For almost five decades, she witnessed first-hand how access to safe and legal abortion improves women’s lives. Now, she fears for the future
When June Dryburgh cleaned out her desk after almost five decades as a counsellor, it was a reminder that even though many of her consultations were brief, their impact was significant. “I found so many letters and cards. There was even a long letter from one woman who wanted to share just how much the care she received at the clinic had meant to her,” she says.
Dryburgh started at the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic (FCC) less than a decade after abortion was effectively decriminalised in Victoria, Australia. She saw first-hand how access to safe abortion changed lives, and personally helped more than 100,000 women. She was also witness to anti-choice campaigners’ relentless efforts to wind back this access, weathering daily harassment of staff and patients, which turned deadly when a gunman entered the clinic in 2001 and shot their security guard.
Continue reading...College says it is neutral on assisted dying, but ‘many, many factors’ need addressing in proposal for England and Wales
The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) has voiced its opposition to the assisted dying bill in England and Wales over “many, many factors”.
The college says it is neutral on the principle of assisted dying but it has listed nine substantial reasons it cannot back the bill – which returns to parliament on Friday – in its current form.
Continue reading...UCL study of 9,000 children also found marked inequality, with people from ethnic minority backgrounds having higher exposure risk
Young children who are exposed to high levels of air pollution are more likely to experience poor health outcomes in later adolescence, according to new research.
The study, conducted by academics at University College London, looked at data from 9,000 young people taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study born between 2000 and 2002 across the UK, measuring their exposure to various types of air pollutants including PM2.5, PM10 and NO2.
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