Trigger Planting 2.0: Poly
___________________________________________________________________________
COLOMBIA | Colombia Legalizes Abortion Up To Six Months Sparking Controversy
translated from Spanish
Laura (pro-choice demonstrator): It’s such an immense happiness because we have finally achieved what women throughout the history has fought for.
___________________________________________________________________________
NORWAY | Interview with Dr. Kari Løvendahl Mogstad
translated from Norwegian
Interviewer: The Norwegian abortion law has remained virtually unchanged since 1975, with self-determined abortion until the end of the 12th week of pregnancy. But last December, the Norwegian Parliament passed a new abortion law that will take effect on June 1, 2025, extending the period for self-determination to the end of the 18th week of pregnancy.
What do you think about the new law, and do you see it as a substantial change or a symbolic change, given that even under the previous law, very few abortion applications (less than 1.5 % in 2022) were rejected after the 12th week of pregnancy?
(The question was cut from the audio to shorten the clip).
Dr. Mogstad: I understand why many people wonder why we have an abortion board at all, when so few abortions are denied, and I understand why there’s been such a debate about extending abortion rights. I also understand why the abortion law had to change, increasing self-determined abortion from the 12th week of pregnancy to the end of the 18th week. However, personally, I see many positive aspects of the abortion board.
So many women seeking abortion are struggling with ambivalence and want help talking through the decision. I don’t think these women experience us, the abortion board members, as judges standing over them saying yes or no. On the contrary, we discuss their ambivalence, even after abortion is approved, and many women have wanted and requested counseling from board members. They see the value in discussing their ambivalence with professionals. I don't believe that increasing the right to self-determination from the twelfth to the eighteenth week is going to remove their dilemmas and ambivalence. On the contrary, by removing abortion boards from the twelfth week, women might now be sitting more alone with their choices, without anyone to talk to. So, I understand that the laws had to change, however, the abortion boards are not all negative and we do not yet know the full extent of the new law will mean for Norwegian women.
Interviewer: Regarding talking through the decision with professionals – there's a big difference between using services like Amathea, getting professional help to make your own decision, and meeting an abortion board where others make the final decision for you. Many women find that threatening. What if, instead of an abortion board, women could go to a counselor or someone that could help them make a final decision, but where they ultimately make that decision for themselves?
Dr. Mogstad: My impression is that most women can make their decision on their own, however, many women need help. A few years ago, women automatically met with their general practitioner before taking an abortion because they needed a signed letter from their doctor in order to request an abortion. These days, women can call up the hospital and request an abortion on their own, without having to even visit the doctor's office. While they don’t have to see us [their general practitioners], many women come see us anyway, just to talk through their choices, and many women speak with people from Amathea as well, of course. As general practitioners, we clearly tell our patients that they must take the final decision, not us, but we can help them get there.
Interviewer: You tell them that as a general practitioner and working at Amathea, but what about as a member of the abortion board?
Dr. Mogstad: Yes, even as a member of the abortion board, at least in my experience. I’ve been very focused helping women work through their ambivalence, even as a board member. Women need support, whether they are going through with the pregnancy or the abortion. Thus, part of our tasks as board members is to map their social networks. Some people come to us without having spoken to anyone, not even their partner, if they have one. We encourage women to speak with someone – partners, friends, parents, siblings – before taking the abortion pill. Even when we have told patients that they can complete the abortion, we ask them to go home and think about it and talk to someone. That way, whatever they choose to do, they have shared it with someone, and they are not alone. Even though it may seem simple, having an abortion is not easy, and many women struggle. I believe talking with someone can help remove some of the shame, whether they want to have an abortion or not, and for that, the board can be valuable.
____________________________________________________________________________
ITALY | Giletti interviews Giorgia Meloni on abortion: "I do not intend to abolish or modify law 194"
Translated from Italian
Giorgia: Can you see me? OK. I don't intend to abolish Law 194. I don’t intend to amend- I don't intend to amend Law 194. Understand? I don't want to cancel it. OK? In what language can I explain it? I want to apply Law 194, that is, adding a right means that if today there are women in Italy who find themselves forced to have an abortion, for example because they feel they don't have the money to raise that child or to carry the pregnancy to term, for example because they feel alone, for example because they have no instructions to give them a hand. I want to give them the possibility to make a different choice, without taking anything away from those who want to make the choice of abortion. And adding or removing a right, because things have to be said as they are. And instead, although I have been saying this for decades and I have rewritten it on the program, I have reiterated it these days hundreds of times, you will find tomorrow, some pseudo-feminist who is in an attempt, let's say to attack me for no reason, will say “but that's not what she really wants to do”. Gentlemen, if there is one thing that everybody knows about Giorgia Meloni, is that when I think something, I say it.
____________________________________________________________________________
POLAND | Abortion: facts vs myths from the Women's Strike series IN MY STYLE | Magda Mołek
Translated from Polish
Interviewer: Good morning, Anna.
Anna: Good morning.
Interviewer: Thank you for finding time in your busy schedule time to talk to us. I have many questions and I would like it to be a conversation based on facts, i.e. on your experiences from your work at the abortion clinic in Vienna.
Anna: I would be very happy to share my knowledge if
it can be useful.
Interviewer: To take every precaution, so that you are not exposed to the disreputable behavior of those who, according to their own conscience and their own views, would intend to possibly administer justice here, we take care to hide your data and your image, hence this conversation will be look just like this. But thank you for wanting to share experiences. You've been working at the clinic in Vienna since when?
Anna: In 2007, you could say, I guided my first patient through abortion procedures, and in March of this year I was hired as... in Polish, the word sounds a bit strange, in German it's “Beraterin”, in Polish it's advisor, but I associate advisor with a bank. It's just someone who is, I don't know, someone like a life coach. I'm not a psychologist by training, so it's hard to call it that. This is someone who simply accompanies the woman through the whole process.
Interviewer: Well, precisely, your occupation is not that you perform medical procedures, but you are just such a person thanks to your knowledge of both languages, German and Polish, who guides patients through all the
necessary procedures for this medical procedure?
Anna: Yes, yes, for us at the clinic the most important thing is that the patient exactly understands what the doctor is saying to her. The doctor must understand exactly, what the patient is saying to them, and this communication is the first and probably the most important point of all.
That is why we do not accept patients who speak very little in English or German, because there is a suspicion, that they may not understand, as it were, all the information that the doctor is giving them and vice versa, which is why we also cooperate with various translators of other languages.
Interviewer: I understand that the decision made by the clinic,
to hire a Polish-speaking interpreter must have resulted from
for some specific reason. What was that reason?
Anna: Well, the reason was, that there were simply a lot of these patients from Poland, and they very often either speak poorly in foreign languages, or even if they speak English, they would want to have someone with them who would translate 100%. In such a stressful situation, they were afraid that they would not understand half of it, despite the fact that they speak excellent English. There were some ladies who really spoke perfect English, but still wanted me to be with them. I think it's also about the fact that many women want another woman to be with them who doesn't judge them, and for whom it doesn't seem to matter for why they are here.
The most important thing is just for the woman to be reconciled with her decision, that it is clear to her, that she has made this decision. I think that sometimes the other woman is just simply needed.
Interviewer: What is the percentage of patients from Poland in the clinic where you work, because it is a clinic open to all Austrian women, for all other female citizens of Europe, and the world who want to come and have an abortion.
Anna: I don't know how many of these Polish women, maybe 20%? It's hard to say, because now let me remind you, these percentages have changed. Maybe I will talk about what it was like before the pandemic and before these bans. I think that around 15-20% maybe. We have groups where there are simply a lot of them. For example, we also have a Hungarian translator employed. Hungarian women also come a lot, there are even a little bit more than Polish women, but they are also closer.
——————————————————————————————————
MOZAMBIQUE | Safe Abortion in Mozambique
Translated from Portuguese
Cecilia Paunde: Since safe abortion in the first phase, which was a pilot phase, which was in Munhava Health Center, and the demand was much greater, the demand for services was also much greater. With the introduction of this package, there was the decentralization of services to other health centers to decongest Munhava Health Center. The services were also expanded to some health centers. Such as the Ponta-Gea, Chingussurra.
——————————————————————————————————
CHINA | Are we running towards a future where abortion becomes increasingly difficult? (The F Word Podcast)
Translated from Chinese
Xiao Lei: This is the next stage of our life, because the fertility rate is actually decreasing in all countries. In this environment, encouraging childbearing will become mainstream, and this is also the case in China. The direction of our fertility is no longer one child at a time, but more in the direction of encouraging two or three children. In China's relatively free abortion environment, such policy was actually complementary to the one-child policy. But when we stop encouraging one child, I believe that even in China, abortion is going to be more and more difficult. I think it's not impossible that one day a bill will be introduced that says abortion is illegal in China.
Lao Zheng: Well, has it occurred to anyone that abortion is actually closely related to the population issue, which is a very straightforward logic. Why is it increasingly difficult to legalize abortion? One of the biggest obstacles is its impact on demographic relations.
Xiao Lei: Well, it's funny because my dad is a very solid father who wants to encourage me to have children.
Lao Zheng: I'm not really surprised.
Xiao Lei: Yours isn't?
Lao Zheng: Mine is as well.
Xiao Lei: Did he speak very clearly?
Lao Zheng: Yes, their thinking is to say that if you don't give birth, this is totally incomprehensible. He didn't say anything about encouraging birth, it's not a choice, it's something that has to be done. If you don't do it, you're very strange.
Xiao Lei: My dad has a very northern mentality of worrying about the country and the people at this point, but I will think back to the role of Wang Leehom in “Forever Young”, and wow, I didn't realize that Wang Leehom's name had come up again. In “Forever Young”, Wang Leehom acted the role of a rich kid, and then it was his mother to persuade him not to participate in the Air Force hoping that he can go home to have children. She admonished him by saying that this is a life experience, I hope you can experience it. And then I thought at the time that this way of admonishing, or this way of trying to get him to come around was very humane.
“This is a life experience that I hope you can experience.” But you know how my dad came to admonish me? My dad said that you should take on the responsibility of revitalizing the human race, that is, perpetuating the human race. This is my dad's real argument, okay? I do have screenshots to prove it.
Lao Zheng: The great bloodline of the Chinese race. Ah, I believe you.
Xiao Lei: Then I replied that you overestimated my family's genes. The continuation of the race doesn't concern your family's genes, does it? We are not geniuses, so there is no need.
Lao Zheng: My father would say that if everyone thinks like you, China will be finished.
Xiao Lei: Yes, those were his words.
Lao Zheng: I can think of all of them, because my dad would definitely say the same thing.
Xiao Lei: Right, right, right, but there is a rip between the meaning of reproduction for individuals and its macro meaning. You know? Just from my personal point of view I would never do it out of a desire to...
Lao Zheng: Passing on human bloodline.
Xiao Lei: ...or for the continuation of this country to consider whether I want to do this personally. Because from my personal point of view, this is a very personal thing. My father was right when he said that if f people don't do this thing, the decrease of the population is then not a false statement. We have already seen in Europe, we have already seen in Japan, we have already seen in South Korea, and many countries now with this phenomenon. The United Nations has predicted that in 2050, Japan's population will have shrunk to half of what it is today. What does 2050 mean? It means that if we will retire in 2050, if...
Lao Zheng: It’s a very good analogy.
Xiao Lei: If we continue the current situation, at that time, I believe our retirement age will not be 60 years old.
Lao Zheng: Yes, it will definitely be pushed back.