While the US Supreme Court has all but abolished Roe v. Wade, by allowing Texas to keep banning abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, The New York Times continues to publish opinion pieces from anti-abortion editors. Like this one this weekend from an Anglican priest who can make preachifying statements like Roe v. Wade creating “realities where abortion becomes the easier choice for women who have unintended pregnancies” or where “pressure from the medical community to abort is common”… Or yet stating that “many European countries have far more restrictive abortion laws and lower abortion rates than the United States without curtailing the advancement of women.” As analysed in another NYT article, this is also an argument made by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., ill-boding for the future of the law. This is when solely considering the cutoff of Roe v. Wade, rather than the access to abortion which proves much more inaccessible in most US States than Western Europe countries (with the exceptions of Northern Ireland, the Faroe Islands, and Malta, plus Poland), from local regulations to financial hurdles, to inexistent offer. (And I wonder at the repeated use of realities in the tribune. There is one reality and it is pretty harsh on women seeking abortion. Unless one prefers alternative facts…)
Archive for anti-abortion organisations
systemic realities?!
Posted in Books, Kids with tags anti-abortion organisations, Europe, European Union, Faroe, legalisation of abortion, Malta, Northern Ireland, NYT, Poland, reproductive rights, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court, Texas, The New York Times, US politics on February 16, 2022 by xi'anNature on U.S. abortion laws
Posted in Books, Kids with tags abortion, anti-abortion organisations, Christian conservatives, econometrics, fact-checking, Nature, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court, US politics on November 4, 2021 by xi'an
The 26 October issue of Nature has a news article on the involvement of US scientists and scientific organisations in fact-checking the dubious arguments made by anti-abortion supporters, incl. several US States. None of them (arguments) are convincing or objective, but providing data and statistical models to counter them is welcome, especially in a scientific journal like Nature.
“…an initiative to compare women who had abortions with those who wanted them, but were turned away from clinics for various reasons, including state restrictions or a lack of doctor availability. Called the Turnaway Study, the effort followed about 1,000 women in the United States for five years after they sought abortions. The women were similar in terms of physical, mental and economic well-being initially, but diverged over time (…) on average, receiving an abortion didn’t harm women’s mental or physical health, but being denied an abortion resulted in some negative financial and health outcomes.”
“Allowing states to ban abortion might even increase maternal and infant mortality rates (…) Unwanted pregnancies are associated with worse health outcomes for several reasons, including that people who plan their pregnancies tend to change their behaviour — drinking less alcohol, for example — and receive prenatal medical care long before those who are surprised by their pregnancy and don’t want it.”
“statistical methods developed over the past 30 years allow researchers to isolate and measure the effects of abortion policies (…) Abortion legalization in the 1970s helped to increase women’s educational attainment, participation in the labour force and earnings — especially for single Black women.”
“The United States is alone among wealthy nations in not mandating paid maternity leave (…) a single parent earning the minimum wage would need to spend more than two-thirds of their income on childcare, with care for the average infant costing about US$10,400 per year (…) two main reasons that women give for seeking abortions are concerns about money and caring for existing children.”
the rise of the vigilantes
Posted in Kids, Travel with tags anti-abortion organisations, legalisation of abortion, Planned Parenthood, reproductive rights, Roe v. Wade, taliban, Texas, The New York Times on July 19, 2021 by xi'an
I was reading the New York Times about the explosion of anti-abortion legislations in the US, with more restrictions voted in the first six months than in any previous year since 1973. Besides laws that create always more burdens and constraints for women seeking an abortion, Mississippi set a 15 week ban and Texas just moved even further with a 6 week ban, which is essentially banning abortion in the State. Which is unconstitutional (at the moment), except that Texas went a vicious step further, in making people rather than the State in charge of enforcing the law, ie of potentially suing anyone involved in an abortion performed after six weeks! Which makes the defence by abortion providers and pro-choice organisations almost impossible. And sounds like a perversion of justice, since anyone without any connection whatsoever with an abortion case and obviously irresponsible of the destiny of children born under such legislations, can sue. Just because irrational beliefs and self-righteousness make them entitled to irremediably impact others’ choices and live. Just like taliban.
abortion data, France vs. USA
Posted in Kids, Statistics, Travel with tags anti-abortion organisations, Brett Kavanaugh, France, Guttmacher Institute, health care, Le Monde, official statistics, Planning Familial, public health system, reproductive rights, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USA on October 5, 2020 by xi'an
As Le Monde pointed out at a recent report on 2019 abortions in France from Direction de la recherche, des études, de l’évaluation et des statistiques (Drees), showing an consistent rise in the number of abortions in France since 1995, with a rate of 15.6 abortions for 1000 women and the number around a third of the live births that year, I started wondering at the corresponding figures in the USA, given the much more restrictive conditions there. Judging from this on-line report by the Guttmacher Institute, the overall 2017 figures are not so different in both countries: while the abortion rate fell to 13.5‰, and the abortion/life birth ratio to 22%, the recent spike in abortion restrictions for most US States did not seem to impact considerably the rates, even though this is a nationwide average, hiding state disparities (like a 35% drop in Iowa or Alabama [and a 62% drop in Delaware, despite no change in the number of clinics or in the legislation]). In addition, France did not apparently made conditions more difficult recently (most abortions occur locally and the abortion rate is inversely correlated with income) and French (official) figures include off-clinic drug-induced abortions, while the Guttmacher institute census does not. The incoming (hasty) replacement of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg in the US Supreme Court may alas induce a dramatic turn in these figures if a clear anti-abortion majority emerges…
coronavirus also hits reproduction rights!
Posted in Kids with tags abortion, anti-abortion organisations, Brett Kavanaugh, coronavirus epidemics, France, New Zealand, pro-choice, reproductive rights, Roe v. Wade, United Kingdom, US politics, USA on March 27, 2020 by xi'an
“The [UK] Department of Health says reported changes to the abortion law, that would allow women to take both pills at home during the coronavirus outbreak, are not going ahead.” Independent, 23 March
“Texas and Ohio have included abortions among the nonessential surgeries and medical procedures that they are requiring to be delayed, saying they are trying to preserve precious protective equipment for health care workers and to make space for a potential flood of coronavirus patients.” The New York Times, 23 March
“Le ministre de la Santé, Olivier Véran, et la secrétaire d’Etat chargée de l’Égalité femmes-hommes, Marlène Schiappa, ont tenté lundi de rassurer : les IVG « sont considérées comme des interventions urgentes », et leur « continuité doit être assurée ». Le gouvernement veillera à ce que « le droit des femmes à disposer de leur corps ne soit pas remis en cause », ont-ils assuré.” Le Parisien, 23 March
“Lawmakers voted on Wednesday to liberalize New Zealand’s abortion law and allow unrestricted access during the first half of pregnancy, ending the country’s status as one of the few wealthy nations to limit the grounds for abortion during that period.” The New York Times, 18 March
