Jessica is a global contributor for RH Reality Check. You can find her writing at AlterNet, Ms. Magazine, and Feministe, among other places. She currently lives in Seattle. Follow her on Twitter. More here.
Weekly global roundup: The latest with the delayed RH Bill in the Philippines; HIV/AIDS stigma impedes maternal care in Kenya; Maternal deaths rise due to fighting in Yemen’s south; and the sex work industry booms in Madagascar.
Weekly global roundup: The RH Bill remains in the balance in the Philippines as Catholic Bishops put up new road blocks; Iran bars female students from 77 science- and technology-related fields of study at 36 universities; and South Korea re-considers emergency contraception access as their fertility rate dwindles.
Weekly global roundup: Will Saudi Arabia’s plan to construct a women-only industrial city opens new doors for women? Philippines’ RH Bill still hanging in the balance as the Catholic Church grows restless; Texans seek abortion pills in Mexico; Rare justice for 13-year-old Afghan torture survivor.
Weekly global roundup: Philippines Congress (finally!) set to vote on embattled RH Bill; Nepal recruits female police officers to stem violence against women; All-female mine deprogramming teams make history in Laos; and survivors of sexual violence in Kenya’s 2007 post-election chaos still await justice.
Weekly global roundup: Namibian High Court says forced sterilization violated women’s human rights; Spain is looking at tougher abortion restrictions; the world witnesses China’s one-child policy and a gruesome forced abortion; gender equity in New Zealand still not up to snuff.
Weekly global roundup: Reproductive Health Bill still looms as a promise in the Philippines; the UN hears testimony of rape in Syria; US Christian Right camps out in Africa; Abortion ban in the Dominican Republic impedes a teen’s cancer treatment.
This week, Adimaimalaga (Adi) Tafuna’i, a Samoan entreprener, will receive a Global Leadership Award for Economic Empowerment from the NGO Vital Voices. Tafuna’i is leading the charge to revitaize Samoa’s local economy, and uplifting women along the way.
Last week the UN released its latest estimates on global maternal deaths, just two years after the last figure. From 1990 to 2010, they found, the number of women dying from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes worldwide dropped from 543,000 to 287,000, a near-fifty percent reduction in fatalities.
Weekly global roundup: Nepali women learn about their right to divorce and increasingly do so; Argentina’s new Gender Identity Law first in the world; Tanzania’s President petitioned over contraception access; relativity in rape threats for women in South Sudan.
To say abortion is stigmatized in this country is to state the obvious. But we have a special brand of taboo that we foist atop even that stigma, which is the taboo of having someone else pay for a service you need – especially if it’s an abortion. Yet while abortion may be legal, but if you cannot afford it, it’s inaccessible.
