Threats to reproductive rights around the world :(

[CRI]

Been thinking of starting a thread about threats to Roe V Wade in the US, and the latest tactic of the anti-abortion bunch - saying pro-choice advocates support infanticide.

But then this case from Argentina came up and I thought, Christ, this is grim - so perhaps widen the scope. Why is this stuff even happening in the 21st century?

11-Year-Old Rape Victim Given C-Section After Being Denied Abortion

The girl, who advocates and reporters have referred to simply as “Lucía” in order to protect her identity, became pregnant after her grandmother’s 65-year-old partner raped her, according to local media. Almost immediately, she filed for a legal interruption of pregnancy (interrupción legal del embarazo) in Tucumán — a self-declared “pro-life province” in Argentina. “I want this thing the old man put inside me taken out,” she told authorities, per BBC.

But the girl quickly ran into complications with the government. Although her mother agreed with her wishes to terminate the pregnancy, there was confusion over who actually qualified as her legal guardian: She’d been placed in her grandmother’s care, but her grandmother was stripped of her status as guardian for co-habitating with the child’s rapist. And by the time authorities figured out what to do, Lucía was already 23 weeks pregnant.

On Tuesday, the Tucumán a las 7 reports that health authorities told the hospital director to carry out the “necessary procedures to attempt to save both [the child’s and the fetus’s] lives,” per a family judge’s decision. (The judge denies this order.) Allegedly out of concern for Lucía’s well-being, doctors decided that a C-section at 23 weeks pregnant was less risky than an abortion — a decision that could be in breach of the victim’s rights under criminal code. At time of publication, the baby is living in an incubator at hospital; whether it will survive is uncertain.

These reports come nearly seven months after Argentina rejected what would’ve been a groundbreaking bill for the South American country: the legalization of abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Less than a week after the vote, a 24-year-old mother of two died from septic shock after attempting to induce a miscarriage at home.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Been thinking of starting a thread about threats to Roe V Wade in the US, and the latest tactic of the anti-abortion bunch - saying pro-choice advocates support infanticide.

^This is one of the most sickening creation of a controversy around a non-issue that I can recall seeing. At last check there were very few of these late-term abortions done per year. As far as I can tell, these are instances where there's a threat to the mother's life or the fetus is deformed--often no higher brain, internal organs on the outside, failure of lungs or kidneys to develop, etc.

I know someone who had a late-term abortion. It was a case where she had preeclampsia. The fetus also had no brain and the lungs were growing outside the chest cavity. It was decided that she needed an abortion to preserve her life, health, and future fertility. In order to get this procedure, she had to be life-flighted to Denver. There wasn't anyone in the state who could/would do the procedure. They had random people calling them up and saying "Don't kill me mommy" and hanging up. This was a tragedy for the entire family and people felt entitled to make an already awful situation harder.

The people exploiting this for political gain are evil (sorry, can't think of a better word).

 

[SpookyFrank]

Yeah 'evil' is the only word you need tbh.

 

[CRI]

^This is one of the most sickening creation of a controversy around a non-issue that I can recall seeing. At last check there were very few of these late-term abortions done per year. As far as I can tell, these are instances where there's a threat to the mother's life or the fetus is deformed--often no higher brain, internal organs on the outside, failure of lungs or kidneys to develop, etc.

I know someone who had a late-term abortion. It was a case where she had preeclampsia. The fetus also had no brain and the lungs were growing outside the chest cavity. It was decided that she needed an abortion to preserve her life, health, and future fertility. In order to get this procedure, she had to be life-flighted to Denver. There wasn't anyone in the state who could/would do the procedure. They had random people calling them up and saying "Don't kill me mommy" and hanging up. This was a tragedy for the entire family and people felt entitled to make an already awful situation harder.

The people exploiting this for political gain are evil (sorry, can't think of a better word).

When I was in high school in the late 70's / early 80's, I genuinely don't remember this kind of hostility towards abortion, or people who had them. It wasn't quite like going to the dentist, but there were a couple of girls in high school who had abortions, it was a "known" thing and if there was stigma, it was more to do with having had sex than having had an abortion. People even wrote term papers on the pros and cons of abortion. I can't imagine that going down well anymore. I guess Roe v Wade had only been decided a few years beforehand. It was a very backwards, rural place, mostly Evangelical Christians, but very few Catholics. Was there a time before they became so vociferous and vicious about it, or was I just unaware of it?

There was all the crap a few years back about "partial birth abortions," which again, is not a thing. An unviable foetus can't be "born" by definition.

 

[BigTom]

Been thinking of starting a thread about threats to Roe V Wade in the US, and the latest tactic of the anti-abortion bunch - saying pro-choice advocates support infanticide.

But then this case from Argentina came up and I thought, Christ, this is grim - so perhaps widen the scope. Why is this stuff even happening in the 21st century?

11-Year-Old Rape Victim Given C-Section After Being Denied Abortion

I was going to make a new thread but saw the OP here being about Argentina and decided to post on this one, not sure if I should since this is abortion being legalised, not a threat to reproductive rights but that's what I'm doing

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Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, has promised to sign the bill into law, making it legal for women to end pregnancies for any reason up to 14 weeks. After that, there will be exceptions allowed for rape and the health of the mother.

about 2.5 years on from the last time this was tried which is you linked to in one of the quotes you had.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Good news about Argentina - hope that could be the catalyst for other countries in the region with restrictive abortion laws.

 

[Streathamite]

This is fantastic news from Argentina. My 20yo niece in Buenos Aires was one of the agitators and activists for this change, so she is ecstatic. Her mother's and her Aunt's more conservative frioends, less so.
However, there are two wider issues that give hope.
First, women in Argentina - and in fact throughout South America, to varying degrees - are asserting themselves and demanding their rights, as never before.
Second, the baleful influence of the Roman Catholic church is finally being broken. It has very little purchase on most people under 30.

 

[Sue]

However, there are two wider issues that give hope.
First, women in Argentina - and in fact throughout South America, to varying degrees - are asserting themselves and demanding their rights, as never before.
Second, the baleful influence of the Roman Catholic church is finally being broken. It has very little purchase on most people under 30.

A couple of years ago, I was in Guatemala and got talking to a local woman who was a midwife working part time in a family planning clinic. I asked her about the Catholic Church angle and she said that more and more people (including herself) had joined the Evangelicals and they had more liberal views on contraception etc. I was quite heartened tbh.

 

[Streathamite]

A couple of years ago, I was in Guatemala and got talking to a local woman who was a midwife working part time in a family planning clinic. I asked her about the Catholic Church angle and she said that more and more people (including herself) had joined the Evangelicals and they had more liberal views on contraception etc. I was quite heartened tbh.

Yes, that goes very much with what I'm hearing as a trend. The RC church is in serious long term decline, and the evangelicals on the up as much as the atheists are. .
On the subject of Abortion, 3 South American countries now have abortion on demand - Argentina, Uruguay (the liberal trendsetter, as ever) and Guyana. I am confident more will follow.

 

[JimW]

Interesting article on the historical differences in abortion laws between the former GDR and the West, and was surprised to discover abortion is still technically illegal in Germany if not prosecuted: Germany’s Abortion Debate Is Still Shaped by Its East-West Divide