All Feminists Are Under Attack’: Ultra-right Threat in Milei’s Argentina Forces Writer into Exile

THE GUARDIAN: The new president’s rightwing supporters are targeting journalists and women’s rights activists – but the fight goes on

Female journalists who write about gender issues say they are having to deal with a toxic wave of threats against them in Argentina. Some are fighting back, others are lying low and one has gone into self-imposed exile for her safety.

“We are facing a witch-hunt from the ultra-right,” said the author, journalist and activist Luciana Peker, who recently left Argentina for an undisclosed location due to the weight of threats against her.

Argentina became the largest Latin American nation legalise abortion in 2020, but its newly elected far-right libertarian president, Javier Milei, campaigned to overturn the law saying he would call a referendum on it if necessary. » | Uki Goñi | Monday, January 8, 2024

Macron Plans to Make Freedom to Have an Abortion an 'Irreversible' Constitutional Right | DW News

Nov 2, 2023 | When the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion across the United States last year, the backlash around the world was fierce. But it's not just in the US that reproductive rights are under attack. In recent years, efforts to restrict access to legal and safe abortions have increased in Latin America as well as the EU. This trend has spurred authorities in France to move to enshrine the right to abortion in their constitution.

Over the weekend, President Emmanuel Macron tweeted "The draft constitutional law, which was based on the work of parliamentarians and associations, will be sent to the Council of State this week and presented to the Council of Ministers by the end of the year. In 2024, the freedom of women to have an abortion will be irreversible."

Emmanuel Macron is a real hero to enshrine this right into the French Constitution. Europe isn't the home of the Enlightenment for nothing. – © Mark Alexander

Emmanuel Macron to Enshrine Women’s Right to Abortion in France

GUARDIAN EUROPE: President promises by next year the constitutional right to choose ‘will become irreversible’

Macron will submit a draft to the highest administrative court next week. Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/AFP/Getty Images
Emmanuel Macron has promised to enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the French constitution by next year, after restrictions in other countries propelled France on a path towards unconditionally guaranteeing abortion rights.

The French president said on Sunday that his government would submit a draft text to France’s highest administrative court over the coming week, with the aim of making abortion rights constitutional by the end of the year.

“In 2024, the right of women to choose abortion will become irreversible,” he wrote on social media. » | Angela Giuffrida and agencies | Sunday, October 29, 2023

Mexico’s Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationwide

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The decision builds on an earlier high court ruling and reflects how Latin American countries are expanding women’s rights.

Women marching last year in Mexico City during a demonstration on International Safe Abortion Day. | Marco Ugarte/Associated Press
Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide on Wednesday in a sweeping decision that builds on an earlier ruling giving officials the authority to allow the procedure on a state-by-state basis.

The court struck down the federal penal code that criminalized abortion, deeming it “unconstitutional” and making abortion legally accessible in all federal health institutions across the country. It also ruled against bans on medical providers, including midwives, who perform the procedure.

The ruling in Mexico, a predominantly Catholic country of 130 million people, points to how nations in Latin America are taking a leading role in broadening abortion rights.

“I’m very moved and very proud,” said Rebeca Ramos, executive director of GIRE, a leading abortion rights group that filed an injunction last year against the Mexican regulation from 1931 that criminalized the procedure. “This makes possible what we had not achieved in many years, which is that at least in certain institutions all across the country legal and safe abortion services can be provided.” » | Simon Romero and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, Reporting from Mexico City | Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Leer en español.

‘Gigantic Step Backwards’: Far-right Gains in Chile Threaten Abortion Rights

THE GUARDIAN: Concerns mount as ultraconservative Republican party’s ‘right to life’ proposal could be enshrined in constitution

The Republican party founder, José Antonio Kast, lost the 2021 presidential election, but his party now holds considerable sway in writing a new constitution. Photograph: Reuters
The hard-won right to an abortion in Chile is at risk of being overturned, activists have warned, as the country’s far right moves to enshrine protection for “the life of the unborn child and maternity” in a new constitution.

Concerns have grown over the ultraconservative Republican party’s plans to pare back reproductive rights in Chile as it now holds significant sway in the fate of the country’s constitutional saga.

“Clearly, there is great concern over the risks to women and children implied by the suggested amendments, which threaten the most basic rights of human beings,” said Lieta Vivaldi, the director of Alberto Hurtado University’s gender and social justice programme.

“In a nation which seeks equality and justice, it is intolerable.” » | John Bartlett | Monday, August 21, 2023

I'd bet you "dollars to donuts" that this dude wants to strip gays of their rights, too; and he will certainly want to lower taxes on the superrich in the country. These far-right fossils are all the same: they are all so predictable. They are also anti-progress and reactionary. They all long to return to a bygone age. One can but feel sorry for Chileans with the threat of this benighted man possibly coming to power. – © Mark Alexander

Issue 1: Ohio Vote Delivers Win for Abortion-rights Supporters - BBC News

Aug 9, 2023 | Ohio has rejected a Republican motion to make it harder to change the state's constitution - a move seen as a defeat for anti-abortion groups. The Republican-controlled state legislature had hoped to raise the bar for constitutional amendments to 60% instead of a simple majority. It was largely seen as a move to derail a planned referendum to place abortion rights into the constitution. US President Joe Biden called it a “victory for democracy and for women”.

Dr Harriet Fraad: Capitalism Hits Home: Roe v Wade Overturned - How Did We Get Here?

IJul 7, 2022 In this episode of ‘Capitalism Hits Home’, Dr Fraad looks at the recent dramatic US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade. She argues that all of the SCOTUS decisions for 2022 share a common purpose. First, they help to create a capitalist authoritarian state enforced by unaccountable police. Secondly, they divide the mass of people. They antagonize divisions between people and fuel culture wars. The goal is to create hierarchical and hostile divisions that keep Americans from uniting as an employee class and winning.


Abortion Pill Providers Experiment With Ways to Broaden Access: These new efforts, which test the legal boundaries, have sprung up since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and many states restricted abortion. »

The Long Path to Reclaim Abortion Rights

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe, far from settling the matter, instead has launched court and political battles across the states likely to go on for years.

In the week since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, litigators for abortion rights groups have rolled out a wave of lawsuits in nearly a dozen states to hold off bans triggered by the decision. | Shuran Huang for The New York Times
Attempting to recover from their staggering loss in the Supreme Court, abortion rights groups have mounted a multilevel legal and political attack aimed at blocking and reversing abortion bans in courts and at ballot boxes across the country.

In the week since the court overturned Roe v. Wade, litigators for abortion rights groups have rolled out a wave of lawsuits in nearly a dozen states to hold off bans triggered by the court’s decision, with the promise of more suits to come. They are aiming to prove that provisions in state constitutions establish a right to abortion that the Supreme Court’s decision said did not exist in the U.S. Constitution.

Advocates of abortion rights are also working to defeat ballot initiatives that would strip away a constitutional right to abortion, and to pass those that would establish one, in states where abortion access is contingent on who controls the governor’s mansion or the state house.

And after years of complaints that Democrats neglected state and local elections, Democratic-aligned groups are campaigning to reverse slim Republican majorities in some state legislatures, and to elect abortion rights supporters to positions from county commissioner to state supreme court justices that can have influence over the enforcement of abortion restrictions. » | Kate Zernike | Saturday, July 2, 2022

AVAAZ : World Reproductive Rights Petition

Image courtesy of AVAAZ.
An open letter to you, our friends, in the US has been written. The world is showing you all its support. Everyone can show support, too. To do so, please sign this petition. Together, we can make this the biggest call for reproductive rights the world has ever seen. The world is showing its solidarity.

People are signing this incredibly important petition from all across the world. Please sign it too. Add your name here.

In the hope of restoring a modicum of sanity,
Mark Alexander

US Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade in Blow to Abortion Rights | DW News

Jun 24, 2022 • In a highly-anticipated move, the US Supreme Court moved to overturn protections on abortion rights in the US.

The ruling comes after a draft opinion of the court was leaked to US media in early May. The report showed the US Supreme Court was ready to reverse Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision in 1973 that established a federal right to terminate a pregnancy.

Tens of millions of women across the US are expected to lose their right to abortion as mainly southern and midwestern states introduce bans.


Related here, here, here and here.

Abortion Rights Protests Part 1

Jun 24, 2022
Watch the protests on YouTube here.
Americans are suckers for myths, fairy stories and conspiracy theories. It seems pretty clear to me that they are falling inexorably into darkness and ignorance. Its decline from here on in is likely to be rapid; so it won't be long now before the centre of gravity will shift to the Orient. Fundamentalists of any stripe are ignorant people. There are plenty of fundamentalists in the US. Alas, Americans have seen their better days. – © Mark Alexander

"Policing the Womb": Law Professor Michele Goodwin on SCOTUS, Anti-Abortion Laws & the New Jane Crow

May 30, 2022 • As the Supreme Court appears poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, we speak with law professor Michele Goodwin, author of "Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood." She describes how the U.S. has historically endangered and denied essential health services to Black and Brown women, and calls new abortion restrictions "the new Jane Crow," warning that they will further criminalize reproductive health and encourage medical professionals to breach their patients' confidentiality and report self-administered abortions to law enforcement.

I Was Raped by My Father. An Abortion Saved My Life. »

Podcast: How the Clash of Sex and Religion Spawned America’s Abortion Saga

Joshua Prager, author of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for non-fiction ‘The Family Roe,’ dissects potential fallout of a leaked Supreme Court decision overturning Roe V Wade

Abortion and the Supreme Court: What’s at Stake? | The Economist

May 6, 2022 • A leaked draft opinion suggests the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the right to abortion in America. If this ruling goes ahead, women's rights are in danger.

Democrats Rally in Support of Abortion Rights

May 13, 2022 • Democratic lawmakers gathered on the steps of the Capitol to voice their opposition to the anticipated Supreme Court ruling. They framed GOP support for rolling back abortion rights as a precursor for more restrictions in the future.

Bernie Sanders: We Must Codify Roe v. Wade

May 11, 2022 • I'm on the floor of the U.S. Senate to demand we end the filibuster and protect the constitutional right to have an abortion.

British Scientist Says US Anti-abortion Lawyers Misused His Work to Attack Roe v Wade

THE OBSERVER: Giandomenico Iannetti, a pain expert at UCL, angrily denies that his research suggests foetuses can feel pain before 24 weeks

Giandomenico Iannetti, a professor of neuroscience, says his work was used in ‘a very clever way to prove a point’. Photograph: Giulio Origlia/Getty Images
A University College London scientist has accused lawyers in the US of misusing his groundbreaking work on the brain to justify the dismantling of Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationally in America.

Giandomenico Iannetti said his research, which used imaging to understand the adult brain’s response to pain, had been wrongly interpreted to make an anti-abortion argument.

Last week an unprecedented leak of a draft legal opinion showed a majority of supreme court judges support overturning Roe v Wade and ending federal protections for abortions, in a move that could result in 26 states banning it. The court is considering a case, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, which challenges Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks gestation.

Anti-abortion lawyers in that case argued that scientific understanding has moved on since the court’s 1973 ruling that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion, and it was no longer accurate to say foetuses cannot feel pain before 24 weeks.

Their argument relied heavily on a controversial discussion paper on foetal pain published in the Journal of Medical Ethics in 2020 by Dr Stuart Derbyshire, a British associate professor of psychology at the National University of Singapore. » | Anna Fazackerley | Sunday, May 8, 2022

Women who fought for US abortion rights in the 70s call for mass global protests: Veteran activists say the overthrow of Roe v Wade would equate to murder, and should send warning signals around the world »

Le patron de l'OMS lance un appel en faveur du droit à l'avortement : Le directeur général de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) a lancé mercredi 4 mai un appel en faveur du droit à l'avortement, au moment où la juridiction suprême des États-Unis semble prête à le remettre en cause. »

Abortion in Jewish Law: The traditional Jewish view does not fit conveniently into the major "camps" in the current debate. »

Where Does the Anti-Abortion Movement Go after Roe?

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Supreme Court draft opinion signals a new era for the 50-year effort to end the constitutional right to abortion. Next goals include a national ban and, in some cases, classifying abortion as homicide.

Anti-abortion activists at the 49th annual March for Life in January. The movement to restrict or banish abortion is entering a new era. | Kenny Holston for The New York Times
For nearly half a century, the anti-abortion movement has propelled itself toward a goal that at times seemed impossible, even to true believers: overturning Roe v. Wade.

That single-minded mission meant coming to Washington every January for the March for Life to mark Roe’s anniversary. It required electing anti-abortion lawmakers and keeping the pressure on to pass state restrictions. It involved funding anti-abortion lobbying groups, praying and protesting outside clinics, and opening facilities to persuade women to keep their pregnancies. Then this week, the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the constitutional right to abortion revealed that anti-abortion activists’ dream of a post-Roe America appeared poised to come to pass.

The court’s opinion is not final, but the draft immediately shifted the horizon by raising a new question: If Roe is struck down, where does the anti-abortion movement go next? » | Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham | Saturday, May 7, 2022

If this draconian ban on abortions is passed in the USA, we will have to look to Saudi Arabia for some enlightenment on the question of abortions! Abortion in Saudi Arabia. Whoever would have ‘thunk’? – Mark

Lawrence: Samuel Alito's Lies Did Not Stop in His Confirmation Hearing

May 6, 2022 • MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell details the years of lying and hypocrisy from Republicans and Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices on abortion rights.

Abortion and the Supreme Court: What’s at Stake? | The Economist

May 6, 2022 • A leaked draft opinion suggests the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the right to abortion in America. If this ruling goes ahead, women's rights are in danger.

This is one of the most ridiculous, retrograde steps I have ever heard of in a so-called first-world country. If this is passed, if abortions are made illegal, women will have to return to less scientific methods such as the use of hot baths, bottles of gin and knitting needles, or else go to some back street joint to get fixed up! America is truly falling into darkness. Sad! – © Mark Alexander