Outrage: U.S. Supreme Court Takes Away Federal Constitutional Right to Abortion

From Planned Parenthood:

The fears of millions were realized today, as the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional protection of abortion — robbing people of the fundamental right to control their own bodies.

In a decision with devastating consequences, the court overturned Roe v. Wade — throwing out the 1973 decision that recognized abortion as a constitutional right, and handing politicians across the country the power to make decisions about our bodies, our lives, and our futures.

This historic action means the Supreme Court — now dominated by justices hostile to our freedom — is reneging on a constitutional right it previously granted.

Across the Country, Life-changing Implications

With the federal constitutional protection of our right to abortion now ended, states in more than half the country stand poised to ban abortion. That would leave 36 million women of reproductive age, plus even more people who can become pregnant, without access to abortion.

Through this ruling, the Supreme Court will force an unknowable number of people to choose between either traveling hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles for care, or remaining pregnant.

Make no mistake: This decision goes beyond abortion. This wrongful ruling is about power and control. What rights will this court take away next? Who has power over you, who has the authority to make decisions for you, and who can control how your future is going to be? It goes against the will of the American people and overturns nearly 50 years of precedent.

A Shameful Day

We’re outraged — and ready to fight like hell.

Everyone’s body is their own, and theirs alone. You must have the freedom and power to control your body and life. That means no judge, no politician, no ban should ever block your personal medical decisions or set the course for your life. Abortion access should not be based on your ZIP code, income level, or immigration status.

Abortion bans do the most harm in Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities and other communities of color, which already face barriers to health care and economic opportunity because of this country's legacy of systemic racism and discrimination. The court's ruling will add further insult to health disparities that have long plagued too many communities.

We’re Fighting Back

We vow this: The Supreme Court’s shameful decision won’t stop us. We will rebuild and reclaim the freedom that is ours.

It’s already crystal clear that these politicians plan to completely end access to abortion, one state at a time. For decades, narrow-minded politicians have built a coordinated strategy toward this moment. And politicians aim to outlaw abortion across the United States, no matter where you live. Texas and Mississippi are just the opening fronts in a campaign to destroy abortion access across the country.

Generations before ours fought tirelessly to gain and protect our rights. With this ruling, the next generation will have fewer rights — unless we fight on. Every day in every way, all of us must stop at nothing to make sure people have access to the essential health care they need to control their bodies and build their futures.

This is far from over. We have strength in numbers and power in our united voices.

Birth Control and Abortion in the Middle Ages

The use of birth control and abortion have a long history, and a long history of being contentious. The idea that pregnancies can be prevented or stopped has raised ethical and moral issues, and, like today, in the Middle Ages you will find many opinions about what should or shouldn’t be done. However, the medieval period might be unique in that it is perhaps the only time when you can read the same author in one work condemning the use of birth control and in another giving directions on how to use it.

In the end, much of the knowledge about birth control practices in the Middle Ages is lost to history – these were issues that women had to deal with on their own, and they could usually only turn to other women for help and guidance. Some could try a medical treatment that had limited chances of success, but many would have realized that an unwanted pregnancy was something that had to be managed and/or hidden. The fate of children born in this way varied – some might have been placed in the care of another family or given to a monastery, but others might also be killed and disposed of. It may have been that in the Middle Ages the most dangerous time for an unwanted child was just after birth.

read entire article here @ Medievalist 

read also "Abortion in the Middle Ages c500 - 900" by Zubin Mistry

Stone Babies

From Authint Mail:

An elderly Colombian woman has been found to have a 40-year-old fetus inside her abdomen.

 Such a medical event is an extremely rare occurrence. It is known as a lithopedion, or a “stone baby”. This is the result of an ectopic pregnancy where a fetus happens to be conceived outside of the uterus.

 There have been only about 300 documented cases of lithopedia in recorded medical literature. The earliest which was recorded happened in 1582. In that event, physicians were performing an autopsy on a 68-year-old woman and discovered she had most likely carried a stone baby for almost 30 years.

 However, archaeological evidence reaches back even farther. There is an example of a “stone baby” which was discovered in a fourth century Roman dig in France.

The medical condition was even discussed by the ancient physician Albucasis in a tenth century dissertation even though he did not know what it was.

See also: Zahra Aboutalib and her Sleeping Baby

18th Century Birthing Chair

From io9:

From the ancient times until the 1800s, many women gave birth with the aid of parturition chairs, specially designed seats that allowed women to sit upright or recline while giving birth. This particular chair had padded leather rests for the mother's legs, but the parturition chairs came in a number of flavors. Some had extendable leg rests that aren't a far cry from modern gynecological stirrups. Others were much simpler, simply giving those assisting with the birth easy access to the infant while the mother remained somewhat upright.

Obstetric Fistula - Ignored

From Science Blogs:

It’s estimated that up to 3.5 million women currently suffer from fistulas , with somewhere from 50,000 to 130,000 new cases each year–and most of them go untreated. Because many of these happen in rural areas lacking health care providers, it’s difficult to get at exact numbers, and there is little push to obtain them. A woman quoted in Kristof and WuDunn’s “Half the Sky,”  an Australian gynecologist who has worked in Ethiopia for more than 30 years, notes that women with fistulas “are the women most to be pitied in the world…They’re alone in the world, ashamed of their injuries. For lepers, or AIDS victims, there are organizations that help. But nobody knows about these women or helps them.”

To support the World Wide Fistula Fund, click on the WWFF Logo ->> 

Mary Toft - Bunnies In The Oven

From the Wellcome Library:

In November 1726, a woman named Mary Toft was at the center of a public debate that included some eminent physicians of the day. Mary Toft became known as the Surrey Rabbit Breeder, based on the account that after a series of miscarriages, she began to give birth to rabbits. This continued in the presence of a Swiss anatomist connected with the court of George I, Nathanael St. Andre. St. Andre published A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets, and other pamphlets and broadsides followed. Toft came to London, where, after the 17th rabbit 'birth', many became convinced the matter was a hoax. Toft then confessed and St. Andre apologized.

See also the 18th century manuscripts from the Wellcome Library

And from The Curious Case of Mary Toft:

In September 1726, news reached the court of King George I of the alleged birth of several rabbits to Mary Toft (1703-1763) of Godalming, near Guildford, in Surrey.

Toft was a twenty-five year old illiterate servant, married to Joshua Toft, a journeyman clothier. According to reports, despite having had a miscarriage just a month earlier in August 1726, Mary had still appeared to be pregnant. On September 27th, she went into labour and was attended initially by her neighbour Mary Gill, and then her mother in law Ann Toft. She gave birth to something resembling a liverless cat.

The family decided to call on the help of Guildford obstetrician John Howard. He visited Mary the next day where he was presented with more animal parts which Ann Toft said she had taken from Mary during the night. The following day, Howard returned and helped deliver yet more animal parts. Over the next month Howard recorded that she began producing a rabbit's head, the legs of a cat, and, in a single day, nine dead baby rabbits.

Howard sent letters to some of England's greatest doctors and scientists and the King's secretary, informing them of the miraculous births.

Humewood House 100 Years Old

From Toronto News:

For 100 years, Humewood House has been a refuge for vulnerable young unwed mothers, who have stood on its doorstep, suitcase in hand, their hearts filled with fear of what the future held.

More than 5,000 young women — many of them mere children themselves — found a haven at the home, just north of St. Clair Ave. on Humewood St., once the home of the province’s first chancellor, William Hume Blake.

For decades, it was where “bad girls” were shut away and hidden from society until they gave birth. Many had been disowned by their families for the shame they had wrought. Most gave their babies up, never to see them again.

Those who returned home had to deal with their trauma on their own, often living lives of silent desperation, their secret never to be revealed.

Bizarre History of the Pregnancy test

From i09:

Nowadays, finding out if you're pregnant is relatively easy — but it wasn't always that way. Over the centuries, people have come up with downright strange and sometimes revolting tests to figure out whether or not a person is knocked up. Some of them were useless, some required being a chemist in the bathroom, and some caused major ecological disasters.

The thing about pregnancy, as a condition, is most people eventually figure out their status on their own. Pregnancy tests, for much of history, have seemed unnecessary.

Still, people have always tried to find ways to peek inside themselves. Some people want to make an early announcement to family. Some need to put their names on a six-year-long waiting list for a private kindergarten, and hope that a year's worth of kids drop out of the running. Some just wish to experience the sheer joy of peeing on something scientific. Whatever the reason, all those who grab a stick and run to the ladies' room are participating in a long, occasionally-destructive, and sometimes outright loony march of scientific progress.

Text Reminders for Abortions

Disturbing article from the Telegraph:

Britain's largest abortion provider said it is introducing reminders because some girls and women had forgotten about their procedures.

Critics said the move, by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), gave a disturbing insight into casual attitudes to abortion.

BPAS, which carries out almost one third of NHS-funded terminations, likened the service, which begins in November, to reminders sent out by dentists before check-ups.

MPs and pro-life groups accused clinics of trivialising serious decisions. Dr Peter Saunders, Chief Executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship said the text reminders would exert pressure on women uncertain about whether to go ahead with an abortion.

"If you have got an unplanned pregnancy and you are in a crisis you would think it would be at the forefront of your mind," he said.

Meanwhile, those women who were agonizing about whether to go ahead with a termination, could feel pressured to go ahead because of the texts, he said.

China: Hospital Births Saving Babies

From the Herald Tribune:

New data show that encouraging Chinese women to give birth in the hospital has contributed to a sharp drop in infant deaths over a 12-year period.

A study released Friday in The Lancet, a British medical journal, says that newborn deaths fell 62 percent between 1996 and 2008 based on analysis of 1.5 million births.

The study, co-authored by researchers from Peking University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said more babies survived mainly because women were increasingly giving birth in hospitals or clinics.

"In 1988, less than half of all women in China gave birth in hospital, but only 20 years later, hospital births have become almost universal," it said.

Business Backlash to Parental Leave

From the Courier Mail:

WOMEN of child-bearing age are in the firing line as struggling small businesses baulk at the cost of implementing the Gillard Government's paid parental leave scheme.

Dozens of cases of pregnant women being bullied and unfairly sacked have already been lodged with authorities, fuelling fears of widespread discrimination once paid parental leave starts on January 1.

Business groups warn that the onerous cost of administering payments will force some employers to think again about hiring women.

Queensland's Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss David Goodwin said small businesses - already hurting from the financial downturn - could not absorb the costs of filling out ''welfare papers'' and changing payroll systems. Some small businesses ''probably'' won't hire women of child-bearing age.

Side Note: Whilst paid parental leave is a bonus to all women who plan on starting a family from 1st January 2011, there are many women out there who have done it hard. Older women - who have had their families - should take advantage of the situation. Where once age may have been a barrier to employment, for some women it may now be a blessing in disguise.

Oral Contraception: a History of Social Reform, Empowerment and Health Concern

The article below was written by Matt Phillips and submitted to Women of History.  Issues concerning fertility and childbirth are important to all women, and the advances made over time should not be taken lightly.

Many thanks to Matt for his most welcome contribution.

Despite its relatively short history, oral contraception has had a tremendous impact on numerous aspects of modern society. However, its role in recent movements that won women legal equality stands out more than any other outcome. Nevertheless, this modern method of birth control, which is the most popular today, represents just one in a long succession of contraceptive devices that enable women to enjoy physical intimacy while decreasing the risk of pregnancy.

One of the most striking aspects of birth control is the history it has. Although many tend to view contraception as a fairly modern development, historians point out that individuals attempted to control family size in Mesopotamian and early Egyptian times. However, these methods were generally lacking in safety and sophistication, involving infanticide or the use of questionable barrier mixtures that sometimes contained materials like honey or animal excrement. Prolonged lactation and spermicidal chemicals were also used in ancient societies to prevent pregnancy. The ancient Chinese even produced a chemical women could ingest to produce sterility.

However, historically recent developments show social motives behind the use of contraception, while past fertility control generally centered on practical issues like the economic strain another child would bring. During the 19th century in the United States, women’s medical care was passed from midwives to male doctors. At that time, because of the social, economic and religious climate, few male doctors were willing to sanction the use of contraception and give them that power, an illustration of the general opinion regarding women’s rights at the time. Although the use of condoms gained acceptance and popularity after WWI, it wasn’t until February 15, 1961 that women gained full control over their fertility, with the FDA approval of Enovid, an oral contraceptive, for public contraceptive use.

The popularity of this drug increased rapidly after its introduction as it gave women more control of their fertility than they ever had before. Its introduction also coincided with the great social restructuring that was occurring at the time. Many women looked to these pills as a way to advance both socially and economically. Indeed, after the introduction of oral contraception, female college attendance and graduation saw a sharp rise. Its use signified more than just a fertility tool, but a complete reevaluation of women’s role in the workplace as well. Now that women could delay pregnancy indefinitely, long-term career goals became the focus of individuals that might have previously settled for early marriage and economic reliance on their spouse.

However, social and economic changes were not the only trends seen with these drugs. Since their introduction, cancer cases among U.S. women have also seen a jump. Although doctors now generally agree today’s forms of oral contraception, which contain far lower hormone doses, do not significantly increase the risk of cancer, other serious side effects have been seen. Specifically, the hormonal ingredient, estrogen, acts as a blood coagulator, leading to an increased risk of cardiovascular complications, among other dangers. One recent Yaz lawsuit even involves a woman who developed blood clots in her lungs after correctly using this particular product.

While modern oral contraception has empowered women with independent, discretionary control over their fertility, it has also been blamed for several direct health impacts, as well as indirect social consequences. Some opponents of the medication fear that this drug has led to a rise in sexually transmitted disease spread by encouraging physical intimacy and removing the fear of pregnancy. Despite the social strides women have made since using this contraceptive tool, critics continue to voice their opposition loudly, much like past opponents of female fertility control who denounced these practices on moral, economic and social grounds.

Breastfeeding Battleground

From News.com.au:

The Federal Government last year released its National Breastfeeding Strategy 2010-2015, but there has been little action.

It took two years to get a breastfeeding helpline set up following a recommendation from a parliamentary inquiry in 2007. Run by the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), the helpline receives 1600 calls a week.

Carey Wood, ABA spokeswoman and midwife, says women need to persist with breastfeeding.

“Give breastfeeding a go and if it doesn’t work, it’s not the end of the world,” she says. But opponents say formula is full of chemicals and additives.

Your body, your baby, your choice.

India: 70000 Women Die In Childbirth

From the Times of India:

India accounts for a quarter of all maternal deaths globally. Over 70,000 women die in India every year due to complications related to childbirth. That means over two million maternal orphans, little children who have to grow up without their mother to look after them. It is so tragic. Most of these deaths are preventable. And the solution is very clear and simple. It is the implementation that requires hard work. Something has to be done here urgently and I was very keen to see the work of the Alliance in India.

Malaysia: Underage Marriage OK

From Reuters:

A Malaysian state is to allow Muslim girls under the age of consent of 16 years to wed in a bid to stem unwed pregnancies, angering the country's women's activists and politicians.

The Islamic council in the southern Malaysian state of Malacca on Tuesday announced that it would to allow marriage for Muslims below the current minimum age of 16 years for females and 18 for males.

"This is an outrage. We're turning back the clock when there's ample evidence to show that we should not condone child marriages," said Ivy Josiah, executive director of Women's Aid Organization, a rights group.

Muslims make up about 60 percent of the 28 million population of the Southeast Asian country and fall under Islamic family and criminal laws individually drafted and run by each of the country's 13 states. Non-Muslims come under federal civil laws.

The chief minister of Malacca, Mohammad Ali Rustam, said permission would only be granted after consent by the teenager's families as well as the state Islamic courts.

France: Rise In Infanticide

From Time:

The question is as horrifying as it is important to ask: Why are a rising number of French women killing their newborn babies? Finding the answer has become a matter of urgency following the discovery on Wednesday of eight infants allegedly smothered to death and buried by their mother in northern France. And with that case marking at least the fifth instance of multiple infanticide reported in France since 2003, it has become vital for the nation to confront the phenomenon that appears to be behind it all: a mental condition known as pregnancy denial.

 

Experts explained those cases as resulting from pregnancy denial, an often misunderstood and minimized condition. According to Michel Delcroix, a former gynecologist who served as a court expert in the Courjault trial and others involving pregnancy issues, pregnancy denial is a quasi-schizophrenic condition in which women either don't realize or cannot accept that they are with child — not even enough to have an abortion. Whether these women are afflicted with the condition before they deliver or as they're suddenly giving birth, Delcroix explains, the psychological denial is so strong that they refuse to believe they're pregnant even when the reality confronts them.

Uzbek Women Sterilized by Stealth

From the Times Online:

According to human rights groups, tens of thousands of young women like Zavidova have been sterilised without their consent in the authoritarian former Soviet state of Uzbekistan.

Uzbek sources say the measure was ordered by Islam Karimov, the president, who has ruled with an iron fist for 20 years. The policy is aimed at keeping down the country’s poor population — with 28m people, it is Central Asia’s most densely populated state.

Activists say mass sterilisation began in 2003, but was eased after two years following an outcry. It is said to have restarted in February this year, when the health ministry ordered doctors to recommend sterilisation as an “effective contraceptive”. Critics claim every doctor was told to persuade “at least two women” a month to have the procedure. Doctors who failed faced reprisals and fines.

Kenya: Women & Abortion

From CNN News:

Women are being forced into backstreet abortions in Kenya because of the country's restrictive abortion law, a study says.

And the law could soon get even tougher with church groups urging a ban on almost all abortions.

The U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Health, which advocates abortions rights, found that women and girls in Kenya use metal wires, knitting needles and other unsafe practices to abort tens of thousands of unwanted pregnancies.

Musya said fetuses are dumped in the sprawling Kibera slum. She said that every week they find aborted fetuses in one garbage-filled stream. They wash away or get eaten by pigs, she said.

The report says that Kenya's current confusing abortion law forces women to the backstreets.

So in Kibera, where shacks are packed together on a warren of garbage strewn streets, they search out abortionists.

Now church groups in Kenya are pushing for the new constitution, coming up for a parliamentary vote soon, to make almost all abortions illegal. The church groups want to define 'life as starting at conception,' and heavily restrict abortion except for cases where a mother's life is in immediate danger.

Turkey: Sperm Bank Users Face Jail

From VOA News:

Couples in Turkey unable to conceive naturally face possible jail if they go abroad for artificial insemination treatment. That's according to a new regulation introduced by the country's ministry of health. Artificial insemination has been banned in Turkey for several years, but now the government appears to determined to end the practice altogether.

Artificial insemination is usually not controversial in many other countries. But in Turkey, it's a different story. A new measure makes it a crime for a Turkish woman to get pregnant with sperm from a foreign donor, punishable by one to three years in jail.

The regulation has caused shock both for couples unable to conceive naturally and the doctors who treat them.

Officials say the measure is based on a law that forbids concealing a child's paternity. Protecting the racial purity of the nation is also another reason given by health officials defending the policy.

But women's rights groups are outraged. Pinar Ilkkaracan is the head of Women for Women's Human Rights.

US: Rise in C-Sections

From the Straits Times:

BIRTHS by Caesarean section in the United States reached an all-time high in 2007 when some 1.4 million babies, or 32 per cent of births, were delivered by C-section, a study showed on Tuesday.

The rate of Caesarean sections jumped by 53 per cent between 1996 and 2007, and the number of births by C-section soared by 71 per cent during the same period, the study released by the National Centre for Health Statistics shows.

In one year during the study period, 2006, Caesarean delivery was the most frequently performed surgical procedure in US hospitals. The rate of Caesarean births - a major surgical procedure in which the infant, placenta and membranes are extracted from the womb through an incision made in the mother's abdominal and uterine walls - rose for women in all age groups and across all ethnic groups.

Women under the age of 25 saw the steepest rise, with C-sections rising by 57 per cent, from 17 per cent of births to 27 per cent between 1996 and 2007. But older women were still the most likely to have babies by Caesarean section: 48 per cent of mothers aged 40-54 years delivered their babies by C-section in 2007, compared to 23 per cent of mothers under 20.

The World Health Organisation says the optimal Caesarean birth rate is 15 per cent. Older maternal age was one reason Caesarean births are on the rise, according to the study.

That was partly because women in their 30s and 40s who interrupt their careers to have a baby, want the birth to fit around their work schedule, said Dr Judith Rossiter, head of obstetrics and gynecology at St Joseph's Medical Centre near Baltimore.