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31 May 2022 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & Women’s Rights
Articles
Japan to approve morning-after pill – but partner’s consent will be required
The Guardian , 31 May 2022
Delay in approving emergency contraception, and the possible $780 cost, reflect priorities of male-dominated parliament, say critics. Women in Japan could be forced to seek their partner’s consent before being prescribed the morning-after pill, which will reportedly be approved late this year – almost four decades after it was made available to women in the UK. Under Japan’s 1948 Maternal Protection Law, consent is already required for surgical abortions – with very few exceptions – a policy that campaigners say tramples over women’s reproductive rights.
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As US States Restrict Abortion Access, Mexican States Expand It
Human Rights Watch , 30 May 2022
The southern Mexican state of Guerrero recently became Mexico’s eighth state to decriminalize abortion on request. It follows a wave of states doing so, which started with Mexico City in 2007; Oaxaca in 2019; Hidalgo, Veracruz, Coahuila, and Colima in 2021; and Sinaloa in March of 2022. This legislative success comes after Mexico’s 2021 Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional the total criminalization of abortion in the state of Coahuila. Guerrero’s expansion of abortion rights comes while access is under threat in the United States, with the Supreme Court possibly moving to reverse Roe v. Wade, and the US state of Oklahoma passing a law to ban nearly all abortions.
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Afghanistan: about twenty women demonstrate in Kabul for their rights
Le Monde , 29 May 2022
About 20 Afghan women demonstrated in Kabul on Sunday 29 May, shouting "Bread, work, freedom", to protest against the Taliban's restrictions on women's freedoms in Afghanistan. They gathered in front of the Ministry of Education and marched a few hundred metres before being stopped by Taliban dressed as civilians who had come to break up the demonstration.
Sudanese Women's Activist Amira Osman Hamed Wins Human Rights Prize
All Africa , 28 May 2022
Sudanese activist and engineer Amira Osman Hamed has won a Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. She was first charged in 2002 for daring to wear trousers, and was detained and threatened with flogging in 2013 for refusing to wear a headscarf. Osman Hamed, now in her forties, has been advocating for Sudanese women for two decades, and was detained this year in a crackdown following the country's latest coup. She was among defenders from Afghanistan, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Mexico who also received the 2022 award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, the organisation announced Friday.
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How women are resisting Poland’s abortion ban
Aljazeera, 26 May 2022
On October 22, 2020, Poland’s constitutional court ruled abortions for foetal defects were unconstitutional, introducing a near-total ban on terminations. The ruling went into effect on January 27, 2021, and abortion is now only permitted when there is a threat to a woman’s life and health, or in cases of rape or incest.At present, women who have illegal terminations do not face any criminal penalties although a bill has been introduced to consider abortions a homicide. Immediately after the 2020 ruling, Poland’s pro-choice movement mobilised.
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New poll: 54% of Americans disapprove of Supreme Court following Roe draft opinion leak
CNN, 25 May 2022
A majority of Americans -- 54% -- now say they disapprove of the job the Supreme Court is doing following the leak of the draft opinion showing the justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new poll released Wednesday
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