TonTexas now has the most Restrictive abortion law Since Roe v Wade legalized abortion in 1973, the bill will be passed in the United States. Texas residents must now add out-of-state travel to the existing abortion barriers. People from the United Kingdom and the European Union continue to support Texas women, but it is worth remembering that although the United Kingdom and Europe are abortion utopias compared to some states in the United States, abortion is still not guaranteed.
Let’s start with the UK. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of activists (despite the best efforts of the procrastinating anti-abortion government), Northern Ireland now has limited access to legal abortions. However, Alliance for Choice, a campaign organization in Northern Ireland, said it still cannot guarantee proper abortion opportunities nationwide. female Still waiting for the Ministry of Health to commission abortion services, telemedicine and more types of abortions. Currently, most miscarriages occur in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and are performed with pills, but the risk of failure is small. Because there are almost no abortion regulations after the first three months, people seeking these services are still forced to travel to England.
Although the law allows abortion to be terminated at 24 weeks, many people in Scotland who need to delay abortion have to travel to England due to lack of facilities.In England and Wales, abortion is still regulated criminal law, And the waiting time for abortion varies across the country. Whether you can get an abortion quickly usually depends on where you live.
The charity I founded, abortion The Support Network (ASN) has many years of experience helping people who are forced to undergo abortions abroad due to strict abortion laws and poverty. We provide practical information and financial support, and are almost entirely privately funded. We do this work because we believe that “I can’t afford an abortion” should never be the only reason someone continues to get pregnant.
Initially, we worked in Ireland (abortion is now legal for up to 12 weeks, and thereafter in very limited circumstances), the Isle of Man (abortion was legalized in 2019), and Northern Ireland (abortion has only recently been legalized). In 2019, we expanded our business to Malta, which has the strictest abortion law in Europe: even if it can save women’s lives, abortion is illegal. In the same year, we expanded to Gibraltar. Although it recently voted to allow abortion under certain circumstances, Gibraltar’s abortion laws were previously stricter than those in Texas; abortions were only allowed if they could save a woman’s life.
At the end of 2019, as part of the Abortion Without Borders initiative, we expanded our work to Poland. Poland already has one of the most prohibitive abortion laws in Europe, but has recently made its laws tougher, ruling that 98% of the 1,000-2,000 legal abortions performed by the country each year are “unconstitutional.”
Although our charity is very busy, we are now considering expanding to other countries that need support. Andorra, together with Malta, made all abortions illegal, even if abortions can save women’s lives.Other European countries have good abortion laws, but they still effectively restrict entry, such as Italy, where 69% of gynecologists “Conscience opposes” abortion. Activists say that Romania is quietly phasing out abortion, while Hungary, the government has succeeded in reducing abortion opportunities in recent years.
Our work is particularly focused on ensuring that people can have abortions after the first trimester. Most European countries provide abortion services during the first 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy. In countries that do not do this, many people rely on non-governmental organizations, such as Women’s Help Women and Internet Women’s Organizations, which send early medical abortion pills to countries that restrict abortion.Fortunately, people are becoming more aware of these pills, they are in the world healthy Organize a list of essential medicines and provide safe methods for terminating pregnancy. When we first created ASN, women in Ireland and Northern Ireland told us that they had tried something more dangerous than taking medicine.
In the later stages of pregnancy, when the pills are no longer suitable, an abortion may be difficult, depending on where you live. Every country has conditions to decide when and how abortion is allowed in the future. Access to these services can be difficult, especially for marginalized, young or poor people. For those who do not have secure immigration or refugee status, this is impossible. In Europe, the best tourist destination is the Netherlands, where clinics can provide abortions for up to 22 weeks on request, England and Wales, where you can perform abortions for up to 24 weeks, and in some cases Spain.
We come back here TexasMany people will say that if a person in Texas now needs an abortion in six weeks, they can go to a different state. We have been hearing this statement for many years. Irish women can “just travel”. Polish women can “just travel”. But this does not take into account the obstacles to abortion travel, such as childcare, unsafe immigration status, fear of stigma or exclusion, money and Brexit, which make it difficult for non-EU or UK residents to come to the UK.
These obstacles predated Covid-19, but the pandemic made the problem worse. Many of our service users have been affected by the closure of airports in Poland and Malta and the expensive PCR tests people need to travel in and out of a country. Some of these obstacles are quite ridiculous: when a service user who does not speak English arrives at the hotel she has booked in the UK, she finds that all rooms have been allocated to key workers and street sleepers, while another lady’s flight was cancelled and rebooked for seven days. Travel time and time again. Traveling during a global pandemic brings additional health risks. We have not forgotten the irony of taking health risks to get health care.
Helping people to have an abortion requires a strong physique. We can never reach everyone who needs our help. But we know that as abortion funders, we are part of a growing global network of activists who are looking for more creative ways to help people get abortion care, and we will continue this work until our helpline stops ringing. bell.
