TAG: abortion

Looking at How Abortion Restrictions Endanger Women’s Lives

In 2006, a Polish woman named Justyna heard a rumor about a new abortion pill. The thirty-year-old mother of three was eleven weeks along in a new pregnancy, and her marriage wasn’t going well. Abortion in Poland is illegal in most circumstances, but after several weeks she was able to get the pills. She took them […]

Sexual Politics in late October and November 2016

November began with a resounding shift in global politics: Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. As the reactions flooded through the world media, SPW has developed a preliminary view on what this may imply for sexual politics in the US and beyond and compiled a series of articles written by a wide […]

Reform of abortion law in Uruguay: Context, process and lessons learned

Authored by Susan Wood, Lilián Abracinskas, Sonia Corrêa and Mario Pecheny, this article – based on a descriptive study of the context and political processes for abortion reform – aims at identifying the strategies and facilitating factors that led to the legal reform and the limitations of the law, as well as to view the […]

Brazilian Supreme Court opinion re-ignites the abortion rights debate

In the midst of the conservative restoration that has swept Brazil in 2016, on November 29th, the First Chamber of the Brazilian Supreme Court – in which five of the eleven judges have a seat – has issued, an unexpected decision arguing in favor of decriminalization of abortion

The controversy surrounding gender: a central question of (sexual) politics in Colombia

By Mara Vivero. In this text I will present some elements on gender ideology, its antecedents and contemporary uses and secondly I will refer to the Colombian case, as one of the cases in which the term “gender ideology” has been used as part of a conservative rhetorical strategy to the constant interfaces between religious and political sectors that oppose the changes that have occurred in society in terms of gender and sexuality.

Brazilian Supreme Court decision re-ignites the abortion rights debates

In the midst of the conservative restoration that swept Brazil in 2016, the First Chamber of the Brazilian Supreme Court, where five of the eleven judges have a seat, issued on November 29 an unexpected decision, which argues in favor of the decriminalization of abortion until the twelve week of pregnancy. Though the decision is […]

Belgium: 25 years of the right to abortion

It’s been 26 years since abortion was decriminalised in Belgium on medical grounds up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. It was an enormous breakthrough, allowing women the autonomy to decide their life course. But 26 years later, abortion remains in the penal code as a crime against family order and public morals. Because it continues to be a criminal offence, the stigma remains, affecting the approaches a woman needs to make to obtain an abortion,

Myanmar: maternal deaths from abortion

Women denied the right to an abortion are injuring and killing themselves in an attempt to end their pregnancies, doctors and specialists say. These botched abortions are often carried out by the women themselves. The two main causes of maternal mortality are heavy blood loss and sepsis. Many of the women brought to hospital with […]

Trump’s victory: a preliminary cartography

From the SPW perspective, Trump arrival to power is just another chapter in a chain of conservative restorations sweeping world politics in recent years of which the demise of the Arab spring in vortex of wars and dictatorship followed by the 2014 election of the BJP in India can be eventually considered the starting points.

Understanding and resisting Trump: a wide range of views

Donald Trump, after defeating Hillary Clinton in an extremely polarized election, will be the 45th President of the United States. This result prompted visceral and resounding reactions from news media, scholars, social movements, and numerous other voices across the world. Much of this reaction has been driven by surprise, despair and horror. Even so, the […]

Sex, gender and far right’s global attack

In fact, “gender ideology” is an invention of the right. It’s a hodgepodge of disparate ideas developed by a diverse group of thinkers over the past 50 years, linked mainly in the minds of its opponents. It doesn’t really exist beyond its creators’ manifestos and protest banners, but it’s already helped them score some very real victories.

Laos: unsafe abortion practical guideline

The following statement was made by Prof Dr Bounkong Sihavong, the Minister of Health of Lao PDR, at a presentation of this guideline in Vientiane Maternal mortality in Lao PDR is high in comparison with neighbouring countries in South East Asia such as Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. Deaths mostly occur in rural and remote areas […]