Lords urged to ensure women criminalised for abortion are ‘not left behind’

House to consider amendment that would pardon women in England and Wales affected by prior ‘unjust’ laws

Women who have been arrested, investigated and convicted under abortion legislation in England and Wales “must not be left behind” if the law is changed to prevent women being criminalised in future, campaigners have said.

Last summer, the House of Commons voted to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies outside the legal framework, through a new clause in the crime and policing bill.

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Women feel coerced during maternity care in England, charity says

Exclusive: Birthrights report says women are being told they are ‘not allowed’ and are being denied genuine choice

Women feel put under pressure to have medical procedures such as caesareans during their maternity care, according to a report.

The charity Birthrights collated the experiences of 300 people in England who said they had felt or witnessed coercion within a maternity setting.

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Officials ‘missed 99% of data’ on Covid vaccines before making recommendation, memos reveal

US based Covid vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant people on ideology instead of evidence, critics say

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There was scant data behind ending the Covid vaccine recommendation for pregnant people and children, according to internal memos made public because of a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The memos overlooked hundreds of studies on the benefits and safety of Covid vaccination and set the precedent for making changes to vaccine recommendations based on ideology instead of evidence, critics say.

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Fetuses likely have more ‘forever chemicals’ in blood than thought – report

US test of 120 umbilical blood cord samples identified 42 Pfas compounds, which do not naturally break down

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New peer-reviewed research shows fetuses likely have much higher levels of Pfas “forever chemicals” in their blood than previously thought.

Testing of umbilical cord blood typically looks for a small number of common Pfas compounds, like Pfoa and Pfos. However, thousands of Pfas exist, and a new Mount Sinai study tested 120 umbilical blood cord samples that were previously found to contain up to four compounds.

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I went into motherhood an oblivious idiot - and I don’t regret it | Emma Beddington

All the information about pregnancy and parenting can be understandably off-putting. It’s best to look at it clear-sightedly and, if you do decide to give it a go, accept that the path ahead is unpredictable

Can you know too much to have kids? “Maybe knowing too much about motherhood has ruined me,” journalist Andrea González-Ramírez mused on New York magazine’s The Cut website. She always assumed she would have children, González-Ramírez writes, but the “overload of brutally honest information” from the frontlines of millennial motherhood, and everything she knows about the horrifying rollback of reproductive rights, maternal mortality rates, the childcare crisis and the motherhood penalty, has left her deeply ambivalent.

Recent reports on birth trauma and grave failings in maternity care here in the UK add to the feeling it’s sensible to wonder if you’re ready to put your physical integrity, financial stability, mental health, or even your life on the line; at some level, we get the birthrate we deserve as a society. Plus, the news last week that pregnant women “shed grey matter” (“pruning” to prepare for caregiving life, the theory goes) wouldn’t win me over if I were on the fence.

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Maternity services need investment in people and training, not another review | Letters

Readers respond to Lady Amos’s damning interim report on the state of England’s NHS maternity care

Once again, we are faced with a report detailing the failures in maternity services (Cruel comments, racism and cover-ups: key findings from England’s maternity care report, 26 February, 26 February), highlighting deficiencies in both clinical staffing and care environments. Maternity services in the NHS are in crisis, but this is not new information. As clinicians, we have been aware of these systemic pressures for many years. Reports from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, now Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations, along with numerous other inquiries, have already identified the core issues. Collectively, they have produced some 748 recommendations that, if properly implemented, could meaningfully improve care.

Instead of directing funding towards implementing these recommendations, resources are being diverted into commissioning yet another review – one that is likely to reiterate what we already know. It is time to redirect investment to where it will make a tangible difference. We must return maternity services to strong, safe foundations: high-quality support, meaningful training and sustainable staffing levels for hardworking clinicians who continue to deliver care in chronically underresourced environments. These professionals strive daily to meet increasingly complex and often unrealistic expectations, frequently shaped by social media narratives that do not reflect the realities and risks inherent in maternity care.

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The scandal of women handcuffed while in labour: ‘I was so shocked when the restraints weren’t removed’

Pregnant women prisoners are being handcuffed to prison officers – often male – during intimate vaginal examinations and long, agonising births. Will this dehumanising treatment be stopped?

The worst moment of Joanna’s labour was an internal examination. She was handcuffed with her legs splayed apart and a male prison officer at the foot of the hospital bed saw everything. She had prepared for the arrival of her first baby as carefully as she could. But she understood that birth can be unpredictable – and this was complicated by the fact that, during the latter part of her pregnancy, she was serving a jail sentence.

Joanna was a model prisoner who followed the rules. She had been convicted for a non-violent drugs offence and was not deemed to be at high risk of escape, particularly not in the throes of an agonising labour. She hoped to use hypnobirthing, breathing and relaxation techniques to make the birth calmer and more comfortable. Thanks to information provided by the charity Birth Companions she knew it was her right not to be handcuffed during labour. She had highlighted the handcuffing points in the booklet.

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