Thursday, June 30, 2022
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Gunmen in northwest Pakistan kill polio worker, two policemen
Gunmen on motorcycles open fire on a team of workers during a door-to-door inoculation campaign in North Waziristan.Gunmen have attacked a polio vaccination team in northwest Pakistan, killing a health worker and two policemen – the latest deaths in a dangerous campaign to eradicate the disease.The attackers riding motorcycles opened fire on Tuesday during a door-to-door inoculation campaign in North Waziristan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The victims were taking part in a United Nations-funded campaign that started on Monday in regions at high risk for outbreaks, local administrator Shahid Ali Khan said. The campaign aims to inoculate more than 12.6 million children. A passer-by was also wounded in the attack, said Aziz Ullah, a local police official. The attackers fled the scene. Violence in the mountainous border regions of Pakistan has been on the rise since the Taliban took back power last year in Afghanistan, with Pakistani security officials often being the target. Pakistan is one of two countries, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic, but where vaccination teams have been targeted by armed attackers. Many polio workers and security officials guarding them have been killed in such attacks since 2012. The opposition to all forms of inoculation grew in Pakistan after the CIA organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down al-Qaeda’s former leader Osama Bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad. Bin Laden was killed during a US military operation in that city in 2011. Efforts to eradicate polio have also been hampered by conspiracy theories spread by religious groups, which claim the vaccination programmes are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilise children or that vaccines contain pig fat and are therefore banned for Muslims. In 2021, Pakistan reported only one case, raising hopes it was close to eradicating polio. In April this year, however, it reported the first case of the debilitating neurodegenerative disease in 15 months. Since April, Pakistan has registered 11 new polio cases – all in North Waziristan, where parents often refuse to inoculate children. The outbreak has been a a blow to the country’s efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
Before this week, Pakistan’s health authorities had carried out three nationwide anti-polio drives this year – in January, March and in May.During the March campaign, gunmen in northwestern Pakistan shot and killed a female polio worker as she was returning home after a day of vaccinations.
And in January, gunmen shot and killed a police officer providing security for polio vaccination workers, also in the country’s northwest.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/28/gunmen-in-northwest-pakistan-kill-polio-worker-two-policemen
China wants own security company to protect assets in Pakistan
Sources say Islamabad resisting pressure from Beijing after terrorist attacks.China wants its own security company to guard its citizens and assets in Pakistan, following recent attacks against its interests, Nikkei Asia has learned. Islamabad has denied the request, sources say, but experts believe Beijing is likely to continue pushing for such an arrangement. Pakistan is a key strategic outpost for China and a major recipient of funding under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, a large international infrastructure program. But deadly unrest and anti-Chinese sentiment has worried the Chinese government. Earlier this month, the Chinese Ministry of State Security asked Pakistan to allow a Chinese security company to operate inside the South Asian country, according to two people in the Pakistani government who were privy to the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity, since they are not authorized to comment publicly.Pakistan's Interior Ministry, however, objected and offered assurances that Pakistan's security forces are able to protect Chinese nationals and assets in Pakistan, the sources said.A third source, an official from a local private security consulting company who works with the Chinese, told Nikkei that Beijing has sought to bring in its own security since 10 Chinese people were killed last year in an attack on a bus in the northern city of Dasu. This year's attack on Chinese instructors at the Confucius Institute in Karachi "further pushed the Chinese to ask Pakistan to allow operations of Chinese security companies," said another official, who also asked not to be named. The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad did not respond to a request for comment. Pakistani government officials have not publicly commented on the matter, either. When Pakistan's new Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited China in May, the two sides put out a statement saying that "China appreciated Pakistan's commitment to the safety and security of Chinese nationals" and that they would "further enhance counter-terrorism and security cooperation," according to Beijing's Foreign Ministry. The suggestion that Chinese security personnel be allowed to operate on Pakistani soil has come up before. Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan's planning minister and the man in charge of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor infrastructure project, or CPEC, told local media in 2016: "There can be tension between Chinese security companies and the local population. It is preferable that Pakistani security personnel and agencies deal with local security problems, as it will not create conflicts between China and the local population." China has more than 5,000 private security companies, 20 of which operate internationally, according to a report titled "Guardians of the Belt and Road" published by the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a German think tank.Experts say Islamabad has given Beijing a lot of leeway to operate in Pakistan. But the presence of Chinese security forces, even if they were ostensibly private contractors, appears to be a red line. James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said resentment against China would increase if Chinese security companies started guarding Chinese interests. This is especially true in Balochistan, where anti-Chinese sentiment is already very strong, he said. Baloch insurgents see China as colonizing Balochistan and exploiting its resources for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as the Pakistani section of the Belt and Road is called, fearing their people will eventually become a minority in their own region. At the same time, Dorsey said he thinks China's concerns about its people in Pakistan are genuine. "Chinese interests have been under attack by Baloch insurgents in [the] south and Pakistani Taliban in the north, and this has naturally led to no confidence in Pakistani security," he said. Dorsey added that Beijing "wants to avoid backlash at home if its nationals are killed abroad." Noting that private Chinese security companies are already active in Central Asia and Africa, he suggested that China wants to replicate that model in Pakistan. Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank, observed that although Beijing has brought in various types of support for its investments in Pakistan, it has always deferred to Pakistan on security. "If Beijing is now prepared to bring in its own security, this suggests it has completely lost trust in Pakistan's capacity to protect" it interests, he said. Krzysztof Iwanek, head of the Asia Research Center at Warsaw's War Studies University, believes it is understandable that Islamabad does not want to cede control over the security of projects within Pakistan. "It is a matter of sovereignty for Islamabad," he told Nikkei. One concern raised by the security consulting company official is that Beijing might at some point insist on having Chinese security companies present before offering more funding. Pakistan is in an economic crisis and desperately needs Chinese investment and other assistance. It can ill afford to jeopardize ties with Beijing. Last Friday, Pakistan said it had received $2.3 billion from a consortium of Chinese lenders to help it top up its dwindling foreign reserves. Others were not so sure Beijing would go as far as making control over security a precondition of further aid. "As serious as the threat is to China in Pakistan, it doesn't appear to be so serious that Beijing would risk a spat with Pakistan that could imperil its investments in a key country for its interests," Kugelman told Nikkei. On the other hand, he said Beijing might conclude that if it applies enough pressure, Islamabad will eventually relent. Iwanek said security concerns would not greatly disrupt Chinese economic interests in Pakistan anytime soon. "The security issues may hamper certain projects," he said. "[But] I believe that, in general, Chinese economic projects in Pakistan will continue."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/China-wants-own-security-company-to-protect-assets-in-Pakistan
Monday, June 27, 2022
Pakistan and Israel: 'Normalisation' a hard sell but a narrative is building
An emerging media narrative in Pakistan is raising questions about its longstanding policy of recognition of Israel conditional on Palestinian statehood.
Opinion pieces in major newspapers, alongside guests on television talk shows and social media influencers, have opened a discussion about the prospect of unconditional recognition of Israel - something hitherto unimaginable in Pakistan, where rallies in support of Palestine can draw tens of thousands onto the streets.
The main trigger for the current round of commentary on the issue was a visit to Israel last month by a group of mostly US-Pakistani dual nationals who met Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
'Embracing a fascism-inclined nation would neither be a surprise nor a travesty. Many would say just do it'
- Mahir Ali, Dawn newspaper
The visit was organised by an Israeli NGO called Sharaka, founded in the wake of the Abraham Accords that normalised relations between Israel and the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Sharaka describes itself as aiming to further improve relations between Israel and Muslim countries.
But the visit caused outrage in Pakistan when it emerged the delegation included a Pakistani television journalist, Ahmed Quraishi, who was not a dual national and for whom it was therefore prohibited under Pakistani law to travel to Israel.
Quraishi was fired from his job with the state broadcaster PTV. He says he and his family have been subjected to violent threats.
He has denied he was on a narrative-building mission but said he is happy the trip has opened a discussion about the prospects for a normalisation of relations between Israel and Pakistan.
“Pakistan's fledgling economic situation, and the geopolitical shift in the Middle East and other Muslim countries recognising Israel, will soon push Pakistan to decide where it stands,” he said. Quraishi also took aim at Imran Khan, accusing the former prime minister of “targeted harassment” after Khan criticised Quraishi at rallies in which he also said the current government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had been “tasked with recognising Israel”. Khan, who was ousted from office in April, has accused the US of plotting against him with Israel and India. Senior Pakistani officials accuse him of promoting a conspiracy theory.
'Just do it' Meanwhile, other Pakistani journalists have used the furore surrounding Quraishi to share their own views about the prospects for normalisation. Writing in Israel’s Haartez newspaper, Kunwar Khuldune Shahid said Pakistan’s recognition of Israel was now “inevitable” because of Islamabad’s economic dependence on Saudi Arabia and the kingdom’s own direction of travel towards normalisation under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Writing in response to Shahid’s piece in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, Mahir Ali noted historic similarities between Israel and Pakistan as “states carved out by colonial powers on a confessional basis”, which had decided to “attach themselves to Uncle Sam”. Ali continued: “It’s perhaps worth noting that the fondness for Israel among the Arab Gulf despots has come to the surface in the wake of the Zionist state’s drift to the far right, with no illusions about a path back to the days when the illusion of an ideological divide was kept alive. “It could be argued that Pakistan is at a similar stage of discarding the illusion of a military-civilian divide. Embracing a fascism-inclined nation would neither be a surprise nor a travesty. Many would say just do it.” Such a radical shift in policy would not be readily accepted by most Pakistanis, nor would it be consistent with Pakistan’s longstanding support for Palestinian statehood, according to Kamal Alam, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank.Alam told Middle East Eye: “It would be difficult for Pakistan to unilaterally take this decision. The ultra-conservative element in the country is very powerful, and there is a risk of them taking to the streets, while the country is already suffering from serious economic and financial problems.”
Palestine and Kashmir
Another complication, Alam said, is that public sentiment and government policy in Pakistan equates Palestine's quest for statehood with that of Kashmir, which has been partly under Indian control and a flashpoint for Indian-Pakistani tensions since partition in 1947.
“An unconditional nod of approval towards Israel would send a message that Pakistan as a state has given up on the Kashmiri cause too,” said Alam.
But while Pakistani public opinion remains largely opposed to normalisation, Alam said Pakistan’s military leadership was in favour of establishing diplomatic ties.
“The military and security services are more keen on the relationship but political parties are hesitant,” he said.
The military sees the India-Israel relationship as a threat. During the Arab-Israeli wars Pakistan was on the Arab side, but now that the Arabs are normalising the relationship, Pakistan's military and security services are thinking: why shouldn't we?”
He adds that the Pakistani intelligence agencies have on a few occasions passed on intelligence to Israel to prevent an attack on its interests in India.
In October 2009, according to a US diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks, Pakistan's spy chief contacted Israeli officials to warn them of an attack on Israeli targets in India.
But Pakistan's political leadership would have serious reservations about pursuing formal relations, said Umar Karim, a fellow at the University of Lancaster studying issues around sectarianism in the Muslim world.
'Political suicide'
Karim told MEE: “It would be political suicide for any political party to unilaterally suggest acceptance of Israel. In the recent past, Pakistani politicians have normalised antisemitic language in describing the actions of, not only Israel, but also other political opponents within Pakistan.”
During Israel's bombardment of Gaza in May last year, Pakistan loudly opposed Israeli human rights violations, and Pakistan's then-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi garnered support for the Palestinian cause by travelling with the Palestinian and Turkish foreign ministers to New York for a special UN session on the crisis.
During the same trip Qureshi was accused of repeating an antisemitic slur during a CNN interview in which he said Israel controlled the media through its connections and "deep pockets". Qureshi denied that the remark was antisemitic.
'The day the Saudis recognise Israel, Pakistan will follow soon after'
- Kamal Alam, Atlantic Council
For decades, Karim said, Pakistan's politicians have diverted the blame for their economic, political and security failures on external elements, including Israel as well as India.
“Before the age of social media, it would have been much easier [to recognise Israel],” he said.
“But now words and images travel much faster, Pakistanis are well aware of every atrocity committed by the Israelis against the Palestinians, [and] public opinion of Israel borders on hatred in Pakistan.”
In August 2020, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of cities across Pakistan to protest against the normalisation of relations between Israel and the UAE.
Should Pakistan’s own leaders choose to follow the Emiratis, Karim said they faced a real risk of provoking dangerous unrest.
“There could be violent protests, for days and months, a definite spike in incidences of terrorism," he said. "It would definitely attract the anger of banned extremist groups, which would likely target government officials, politicians, international NGOs, religious minorities, perhaps even western diplomats in Pakistan.”
But all analysts spoken to by MEE pointed to other factors beyond domestic opposition, which they said could have a greater impact on the future direction of Pakistan's relationship with Israel.
In November 2020, Imran Khan revealed that Pakistan had come under pressure from the US and other countries to recognise Israel. Asked whether he meant Muslim countries, Khan said: "There are things we cannot say. We have good relations with them.”
#Pakistan #PPP - Bilawal congratulates PPP candidates on ‘outstanding performance’ in Sindh LG polls
“[People] rejected politics based on religion or ethnicity. They chose Jinnah’s,” he wrote on the social networking website.
The candidates of the PPP trailed ahead of their opponents in the violence-plagued first phase of local bodies elections in Sindh, unconfirmed and unofficial election results indicated on Sunday.
The people in the province went to the by-polls in 14 districts of four divisions with more than 11 million voters choosing their representatives for the municipal system of their towns and villages after more than six years.
As many as 21,298 candidates landed in the electoral fray for 6,277 seats of 101 town committees, 23 municipal committees, 14 district councils, four municipal corporations, 11 town municipal corporations and 887 union councils and union committees.
The complaints of missing ballot papers, change of the election symbols and belated start of the polling were reported from many districts.
Sunday, June 26, 2022
#RoeVsWade #AbortionRightsAreHumanRights - ‘Without Roe, parts of US will look like Central America’ say activists in nations where abortion is entirely illegal
Andrew BuncombeOnce a beacon for a region where abortion was banned, US now out of step with nations such as Argentina and Columbia, writes Andrew Buncombe The United States — long a beacon to reproductive rights activists in Latin America — will now start to resemble those countries without Roe’s guarantee of a right to legally access abortion, say campaigners.
For activists in places such as El Salvador, where abortion is entirely banned, and Venezuela, where there exists on the statute an exception to save the life of a woman though in practice is equally criminal, the decades-long success of campaigners in the US was often an inspiration. For women in Argentina, where “Green Wave” activists succeeded in their own landmark victory to secure legal abortion in late 2020, there was support from counterparts in the US, whose own victory dated back all the way to 1973. But some of those activists now say parts of the US will come to resemble Central American nations when it comes to abortion laws. Women in the US, even in those states where it is now banned, will likely have greater access to help that their counterparts in countries such as Honduras.Nevertheless, the activists say women in the US may now suffer injury and even death if they resort to trying to perform abortions at home, or else turn to clandestine and unsafe procedures.“What is happening today with Roe v Wade, is worrying because what is going to happen in the United States, unfortunately, is that it will become Central America,” says Sara García Gross, an activist in El Salvador. “The absolute criminalisation of abortion that we live with in our Central American countries is serious — it generates great obstacles to access reproductive justice.” Speaking from San Salvador, García, of coordinator of political advocacy for the Citizen Group for the Decriminalisation of Therapeutic, Ethical, and Eugenic Abortion (CFDA), says the experience of women in her country suggests women in those parts of the United States where abortion is illegal will be very challenging.
“Those who face the worst consequences are young women,” she adds.
“They are women who live in poverty. They are rural women….What is going to happen in the United States is going to affect the bodies of women who are already vulnerable.”
El Salvador is among a handful of countries where abortion is entirely illegal, with no exceptions for even rape, intent or even the health of the mother.
Yet, it is perhaps singular in the aggressive way the state seeks to enforce the law. It is estimated that between 1998 and 2013, more than 600 women were jailed after being accused of having had an abortion.
One of them was Maria Teresa Rivera, who was jailed for 40 years in 2011 after she says she suffered a miscarriage, and found herself handcuffed to a hospital bed. She was eventually released after seeing four-and-a-half years in jail and now lives in Sweden.
In an interview with The Independent in 2016 she said she was delighted to be reunited with her son, Oscar.
“But I am fearful because not all of society agrees with what happened.”
Many of the states in the US — among them Arkansas and South Dakota, which will only now permit abortions to save a woman’s life — have made clear they intend to prosecute women, doctors and even providers of medication abortion drugs.
“The impact of criminalisation is very hard,” Garcia says of the experience in El Salvador. “It is very painful because women face stigmatisation. Women face violence. The presumption of innocence is denied. They are denied access to justice. And this stigatisation is also transferred to their communities, to their families.”
Prior to 1998, El Salvador permitted exceptions in which abortions were allowed in cases of rape, incest, or in which the health of the woman was threatened. Laws were changed under pressure from conservatives in the government and with the support of the powerful Catholic church.
Garcia says that abortions have not stopped, but rather been driven underground, where they are needlessly dangerous. Women with means, or education, can still obtain such procedures, or else get drugs to end abortions in their homes,
“Abortions are going to happen because it is part of women’s lives. It is an obstetric event that women face throughout history, and not just this generation,” she adds.
“What is going to happen is that it is going to happen in more insecure contexts, probably in contexts where women have to resort to methods where they do not have enough information. Women will probably have to travel to other states. There are probably women who have to continue their pregnancies, though the United Nations Committee Against Torture has already said that a forced pregnancy constitutes a form of torture.”
Giselle Carino, is an Argentinian political scientist who took part in the campaign for legal abortion in her country, now serves as the New York-based CEO of Fos Feminista, a feminist alliance of more than 170 organizations around the world.
She was part of the Marea Verde, or “green wave”, that helped secure the right to legal abortion in a similarly heavily Catholic nation in December 2020. She said it took several decades, and required a broad coalition.
She also says some women in the US will now likely be forced to risk their lives to obtain abortion. She says she is disappointed that the ruling by the Supreme Court puts the United States out of step with other parts of the Americas on reproductive rights — not only Argentina, but Mexico and Colombia have also made it legal for women to get abortions.
“We tend to see regression of rights, particularly of sexual and reproductive rights, as an indication of weakening of democratic institutions and processes,” the tells The Independent.
“So one cannot think of this regression in the US outside of that context. And one needs to wonder the impact the Trump administration had, not just on the years that he was ruling, but in this case for the many years to come for the next 20 years, for women and girls and others who have babies in the United States”.
Luisa Kislinger, an activist originally from Venezuela where abortion is in practice entirely illegal but where women resort to clandestine means, says women in those parts of the US are likely to still be able to access some help.
“In Venezuela, there is no discussion about this topic. No politician will come out and speak in support of it,” says, the former diplomat.
And she says the actions by the US Supreme Court will embolden those in Latin America seeking to further suppress women’s rights.
Garcia says she believes women in El Salvador will somehow want to offer their support to their sisters in the United States, however limited or symbolic it may be.
“We are alert, we are vigilant,” she says.” And we are also in solidarity with human rights organisations in the United States.”
https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/movies/without-roe-parts-us-look-154130093.html
Saturday, June 25, 2022
#RoeVsWade #AbortionRightsAreHumanRights - Hillary Clinton says Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade will 'live in infamy' and is a 'step backward' for women's rights
Jake Epstein
The opinion "will live in infamy as a step backward for women's rights and human rights," she said. The Court overturned the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to an abortion. Hillary Clinton said the Supreme Court's decision on Friday to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade ruling is a "step backward" for women's rights."Most Americans believe the decision to have a child is one of the most sacred decisions there is, and that such decisions should remain between patients and their doctors," she tweeted after the decision. She continued: "Today's Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for women's rights and human rights." The Supreme Court's decision to overrule Roe on Friday was part of an opinion in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. "The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives," the Friday ruling said. The ruling now leaves the legality of abortion up to state legislatures.
https://news.yahoo.com/hillary-clinton-says-supreme-court-151208243.html
Barack and Michelle Obama Call Supreme Court Ruling ‘Devastating’
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama expressed dismay over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion and urged people to view the ruling as a call to action.
“For more than a month, we’ve known this day was coming—but that doesn’t make it any less devastating,” Mr. Obama said on Twitter, adding that the court “relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”
“I am heartbroken for the people around this country who just lost the fundamental right to make informed decisions about their own bodies,” Mrs. Obama said in a statement.
The Obamas urged people to get involved with groups that advocate for abortion rights.
“This horrifying decision will have devastating consequences, and it must be a wake-up call, especially to the young people who will bear its burden,” Mrs. Obama said.
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/supreme-court-decision-roe-v-wade-6-24-2022/card/barack-and-michelle-obama-call-supreme-court-ruling-devastating--u19svDGOecqBmA96Gv9Z
#RoeVsWade #AbortionRightsAreHumanRights - World leaders condemn US abortion ruling as ‘backwards step’
Martin Farrer
Leaders of UK, Canada, France and New Zealand denounce the overruling of Roe v Wade as WHO chief calls its ‘disappointing’.
The end of constitutional protections for abortions in the United States has been described as a “backwards” move by world leaders and health organisations, while handing a huge boost to pro-life groups around the world.
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, all condemned the supreme court’s overruling of the landmark Roe v Wade decision, while New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the decision was “incredibly upsetting”.
“Watching the removal of a woman’s fundamental right to make decisions over their own body is incredibly upsetting,” she said.
“Here in New Zealand we recently legislated to decriminalise abortion and treat it as a health rather than criminal issue.
“That change was grounded in the fundamental belief that it’s a woman’s right to choose. People are absolutely entitled to have deeply held convictions on this issue. But those personal beliefs should never rob another from making their own decisions.
“To see that principle now lost in the United States feels like a loss for women everywhere. When there are so many issues to tackle, so many challenges that face women and girls, we need progress, not to fight the same fights and move backwards.”
Johnson described the court ruling as a “big step backwards”, and hundreds took to the streets of London and Edinburgh to demonstrate against the decision.
Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish Nationalist party, the third biggest party in the UK parliament, said it was “one of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime ... this will embolden anti-abortion and anti-women forces in other countries too”.
Trudeau said that “no government, politician or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body”, adding that he “can’t imagine the fear and anger” women in the US must be experiencing in the wake of the ruling.
The French foreign ministry urged US federal authorities “to do everything possible” to ensure American women have continued access to abortions, calling it a “health and survival issue”. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, added in a tweet that “abortion is a fundamental right of all women”.
The former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard called on women to keep fighting for their rights and retweeted Michelle Obama’s statement in which the former US first lady said she was “heartbroken” about the decision.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, said on Twitter that he was “concerned and disappointed” by the ruling, and that it reduced both “women’s rights and access to health care”.
The UN agency dealing with sexual and reproductive health said that whether or not abortion was legal, “it happens all too often” and global data showed that restricting access made abortion more deadly.
The United Nations population fund issued a statement following the supreme court’s decision noting that its 2022 report said that nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide were unintended and over 60% of those pregnancies might end in abortion.
“A staggering 45% of all abortions around the world are unsafe, making this a leading cause of maternal death,” the agency said.
It said almost all unsafe abortions occured in developing countries, and it feared that “more unsafe abortions will occur around the world if access to abortion becomes more restricted”.
The court’s overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade decision “shows that these types of rights are always at risk of being steamrolled”, said Ruth Zurbriggen, an Argentinian activist and member of the Companion Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, a group favouring abortion rights.
However, anti-abortion activists cheered the ruling, with legislator Amalia Granata tweeting: “There is justice again in the world. We are going to achieve this in Argentina too!!”
In El Salvador, anti-abortion campaigner Sara Larín expressed hope the ruling would bolster campaigns against the procedure around the globe.
Larín, president of Fundación Vida SV, said: “I trust that with this ruling it will be possible to abolish abortion in the United States and throughout the world.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/25/world-leaders-condemn-us-abortion-ruling-as-backwards-step