Covid-19 Impact on Abortion The listings for Planned Parenthood centers are volatile. So our listings are constantly updated; see Grassroots Defunding. Illinois and New York have closed some centers at least temporarily. In New York and Pennsylvania (at least), several centers are restricting themselves to abortions and Depo shots. Telehealth is being promoted. This is a valuable opportunity to promote Community Health Centers as alternatives. It’s one thing to try to convince people other places are better when PP is open as usual. When PP’s STD testing and family planning aren’t offered at all, if the nearby CHC is offering the services, the case is so much easier to make. Now is a prime opportunity to get people weaned from a PP habit. You can check your own nearby PP to see if that’s a local possibility for you. To discuss ideas, contact project coordinator Rachel MacNair at 816-753-2057 (Central Time).
Meanwhile, governors in some states that have shut down non-essential medical services to preserve needed supplies have included abortion as being elective and therefore non-essential. Despite the rhetoric of “choice,” abortion providers are outraged at the idea that abortion isn’t “essential.” This is winding its way through the courts, with the Fifth Circuit having agreed with the governors; hundreds of abortion appointments have reportedly been cancelled. This may go to the Supreme Court. Things are moving so rapidly now that court decisions could be happening even as you read this.
Covid-19 Impact on War From Still Locked in Conflict, Israelis and Palestinians Need Each Other To Fight COVID-19 (NPR, March 26): "Israeli and Palestinian officials say they are coordinating their efforts against the coronavirus . . . Israeli hospitals, buckling under the pressure of hundreds of new virus cases a day, rely on Palestinian doctors who are citizens of Israel, as well as some Palestinian hospital staff from the West Bank, who must pass through Israeli military checkpoints to work in Israeli hospitals. . . With no tourists in Israel now, some Israeli employers have put up Palestinian laborers in Israeli hotels . . ."
Cartoon by Safaa Odah, Gaza artist (pictured). From her Instagram
The following graphic from ICAN has special meaning in a time when discrimination against those with illnesses and disabilities will be especially acute when there’s insufficient medical supplies. Those supplies may be rationed. Then who will bear the brunt of no more supplies? This was covered in this article in Newsweek.
And here's a petition for U.S. Officials: We Demand a Global Ceasefire.
New Life Matters Journal Released Our member group Rehumanize International has released the latest edition of its magazine, Life Matters Journal. This edition's theme is how violence is too easily normalized. It includes pieces by Consistent Life President John Whitehead and Thad Crouch of our member group the Choose Life Abort War podcast.
Our Latest Blog Post: Interfaith Rachel MacNair traveled to Israel and Palestine in February – just ahead of the Covid-19 outbreak, though of course not knowing so. The tour’s name: In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors: An Interfaith Peace Pilgrimage. She offers reflections in Why the Interfaith Approach is Important.
Center for Action and Contemplation (member group) Explaining postponing its major conference for a year It is a time of planetary disruption and great change. The future is uncertain, and our present moment is filled with the potential for great suffering – but also great love. The global spread of the coronavirus has revealed to all the true nature of humanity’s interconnectedness; even as we isolate ourselves from each other, we do so in loving solidarity for the protection of society’s most vulnerable people.
Responses/News Tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
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