Endo Shouldn’t Be Like This
by Rimu Bhooi It's Endometriosis Awareness Month, and I'm sitting in bed, recovering from a concoction of medications in my system - Morphine, Sevredol, Bisacodyl, Ondansetron, Pregabalin, Panadol, Norethisterone, Nortriptyline, Omeprazole,...
The Right to Choose is not Enough: A Cautionary Tale
by Tracy Morison Abortion on request has been legal for more than 25 years in South Africa. Yet, despite the country’s highly liberal laws, every year pregnant women[1] die needlessly due to complications from unsafe, illegal abortions. These...
A Testing Time Part 2: Modern Pregnancy Tests
by Margaret Sparrow Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG), is a pretty special hormone excreted by the placenta to maintain a pregnancy. It can be detected in blood at low levels and also less sensitively (but more conveniently) in urine, especially...
Pro-choice Motherhood
by Julie Fairey When I first contemplated becoming a mother I worried. I worried about all sorts of things; would I be any good at it, would I hate it, would I be able to get pregnant at all. And I worried that it would change my attitude to...
Missouri Says You Must Die
by Terry Bellamak The state of Missouri says if you have an ectopic pregnancy you must die. Missouri House Bill 2810, if it passes, would make aborting an ectopic pregnancy a felony. The health practitioners who do so would be felons after...
A Testing Time Part 1: Old Fashioned Pregnancy Tests
by Margaret Sparrow Last week I helped a friend do her first Rapid Antigen Test for Covid and we marvelled at the scientific progress and the rapid commercial development that made this possible. That got me thinking about the slow progress over...
Lack of Abortion Care Can Kill
by Terry Bellamak One of the most transparently ludicrous claims anti-abortion types have made in recent years is that ‘abortion is never medically necessary.’ Tell that to Savita Halappanavar, who died of sepsis after being denied abortion care in...
The Challenge
by Terry Bellamak At the second reading for the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion (Safe Areas) Bill, Kieran McAnulty issued a challenge. At the end of his call, he laid it down: “If you’re going to vote against it – fine. Get up and tell...
Antivax / antiabortion
by Terry Bellamak "My heart is beating like I've literally been attacked. It was so terrifying." These are the words of a woman who was accosted by protesters outside a medical facility. As it happens, she was not seeking an abortion. Rather, she...
Safe areas and the intersection between the anti-abortion and anti-vax movements
By Ella Shepherd On Tuesday, Kieran McAnulty (MP for the Wairarapa) shared his story about encounters with the anti-vax movement of Aotearoa. While speaking to his Wairarapa electorate, Kieran described being verbally assaulted and receiving...