‘It’s cruel’: the last southern refuge for abortion rights might soon fall

Virginia is the only southern state that hasn’t restricted abortion post-Roe. Is that about to change?

By the time Chasity Dunans learned about her pregnancy, she had already lost the right to end it.

She had gotten her period in July, but towards the end of the month the 23-year-old mother of one started to have heartburn and wrenching stomach pains. She told herself: you’re not pregnant, you’re just sick. When the pain didn’t stop, she gave in and saw a doctor.

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‘There was blood. A dash to the hospital. No heartbeat’ – how I survived the stillbirth of my son

My world came crashing down when my baby died. The future my wife and I had been planning for nine months had been snatched away, and for fathers like me there seemed to be no one to turn to

On 4 September last year, our son, Rayan, was stillborn. My wife, Sara had been 38 weeks pregnant, and with a couple of weeks to go we had just finished buying all the things we would need for our first child: the clothes, the cot, the nappy disposal system.

It was a Sunday morning, and it started in the way we thought it would: contraction-like pain, waters breaking with a sitcom gush (this was a bad sign, we found out later). But instead of coming in waves, the pain didn’t stop. There was blood, a dash to the hospital. No heartbeat.

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Women still being harassed at abortion clinics despite buffer zone law

‘Safe access zones’ entered law in England and Wales in May but the Home Office has delayed their implementation

Women using abortion clinics are still being harassed despite MPs voting a year ago to create buffer zones to stop protesters intimidating them, medical and abortion groups say.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has failed to “commence” the legislation to introduce buffer zones in England and Wales, even though parliament approved the move on 18 October last year.

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Soaring congenital syphilis rates in US risk lives of thousands of babies

Biden administration urged to declare a public health emergency with key medication for preventable condition in short supply

Health advocates are calling on the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency over a steep rise in congenital syphilis cases. The easily treated infection has quintupled in 10 years and can have harrowing impacts on children.

Congenital syphilis happens when a baby contracts syphilis from its mother. Up to 40% of babies born to untreated mothers will be stillborn or die. Others can be left with severe birth defects such as bone damage, anemia, blindness or deafness, and “neurological devastation”.

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Emma Barnett: ‘Maternity leave is a land where time bends’

The Woman’s Hour host on ​feeling ‘pumped’ about returning to work after her second baby, dealing with tough subject matter and her love of fishing

Emma Barnett, 38, the main host of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour since 2020, has recently returned from her second maternity leave. She was born in Manchester and her journalism career began at Media Week in 2007; since then, she has written for the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Times and the Independent, and presented shows for LBC, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Newsnight and Bloomberg. Her book, Period: It’s About Bloody Time, came out in 2019. Married with a five-year-old son and a daughter aged nine months, she lives in Brixton, south London.

In a column before your maternity leave, you mentioned writing a letter to yourself for when you returned to work. Did you read it?
I nearly forgot. Two days before my first show back, the Russell Brand story broke. The day before, I was in contact with one of his anonymous accusers, setting up the logistics of speaking to her on Monday, so only when I was going to bed, quite pumped for the morning but also nervous, did I remember.

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An Alabama woman was imprisoned for ‘endangering’ her fetus. She gave birth in a jail shower

Exclusive: Ashley Caswell, one of a growing number of jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, is suing officials after she was denied care

In March 2021, sheriffs in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell on accusations that she’d tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was “endangering” her fetus.

Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their “unborn children”.

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Climate action must focus on women’s health | Letter

Christina Chilimba on how extreme weather events such as Cyclone Freddy in Malawi can affect the health and rights of women and girls

I was pleased to read your piece shining a light on the intersection of the climate crisis and its impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights (Climate crisis is ‘not gender neutral’: UN calls for more policy focus on women, 10 October).

In my homeland, Malawi, I have witnessed first-hand the devastating consequences of climate change on women and girls. The aftermath of Cyclone Freddy, which struck in March this year, is a true testament to this. Thousands remain affected, with floods severely disrupting access to essential sexual and reproductive health services. Tragically, this has led to a significant rise in teenage pregnancies and child marriages. These circumstances not only jeopardise the girls’ bodily autonomy, but also hinder their prospective economic opportunities and empowerment.

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Pregnancy leads to permanent rewiring of brain, study suggests

Research in mice reveals hormonal changes late in pregnancy trigger parenting instinct and switch in priorities

Pregnancy leads to a permanent rewiring of neurons, according to research that gives new insights into the influence of hormones on behaviour.

The research, in mice, revealed that their parenting instincts were triggered by changes in the brain that occur in response to oestrogen and progesterone late in pregnancy. Similar changes are likely to occur in the human brain, according to scientists, who said the work could pave the way for fresh understanding into parenting behaviour and postpartum mental health.

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