Abortion – Page 2 – Global Reproductive Health at Duke

South Korea Poses Amendment for Anti-Abortion Law

April 14, 2019May 10, 2019 by Emily WoodrowNo Comments

South Korea has fostered an anti-abortion law for 66 years which names abortion a crime with repercussions of heavy fines and women facing up to a year in jail and doctors facing up to two years. Last Thursday, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled this law unconstitutional and concluded that Parliament must revise the law by 2020 or else it will become invalid. There are a few exceptions to the law which allow for abortions under the situations of pregnancy from rape or incest, pregnancy which poses great risk to the mother’s health, or pregnancy that will result in a child with a serious deformity. However, a study does prove that since the law has been enacted, there have been huge amounts of illegal abortions—49,7000 abortions took place in 2017 and an estimated 94% of those were performed illegally. There also seems to be a general shift in trends of what South Koreans think of abortion because a poll shows that...

New York State Passes Reproductive Health Act

January 29, 2019 by Jessica WilliamsNo Comments

On the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the New York legislature passed a law protecting a woman's right to abortions. The most controversial aspect of the law is its provision for abortions after 24 weeks, in cases of fetal in-viability or danger to the woman's life or heath. According to the Guttmacher Institute, only slightly more than one percent of abortions are performed during or after 21 weeks of pregnancy. The law also took abortion off of the state's criminal code, which prevents medical professionals from being criminally prosecuted. The pro-choice community has lauded the law's passage, considering it a protection against possible future decisions by the Supreme Court. The Catholic Bishops of New York State denounced the law, and many critics claim it is too far-reaching....

California Right to Access Act Revisited

January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 There was a recent attempt in September to require California to provide medical abortion in public colleges and universities. Medical abortion is otherwise known as the abortion pill. Unfortunately, this bill was not signed by by Governor Jerry Brown. California’s governor announced that he vetoed the bill because “the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus” within five to seven miles off California state university campuses, meaning that he found it an unnecessary government expenditure. The problem with going off-campus to seek these services is that half of students in the California state university school-system are low-income students, meaning that they are likely to struggle to pay for abortions off-campus. Furthermore, the majority of these students do not have a car, making transportation very difficult and not accessible to everyone. Reproductive health rights activists have not given up, as there has been an introduction of updated version of the bill into the state’s legislature...

The Effects of Complete Ban on Abortion in El Salvador

January 2, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 With the reality overturning Roe vs Wade becoming increasingly likely, El Salvador can teach us what some of the consequences might be to that. El Salvador is one of six countries in Latin America that has an absolute ban on abortion. They imposed a total ban on abortion since 1998 and are very strict about the enforcement. There isn’t an exception, whether rape or incest was involved, or even if the pregnancy is life-threatening to the mother, an abortion remains completely legal. One of the biggest problems with this law, is that many times when a woman has a miscarriage, doctors can falsely assume that the woman had an aborted pregnancy, when in fact it was a miscarriage. Others can also report someone suspected of having an abortion, even if it was a miscarriage, and the woman can be prosecuted for an abortion. Many women have been incarcerated for supposed abortions. Many women’s rights groups...

Significant decrease in rate of abortion in the United States

December 20, 2018December 20, 2018 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Amelia Steinbach, T'21 Data that were recently released from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) indicate that the number of abortions in the United States has decreased by 24% over the last decade. In reporting the data through 2015, the CDC noted that this drop was almost certainly related to a lower number of unintended pregnancies, the largest contributor to induced abortion, as well as increased use of effective contraception methods. The overall trend is not consistent for women of different demographic groups, such as race, class, and marital and motherhood status. While white and black women together make up the vast majority of abortions, black women account for nearly 20 more abortions per 1000 women than their white counterparts. Women who were not married accounted for the majority of those seeking an abortion, as do women who already have children. Over 90% of abortion occur before the 13-week mark and abortions that do not occur during the first trimester...

Law meant to limit access to abortion in the Ohio state legislature

December 9, 2018December 10, 2018 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Amelia Steinbach, T '21 State legislators in Ohio are currently debating House Bill 565, a piece of proposed legislation that imposes strict limitations on access to abortion. The law changes the definition of person to include “any unborn human,” which results in the criminalization of abortion. If the law is signed into law, it would effectively criminalize abortion. Any woman who undergoes the procedure, as well as any doctor who performs it, would face charges for murder. Because the death penalty is permitted in the state of Ohio, women and doctors could also be sentenced to death because of their role in the procedure. Despite the fact that many modern abortion regulations include exemptions of pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, as well as those that pose a threat to the pregnant woman’s life, House Bill 565 includes no such provisions. Notably, the group of legislators sponsoring and co-sponsoring the bill is overwhelmingly male, with only two out of sixteen...

Analyzing High Abortion Rates in Pakistan

December 4, 2018 by Emily WoodrowNo Comments

The country of Pakistan has one of the highest rates of abortions in the world; it is noted there are 50 abortions for every one thousand women. However, this procedure is “legal only in very limited circumstances” according to the Guttmacher Institute. Pakistan states an abortion can occur if there is a “need” for it such as if a woman’s health is in danger. But, otherwise, the term “need” is very vaguely defined—culturally, abortions are not accepted or promoted in Pakistan. As a deeply conservative and Muslim country, most hospitals and doctors refuse to perform abortions for religious and moral reasons and beliefs. As a result, a huge underground abortion industry thrives. This contributes to the statistic that ⅓ of all women who undergo abortions in Pakistan suffer complications largely because those who are performing the operations are likely not properly qualified. The high amount of abortions comes from the fact that there is a large unmet need...

California Governor Vetoes Abortion Bill

October 11, 2018October 11, 2018 by Jessica WilliamsNo Comments

Governor Jerry Brown recently vetoed a bill that would have required all health centers at University of California and California State University schools to offer prescription abortion pills. Introduced in February 2017, Senate Bill 320 would have made California the first state to require access to medication abortion at public universities. Medication abortion was approved by the FDA in 2000, and currently accounts for one-third of abortions in the United States. A combination of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, allows the patient to undergo the procedure in their own home. In spite of years of research deeming the procedure safe, thirty-four states heavily regulate medication abortion by requiring licensed physicians, rather than midwives or nurse practitioners, to administer the drugs. In spite of living in a state with otherwise progressive abortion legislation, women at public universities in California often have restricted access to abortion options. More than 500 women at California's public universities seek the abortion pill at off-site healthcare providers every...

The Alarming Incidence of Unsafe Abortion Worldwide

October 5, 2018October 5, 2018 by Carly JonesNo Comments

Approximately 56 million abortions are performed globally each year, with half of these procedures falling upon some continuum of danger that they pose. 97% of these unsafe abortions are performed in low-income countries within Africa, Asia, and Latin America, illustrating the enormous reproductive health disparity borne by geographic location. Abortions are classified by the World Health Organization as “safe”, “less safe”, and “least safe.” Many abortions conducted in developing countries are qualified as “least safe,” characterized by the insertion of foreign objects such as sticks and broken glass bottles, or the ingestion of harmful cleaning products. Ultimately, 6.9 million women each year are treated for complications attributed to unsafe abortions, and 23,000 women die from such complications. Yet, safe abortion procedures such as manual evacuation and abortion-inducing drugs are not financially out of reach even for low-resource countries. Thus, the solution to this horrific lapse in reproductive health lies in political discourse. While some countries, such as Ethiopia and Nepal,...

Oregon Ballot Measure 106 would ban public reproductive healthcare coverage

September 27, 2018September 27, 2018 by Jessica WilliamsNo Comments

A state with a long history of supporting abortion rights, Oregon will have a constitutional amendment to limit state funding for abortions on the ballot this November. After narrowly gaining enough signatures to head to the ballot in late July, Measure 106 has inspired intense activism on both sides of the issue. Oregon is one of seventeen states that uses its own funds to provide abortions; the federal government prohibits the use of Medicaid funding. If Measure 106 passes, the state would only be able to fund abortion in cases necessary for the safety of the mother — as in ectopic pregnancies — or in situations of incest or rape. Although the Oregon Health Plan paid $2 million for abortions for 3,600 women in the last year, the official cost analysis of Measure 106 states that passage of the initiative could cost the state an additional $10 million each year. An estimated 271,833 women of reproductive age are covered by the Oregon...

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