Category: Abortion

Group claims Maltese abortion law violates convention against torture

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council that accuses Malta of violating the Convention Against Torture and other alleged obligations because Maltese law prohibits abortion.  The ICJ describes itself as “60 eminent judges and lawyers from all regions of the world” that “promotes and protects human rights through the Rule of Law, by using its unique legal expertise to develop and strengthen national and international justice systems.”  The same general claim was made this month by the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

 

Australian physicians unwilling to provide late term psychosocial abortions

A former health services commissioner who was among those behind the passage of a controversial abortion law in the State of Victoria is complaining that the law is “being thwarted at the service provision level.”  Her concern focuses on women seeking late term abortions – apparently 16 through 24 weeks gestation and beyond.  Physicians are reported to be willing to provide late term abortions only for eugenic reasons, but about 70 women annually ask for late term abortions for “psychosocial reasons.”  Another factor reducing availability appears to be the need to give priority to devote health care resources to addressing illness and other health problems over “psychosocial” issues.  One clinical advisor has suggested that this could be rectified by a regulation requiring that abortion be given legal priority. [The Age]

New frontiers in repressing dissent

Re:  Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill (2013)
(State of Tasmania)

  • Mishka Gora* | Tasmania may be small, but it will punch far above its weight on the world stage in shutting down protests against abortion if a new bill is passed. . . the real aim of the Labor-Green coalition which is running Tasmania is to criminalize abortion dissent.
    Full Text

UN Human Rights Council equates lack of access to abortion with torture

Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

Juan E. Méndez

The present report focuses on certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that
may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. It identifies the policies that promote these practices  and existing protection gaps.

By illustrating some of these abusive practices in health-care settings, the report sheds light on often undetected forms of abusive practices that occur under the auspices of health-care policies, and emphasizes how certain treatments run afoul of the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment. It identifies the scope of State‟s obligations to regulate, control and supervise health-care practices with a view to preventing mistreatment under any pretext.

The Special Rapporteur examines a number of the abusive practices commonly reported in health-care settings and describes how the torture and ill-treatment framework applies in this context. [Report]

Freedom of conscience among Italian Obstetrician-gynaecologists seen as “problem”

An Italian group called Gynecologists for the Application of Law 194/78 (LAIGA) has reported that conscientious objection to abortion among Italian obstetrician-gynaecologists is the majority position, reaching 80 or 90 percent in some parts of the country.  Most of the objectors are younger practitioners, so it would seem that the situation is unlikely to change.  LAIGA demands “regulation” of conscientious objection in response, by which it obviously means the suppression of freedom of conscience by some regulatory mechanism. [LifeSite News]