementation of this latest initiative comes as ACT Legislative Assembly released its Inquiry into Abortion and Reproductive Choice report which analysed the experiences of those seeking the service in the territory. 

The report made 18 recommendations to the government, including subsidising access to long-acting reversible contraception, working with universities to include reproductive health care as part of core medical training courses, promote awareness of the different types of abortion care amongst the general public and trialing a policy for reproductive health and wellbeing leave in ACT Government workplaces. 

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The drug, called mifepristone, is one of two drugs frequently used for medication abortions that has repeatedly been proven to be safe and effective. Currently, it accounts for more than half of all US abortions.

Trump-appointed US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction which directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put a hold on the approval of mifepristone while a lawsuit challenging the safety and approval of the drug is underway.

Kacsmaryk said the FDA – the agency that approves the safety of food products and drugs in the US, exceeded its authority by ignoring mifepristone’s risks and relying on “plainly unsound reasoning” when approving it more than 20 years ago.

Mifepristone is part of a two-drug regimen —  Mifepristone stops a pregnancy, while a second drug, misoprostol, empties the uterus. It is used as a medication abortion in the first ten weeks of pregnancy. 

Mifepristone’s safety and effectiveness is supported by mainstream medical bodies including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (ACOG).

The ruling by Judge Kacsmaryk is said to be the most significant anti-abortion move since Roe V Wade was overturned less than a year ago. 

Advocates and progressive states have been bracing for significant fallout from the decision and further risks to women, with many states reacting swiftly, including by stockpiling the drug to make sure it’s available.

Below, we share more on the reaction to the ruling and what’s being done to counter it.

Initial Reaction to the Ruling

President Joe Biden responded to the decision on Friday, saying his administration would fight Kacsmaryk’s ruling. 

“If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription, approved by the FDA, that would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks,” he said in a statement.

“Let’s be clear – the only way to stop those who are committed to taking away women’s rights and freedoms in every state is to elect a Congress who will pass a law restoring Roe versus Wade.” 

Vice-president Kamala Harris said the decision “threatens the rights of women nationwide to make decisions about their healthcare and the ability to access medication prescribed to them by their doctors”.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland described the decision as one that “overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective.”

“The justice department strongly disagrees with the decision of the district court for the northern district of Texas in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v FDA and will be appealing the court’s decision and seeking a stay pending appeal,” he said. 

Who is pushing the case against mifepristone

In November 2022, Arizona-based Christian conservative legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) bought a lawsuit against the FDA arguing that the government body exceeded its regulatory authority when it approved mifepristone in September 2000.

The plaintiffs wanted the approvals of chemical abortion drugs withdrawn and for them to be completely removed from the list of approved drugs. 

They presented a series of points that they said put pregnant women and girls at risk, including the FDA’s decision to extend the gestational age up to which mifepristone may be prescribed, and its decision to remove the mandatory in-person dispensing over the drugs during the pandemic.

They said the FDA “failed to acknowledge and address the federal laws that prohibit the distribution of chemical abortion drugs by postal mail”, inciting a 19th-century law that made sending “obscene, lewd or lascivicious” items through the mail illegal. 

“Simply put, FDA stonewalled judicial review – until now,” Kacsmaryk wrote in his ruling.

Judge Kacsmaryk, a devout Christian, based in Amarillo, Texas and has worked for the First Liberty Institute, a conservative Christian organisation whose work focuses on litigating against LGBTQ+ and abortion rights.

Kacsmaryk has written critically about Roe v Wade, writing in 2015 for Public Discourse, a conservative legal journal, that the seven justices had “found an unwritten ‘fundamental right’ to abortion hiding in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the shadowy ‘penumbras’ of the Bill of Rights, a celestial phenomenon invisible to the non-lawyer eye.”

US Government’s appeal 

On Monday this week, the US government appealed Kacsmaryk’s decision, saying the ruling endangered women’s health by blocking access to mifepristone.

The Department of Justice called the decision “especially unwarranted” since it undermines the FDA’s scientific judgment and harms women for whom the drug is medically required. 

The appeal called Kacsmaryk’s decision one that “upended decades of reliance by blocking FDA’s approval of mifepristone and depriving patients of access to this safe and effective treatment, based on the court’s own misguided assessment of the drug’s safety.” 

The appeal also criticised the anti-abortion groups that sought to overturn the FDA’s approval, saying they had no right to sue in the first place, since “the plaintiffs present no evidence that they will be injured at all, much less irreparably harmed, by maintaining the status quo they left unchallenged for years.”

White House spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s administration “stands by the FDA and is prepared for this legal fight, and we will continue our work to protect reproductive rights.” 

The conflicting case

Less than half an hour after Kacsmaryk made his decision on Friday, a federal judge in Washington state ordered the FDA not to take any action that would affect mifepristone’s availability, directing the FDA to keep the drug available in 17 states, thereby contradicting Kacsmaryk’s ruling. 

The Department of Justice has asked U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice to clarify what needs to happen as this legal standoff unfolds. Lawyers from the Biden administration have asked for a decision to be made by 13 April.

Rice, an Obama-appointed judge, ordered the FDA to preserve “the status quo” in his 31-page decision and said “Based on the public health and administrative considerations at issue in this case… the public interest favors a preliminary injunction.” 

States stock up 

The Democratic governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee announced he has purchased a three-year supply of the leading abortion medication.

Inslee said he ordered the department of corrections to obtain 30,000 doses of the generic version of mifepristone. The shipment arrived late last month. 

“This Texas lawsuit is a clear and present danger to patients and providers all across the country,” Inslee said in a statement. “Washington will not sit by idly and risk the devastating consequences of inaction.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom said his state has secured up to two million pills of misoprostol. 

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced her state had ordered roughly 15,000 doses of mifepristone.

“A judge has made a politically motivated decision to override doctors, patients and medical experts and block access to critical medications,” Healey said .

“Today, we collectively are saying loud and clear: not on our watch.”

According to the non-profit Guttmacher Institute, a total of twelve states in the US currently ban abortion, while 14 others ban it after six to 22 weeks of pregnancy. 

Currently, mifepristone remains available to the public in the US. Earlier this week, hundreds of pharmaceutical executives called for the reversal of Kacsmaryk’s ruling, calling it a “decision to disregard science”.

The post A judge in Texas suspends access to abortion pill. Now what? appeared first on Women's Agenda.

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Every January 22 since 1973, abortion rights activists have marched to celebrate Roe v. Wade Day and recognise the first time the U.S. Supreme Court granted federal protections for abortion rights.

This year, huge crowds congregated across multiple cities to condemn the reversal of this constitutional right six months ago by the Supreme Court. 

Since the ruling from the conservative-dominated bench on 24 June, abortion has been banned or severely restricted in 14 states, and continues to be expand, since the court’s decision allows individual states to decide whether to protect, ban or restrict abortion rights. 

Protests were organised in more than 180 cities across 46 states, including Washington D.C, New York, San Fransisco and Madison, Wisconsin, which was this year’s national rallying base.

In Washington D.C, thousands gathered to march from the Freedom Plaza steps to the White House.   Protesters from Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, a Black-led police-abolitionist group, led the march, enduring six degree temperatures while chanting “Not the church, not the state, the people must decide their fate” and “Hey hey, ho ho, these racist bitches have got to go.” 

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Activists trailing behind them held signs that read: “ban guns not abortion”, “you’re focusing on saving clumps of cells, not helping children”, “forced vasectomies: they prevent abortions and they’re reversible!” and “more women die from misogyny than abortion”.

One demonstrator, who identified herself as a nurse, held a sign that read: “I’ve been marching 50 years to keep politics and religion out of women’s healthcare.” 

“No man in a suit or black robe should be able to make these deeply personal decisions on a woman’s behalf,” she told the Guardian.  

In Madison, the executive director of the Women’s March, Rachel O’Leary Carmona addressed the crowd, saying: “Fifty years after the anniversary of Roe v Wade, a radical rightwing movement hijacked our courts and eliminated federal protections for abortions.” 

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“We will not be distracted by the drama in DC. Instead, we are sending a clear message to elected leaders and to our base – we are going to where the fight is, and that is at the state level.” 

“But as the fight turns to the states, they are going to learn that the overwhelming majority of Americans in all states support abortion rights – and women will fight to protect our rights and our lives.”

After the march, she tweeted: “Proud to be in Madison today fighting to let every politician know — if you come for our freedom, our families, or our futures, we’re coming for you.”

Madison was designated as Sunday’s main rally as an upcoming general election in April will determine the balance of power on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court and the state’s view on abortion rights.

Since the constitutional right to abortion was dismantled last June, Wisconsin, a state with a population of almost 6 million, has been operating under a near-total ban, with doctors facing the possibility of felony criminal charges for performing the procedure.

Before last June, abortions were legal in the state until twenty-weeks into the pregnancy.

“The upcoming supreme court election in Wisconsin this spring will determine the balance of power on the [state] court, and the future of abortion rights in the State,” organisers said in their statement on Sunday. 

“We are taking the fight to the states. From Wisconsin, to Nebraska, to Georgia, to Arizona and Texas, women and our allies are defending abortion rights where they still stand, and working to put measures on the ballot to regain abortion rights in places where politicians are putting their agendas over the will of the people.”

On Sunday, U.S President Joe Biden urged Congress to pass legislation that will codify reproductive rights offered by Roe v Wade. 

“Let me be clear: a woman’s right to choose is non-negotiable,” he tweeted. “I haven’t stopped fighting to protect women’s reproductive rights – and I never will. Now, it’s time for Congress to pass legislation codifying the protections of Roe.”  

“Today should’ve been the 50th Anniversary of Roe v Wade. Instead, Maga Republican officials are waging a war on women’s right to make their own healthcare decisions. But this fight isn’t over.”

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Vice-president Kamala Harris was in Tallahassee, Florida on Sunday, addressing a crowd of over a thousand people at The Moon, a popular live music venue. 

“Today, we are fighting back,” she said. “Since our founding, we have been on a march forward … to secure freedom and liberty for all. This fight will not be inevitable, this will not just happen – it takes steadfast determination and dedication.”

Harris used her speech to announce a presidential memorandum that will give more protections for reproductive healthcare services to identify barriers for women attempting to obtain safe and effective medication.

“I am pleased to announce that President Biden has issued a presidential memorandum,” she said. “Members of our cabinet and our administration are now directed to identify barriers to access and recommend actions to make sure that doctors can legally prescribe, doctors can dispense and women can secure safe and effective medication.” 

In Florida, abortion is banned after fifteen weeks, with no exceptions for rape, incest or sex trafficking — a decision signed off by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April last year. 

“Last year, so-called leaders at the statehouse in Tallahassee passed a radical abortion ban…let us not be tired or discouraged, ‘cause we’re on the right side of history,” Harris said on Sunday, targeting DeSantis and the state’s Republican-led Legislature in her criticisms. 

“Can we truly be free if so-called leaders claim to be, I quote, ‘on the vanguard of freedom,’ while they dare to restrict the rights of the American people and attack the very foundation of freedom.” Harris was quoting DeSantis, who had said in a speech last January that Florida “stood as freedom’s vanguard.”

Over the weekend, former President Barack Obama tweeted:

“On what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we’re reminded that progress can move backward. And that means we’ve got to recommit to doing our part to protect and expand reproductive rights for families today — and for generations to come.” 

“I hope you’ll join with the activists who’ve been sounding the alarm on this issue for years — and act. Stand with them at a local protest. Volunteer with them on a campaign. Donate to their causes. And vote in every election for candidates who will support reproductive rights.”

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Researchers from the Monash University Department of General Practice investigated abortion referral pathways for HealthPathways, an online health information system used by GPs that outlines recommended management of common conditions and local referral options, usually to hospital services.

The study’s findings were published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health and showed that GPs in public hospitals don’t currently have adequate information to refer women to abortion services. 

“Despite few remaining legal restrictions to abortion in Australia, many regions either do not have public abortion services or do not provide information about them,” said first author of the study and Monash University Academic GP Registrar Dr Sonia Srinivasan. 

The review from January-June 2022 extracted abortion service referral data from the 17 of 34 HealthPathways portals that consented to be included across all states and territories except Tasmania and South Australia.

Almost half (47 per cent) had no public services listed for surgical abortion, and 35 per cent had no public services for medical abortion. 

Most (63 per cent for surgical abortion, 66 per cent for medical abortion) emphasised that public services should be a last resort, directing referrers away from their abortion services and towards private providers. 

Dr Srinivasan added that the study found, “variation in information regarding gestation-specific options, the time-critical nature of referrals and the importance of women’s own preference when deciding between medical and surgical abortion.”

The findings show there is little transparency as to whether abortion services will be provided by a health service and under what circumstances they will be accessible to women who request them. 

For women in rural and regional areas of Australia, clear referral pathways for abortion services are especially crucial to be able to access care in a timely manner. 

As a result of the study’s findings, Dr Srinivasa said: “There is an urgent need for transparency around public abortion service availability, clear guidelines to support referral pathways, and commitment from State and Federal governments to expand the availability of accessible, no-cost abortion in Australia.”

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Since 2012, the Gallup World Poll has surveyed more than 120,000 people in more than 150 countries each year, asking participants several lifestyle questions, including what emotions they felt for much of the previous day.

When it came to bad feelings such as stress, worry, anger and sadness, women persistently reported feeling these more often than men.

Despite an upward rise of these feelings tracked in both sexes, women continue to be the angrier cohort — especially during the pandemic, when they suffered in female-dominated industries like healthcare and childcare, and disproportionally took on the majority of the added domestic duties. 

In some countries, such as Cambodia, which ranked 89th out of 146 on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index in 2020, the difference in the number of women and men who reported feeling angry the previous day was at 17 per cent — much higher than the world average of 6 per cent. 

Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her, believes the findings demonstrate a sex-segregated labour market. 

“It’s pseudo-maternal work and poorly paid,” she told BBC, referring to the work women tend to take on. “These people register very high levels of repressed, suppressed and diverted anger. And it has a lot to do with being expected to work tirelessly. And with no kind of legitimate boundaries.”

“Similar dynamics are often found in heterosexual marriage.”

Chemaly added that some women feel shame about anger, and as a result, are likelier to report their anger as stress or sadness.

The latest findings from the Gallup data confirms similar results from a 2020 survey by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in England which found mothers assumed more domestic duties during lockdown than fathers, resulting in women having to reduce their paid working hours. 

Mothers who earned more than the fathers in a household were not exempt from this trend. 

Psychiatrist and founder of SNEHA, an NGO in Chennai for the prevention of suicide, Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, observed that women are being “tethered down by archaic, patriarchal systems and culture,” in places like India. 

“The dissonance between a patriarchal system at home and an emancipated woman outside of home causes a lot of anger,” she said. 

“[In India], you see the men relax, going to a tea shop, having a smoke. And you find the women hurrying to the bus or train station. They’re thinking about what to cook. Many women start chopping vegetables on their way back home on the train.”

An independent study commissioned by BBC interviewed women across 15 countries about the last decade and found that things are improving for women in some ways. 

The study found that 50 per cent of women feel more equipped to make their own financial decisions than 10 years ago, while two-thirds said social media had made a positive impact on their lives.

Barring the US and Pakistan, roughly half of women said they felt more comfortable discussing consent with a romantic partner. 

Across 12 countries, 40 per cent of women said they feel freer to express their views, compared to a decade ago. 

Ginette Azcona, a data scientist at UN Women observed that prior to 2020, women’s participation in the workforce had been on an upward trend, though it halted during the pandemic. 

According to Azcona, the number of women participating in paid employment in 2022 is projected to be lower than what was recorded in 2019.

Commenting on the Gallup’s findings, which also found that American women reported higher levels of stress and sadness than American men, Azcona said women “need rage and anger” to “shake things up.”

“In a way that’s actually facilitating change. And [women are] using their anger to do it,” she said. “Sometimes you need these, to have people pay attention and listen.”

Once you consider the events that have occurred this year across the globe – Iran’s clerical regime which actively denies women full human rights, the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, Indonesia’s decision to criminalise sex before marriage, the regression of abortion rights in Poland – among many others ( not to mention the persistent gender pay gap!), you can start to see why women might be getting angrier by the year.

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The new study from The University of Queensland analysed the records of up to 2,000 anonymous clients at pregnancy counselling service, Children by Choice, between December 2018 and June 2020. 

“Cost, stigma, and intimate partner violence continue to impede access to safe, compassionate, and timely abortion care,” the report found.

Published in the CSIRO’s Sexual Health journal, the research showed that 43 per cent of clients had been exposed to family or intimate partner violence, including abuse and reproductive coercion.

The cost of abortions was also causing anxiety among clients, with 42 per cent saying they had to seek financial assistance to help them access an abortion. 

In Queensland, where abortion was decriminalised just four years ago, out-of-pocket costs for surgical abortions roughly stand at $620, while Telehealth-guided medication-based abortions are approximately $430 — though either procedure can cost thousands of dollars, depending on the complexity of the pregnancy and the length of gestation.

Head researcher, Maryanne Cleetus from the university’s School of Public Health, said women in Queensland are experiencing a plethora of issues, compromising their health and safety as they sought abortions. 

“We’re still facing inequitable barriers to access,” Cleetus said, citing affordability, stigma, a lack of knowledge and family violence as barriers that prevented women from accessing safe, compassionate abortions. 

“Decriminalisation removed a major legal barrier to pregnancy termination in 2018 but many other barriers remain, and in some cases were exacerbated during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions,” she continued.

Cleetus expressed concerns that women in Queensland were self-harming because they could not access affordable termination services. 

“The effect of these barriers was extremely concerning – some clients said they had considered using unsafe termination methods or had undertaken self-harm,” she said. 

“That includes socioeconomic factors like affordability, the ability to get information, the ability not to experience domestic violence and to … be able to experience full reproductive autonomy.”

Cleetus’ colleague and fellow researcher, Dr Judith Dean, said women “spoke of isolation and the difficulty of making decisions with a lack of personal and healthcare support”.

“Our findings demonstrate the complexity of ensuring equitable access to termination of pregnancy care,” she said in a statement. 

The research revealed the case of a 24-year-old woman who told her counsellor she considered self-abortion and suicide when she was told how much her abortion would cost. 

Another case involved a mother of a teenager girl, revealing to her counsellor that her daughter had attempted to induce self-abortion by self-harming. 

In Queensland, women report facing poor attitudes and unsupportive behaviour from healthcare workers who give them misleading or inaccurate advice.

Women reported some professionals advising them that they “don’t do social abortions”. Disturbingly, up to six different doctors were reported to refuse to refer a client to the public health system.

CEO of Children by Choice, Daile Kelleher, believes that the myriad of confusing, publicly funded abortion procedures can diminish women’s wellbeing and health.

“Any models of care must consider these barriers and ensure appropriate and compassionate options for women and pregnant people,” Kelleher said.

In May, Kelleher noted that many residents in regional Queensland were being forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to Brisbane to access publicly funded abortions.

“What we’re also finding is that … not a lot of hospitals are actually embedding termination of pregnancy care within their hospitals,” Kelleher said.

“Pregnancy is a time-sensitive diagnosis … The more delays that people face … that actually has sort of real implications to the healthcare that they receive.”

“We know though with whatever legislation there is in Australia, that we have seen there has been general access to to termination of pregnancy over the past couple of years.”

“However, legislation doesn’t equal access.”

Last year, a number of privately owned healthcare services in Southport, Townsville and Rockhampton were closed, prompting a demand in south-east Queensland for abortion providers as wait times stretched to six weeks in some cases.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
If you need immediate assistance, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
For further information about depression, contact beyondblue on 1300 22 4636 or www.beyondblue.org.au or talk to your GP, local health professional or someone you trust.

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Earlier this week, Nebraska’s Republican lawmakers were unsuccessful in their attempts to secure enough votes to narrow that window down to 12 weeks.

First reported by the Lincoln Journal Star, Celeste Burgess, 17 and her mother Jessica, 41, were charged with allegedly removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body and concealing the death.

Jessica had allegedly helped her daughter abort, burn and bury her foetus. She now faces five criminal charges, including three felonies.  

In April, Norfolk Police Department launched investigations into the pair’s actions after they received a tip that suggested Celeste had miscarried and buried the foetus with her mother’s aid.

Investigators then obtained Celeste’s medical records, which indicated she’d been more than 23 weeks pregnant at the time, and was expected to deliver in early July. 

Celeste informed the police that she had suffered a miscarriage. State authorities then went on to serve Facebook with a search warrant to access Celeste and her mother’s Facebook accounts. 

There, they discovered messages between the pair, allegedly describing how the 17-year old had conducted a self-managed abortion with her mother’s help. 

In June, employees at Facebook parent Meta asked their CEO Mark Zuckerberg how the company was going to protect individuals seeking abortions. 

“Protecting people’s privacy is always important,” Zuckerberg replied, according to CyberScoop.

“I get that this is extra salient right now [with] the Supreme Court decision and that specifically bearing on privacy.  But it just has always been a thing that we care about.”

One media publication reported that Meta’s Vice President of HR, Janelle Gale, told employees they were forbidden to discuss abortion at work. 

Apparently, their reason was that there would be “an increased risk” that the company would be seen as a “hostile work environment.”

Gale reportedly said abortion was “the most divisive and reported topic” by employees on Workplace, an internal type of Facebook. She reportedly said “even if people are respectful, and they’re attempting to be respectful about their view on abortion, it can still leave people feeling like they’re being targeted based on their gender or religion.”

“It’s the one unique topic that kind of trips that line on a protected class pretty much in every instance.”

The following month, Meta joined several companies including Paramount, Microsoft and Salesforce, in announcing they would help employees pay the cost of travel in order to seek an abortion in another state. 

In the same month, Facebook and Instagram began systematically removing posts that offered abortion pills to individuals who could not access them. 

An investigation conducted by The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Markup revealed that Facebook was collecting personal data about abortion seekers and letting anti-abortion organisations use that data to target and affect people online. 

Policy Communications Director at Facebook and Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, told Forbes he could not comment on the details of the criminal case involving Celeste Burgess and her mother. 

In June, Stone told the Washington Post that the company “carefully scrutinise[s] all government requests for user information and often push[es] back, including in court.”

Celeste and her mother are currently still awaiting trial in Madison County District Court.

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The polling, commissioned by Fair Agenda, a community of 43,000 Australians campaigning for a fair and gender equal future, was undertaken by Essential Media, who tested four abortion care arguments among Australians and found little difference in ‘total agreement’ across them all. 

Results showed that 71 per cent of Australians agree one person’s religious beliefs should not impact a patient’s access to abortion care. 

When asked if laws in Australia should support nurses to be appropriately trained for abortions without risking criminalisation, 70 per cent of Australians agreed. 

Barriers to abortion care are particularly significant for patients in rural and regional areas, or those experiencing domestic violence, and 69 per cent of Australians agree that governments should actively address this.  

In all four questions, those aged 55 and over were more likely to agree than those aged 18-34, but this was due to younger respondents’ tendency to select ‘neutral’ or ‘prefer not to answer’ rather than disagreeing. 

Campaign Manager at Fair Media, Alyssa Shaw said on the findings: “There is no room for complacency when it comes to abortion access. What we’ve seen overseas shows how easily abortion rights can be attacked- we need to cement Australia as a country that supports compassionate abortion care; and ensures that we have agency over our body, and our future.”

After the shocking overturning of Roe Vs Wade in the US, it may seem that Australia is further ahead on abortion care, but accessible and affordable abortion is still not guaranteed by government, and many Australian women face significant barriers to care such as having to drive hundreds of kilometres or pay upwards of $500. 

With the backing of these poll results, Fair Agenda has called on the Australian government to ensure abortion care access is included in Medicare. 

Shaw said this is the first step in addressing the substantial barriers to abortion care access in Australia and that it would ensure safe and legal abortion is affordable and accessible for anyone who needs it. 

“Minister Butler can take immediate steps to remove barriers faced by women in Australia by including medical abortion care as a Medicare item number and subsidising the cost up to $500,” she says.

Daile Kelleher from Children by Choice, a pregnancy options counseling service, said: “Nobody should have to find $500 on short notice to get the urgent medical care they need. We hear from too many women and pregnant people who discover how much an abortion will cost, and consider delaying accessing this time sensitive healthcare in order to scrape the funds together.”

With abortion rights being taken away in the United States, it’s significant to see Fair Agenda’s polling confirm that Australians want the government to take action to ensure accessible and affordable abortion care.

Shaw added: “This isn’t just about legality, it’s about affordability and access. We should all be able to access the abortion care we need; no matter our income. But we need Government leadership to make this possible.”

The post National polling confirms Australians want the government to ensure affordable and accessible abortion care appeared first on Women's Agenda.

“Have you watched these pro-abortion, pro-murder rallies?” Gaetz asked the crowd at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa.

“The people are just disgusting. But why is it is that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.”

“These people are odious on the inside and out. They’re like 5’2”, 350 pounds, and they’re like, ‘Give me my abortion or I’ll get up and march and protest.’ I’m thinking, march? You look like you got ankles weaker than the legal reasoning behind Roe v. Wade. A few of ‘em need to get up and march. They need to get up and march for like an hour a day, swing those arms, get the blood pumping, maybe mix in a salad.” 

Gaetz also used Twitter to specifically target a 19-year-old abortion rights activist Olivia Julianna, who had criticised his comments.

“Matt Gaetz…has said that it’s always the ‘odious.. 5’2 350 pound” women that “nobody wants to impregnate” who rally for abortion,” Julianna wrote on Twitter.

“I’m actually 5’11. 6’4 in heels. I wear them so the small men like you are reminded of your place.”

Gaetz responded by posting a picture of Julianna with the caption: “Dender raised”.

Julianna took the opportunity to raise funds for abortion rights, after posting a TikTok that has been watched more than 1 million times. She’s now raised more than $50,000 for abortion funds, and has also accused Gaetz of encouraging his followers to harass her online.

“This is what happens when a sitting Republican congressmen body shames and blasts you on social media,” she wrote on Twitter.

Gaetz later doubled down on his body shaming comments when asked by a reporter to clarify what he meant.

“You’re suggesting that these women at these abortion rallies are ugly and overweight?” the reporter asked him.

“Yes,” Gaetz said.

“What do you say to people who think those comments are offensive?”

“Be offended.”

All of this comes as Gaetz, a close ally of former president Donald Trump, is under investigation over the alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

The post ‘Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb’: Matt Gaetz body shames abortion rights activists appeared first on Women's Agenda.

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The 37-year old was the keynote speaker at the event, addressing a sparse crowd as he spoke about Mandela’s legacy and bravery, and how it has influenced his own humanitarian work. 

He described the former South African president and anti-apartheid activist as “a person who, even when confronting unimaginable cruelty and injustice, almost always had a smile on his face.”

The Duke of Sussex went on to explain how reading Mandela’s writing has helped him during this “time of global uncertainty and division,” and “a painful decade.”

“I found a few lines that stopped me in my tracks,” he expressed. “In a letter from prison, he wrote, “I feel my heart pumping hope steadily to every part of my body, warming my blood and pepping up my spirits.”

“I am convinced that floods of personal disaster can never drown a determined revolutionary. To a freedom fighter, hope is what a life belt is to a swimmer, a guarantee that one will keep afloat and free from danger.”

He shared his dismay over global issues, calling them an “assault on democracy and freedom” including climate change, which he described as “wreaking havoc on our planet, with the most vulnerable suffering most of all”, “the few weaponising lies and disinformation at the expense of the many”, the “horrific war in Ukraine” and “the rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States.”

He concluded his speech by imploring the audience to make a choice.

“We can grow apathetic, succumb to anger, or yield to despair, surrendering to the gravity of what we’re up against, or we can do what Mandela did every single day inside that seven by nine foot prison cell on Robben Island, and every day outside of it too.”

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Since renouncing their senior membership of the royal family in January 2020, the prince and his wife, Meghan Markle, have launched a charity, Archewell, made public appearances relating to their philanthropic work and announced an (albeit shaky) deal with Netflix on a show they will both star. 

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