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At a critical point in time, Pope Francis took a critical stand on the Zika virus epidemic, saying that birth control “isn’t an absolute evil” and is in fact “the lesser of two evils” for women.

Theologically, the Pontiff evoked the precedent of Pope Paul VI that had allowed nuns in Africa to use birth control due to the threat of rape. But, in 2010, his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI allowed condoms if these were intended to avoid HIV infection.

However, Pope Francis compared abortion to killing someone, which he called “absolute evil.”

The epidemic is spreading precisely in South America, where Pope Francis is touring. The Pope appealed for medical research to tackle the disease.

Several high ranking clergy in Brazil, El Salvador, and the United State have been making exactly the opposite claim to the Pope. They suggest that contraception is a sin “no matter what.”

However, the Catholic Church has categorically denied women with Zika the right to an abortion, even if there is a medical link between the virus and microcephaly.

The crisis

Microcephaly causes skulls to remain underdeveloped. if a pregnant woman contracts the virus, children are likely to be born with an underdeveloped head and a severe neurological disorder for which there is no known treatment (Guillain-Barre syndrome). Some women in the region are reportedly begging online for abortion pills, in countries where these are forbidden.

Zika could trigger spike of illegal abortions, putting thousands of women’s health at risk. In Guatemala, it is calculated that women resort of inadequately trained health providers in a ratio of three-to-one, especially in rural areas, fearing social stigma, cost, lack of access to doctors. In 2014, 10% of all maternal deaths in Latin America were due to unsafe abortion. The debate is on across Latin America, including Brazil that has an estimated 1,5 million cases of infected subjects, but an adequate policy response could take years.

A 2014 US study suggests that up to 56% of pregnancies in Latin America and the Caribbean region are unwanted, due to poverty and sexual violence. While the World Health Organization is warning women in Latin America against pregnancy, 24 million women in the region do not have access to modern birth control methods. Moreover, abortion is often illegal, which may trigger a spike in illegal procedures placing the lives of thousands of women at risk.

The Women-on-Web Dutch group is sending so-called morning-after abortion pills, although this is controversial because of anti-abortion laws in predominantly Catholic Latin America.

Poor women are more vulnerable.

The primary channel of spreading the disease is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, whose habitat is in the tropics. Besides Latin America, WHO experts have said that this particular mosquito is present in most of Africa, parts of southern Europe, and parts south Asia.

The second channel is human-to-human, through sexual intercourse. And this is where contraception could make a difference.

(The Independent, CNN, National Catholic Review)

The post Pope on the Zika epidemic: contraception ok, abortion evil appeared first on New Europe.

The Foreign Affairs (AFET) Committee invited Members of national parliaments to attend an interparliamentary committee meeting, which will focus on the current priorities in CFSP/CSDP and the way towards the NATO Summit in Warsaw. The meeting will include a general debate with VP/HR Mogherini, an exchange of views with Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, a discussion with NATO Secretary Genera and with UN Special Representative for Libya.
Location : Brussels JAN 2Q2
Further information
Draft programme
List of participants
Practical information
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

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Many women and girls who had been abducted in Nigeria by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram are returning to find themselves being rejected by their family and community, according to a report released on February 16 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the human rights group International Alert.

As reported by TakePart, a digital news magazine, people are treating the former captives with mistrust over fears the women have become radicalised supporters of the extremists. But the suspicious behaviour of family members tends to become explicit persecution if the former captives bore children after being sexually assaulted by Boko Haram militants.

The babies may be innocent, but they are seen by locals as being infected with “bad blood” from their rapist Boko Haram fathers, according to the report. “There is a belief that, like their fathers, the children will inevitably do what hyenas do and ‘eat’ the innocent dogs around them,” wrote the report’s authors.

Rejected, many of the women are being pushed into poverty and forced to turn to prostitution in order to earn money to provide for their babies.

“These findings show a pressing need to do more to reintegrate those returning from captivity by Boko Haram,” Kimairis Toogood, International Alert’s peace-building adviser in Nigeria, said in a statement. “Many of these girls already face lasting trauma of sexual violence and being separated from their families, so we must ensure they get all the support they need when they finally return.”

Approximately 2,000 women and girls have been abducted since 2012, but international awareness was only raised in late April 2014 after Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 girls from a school in the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria.

The post Girls abducted by Boko Haram are rejected by their family appeared first on New Europe.

The militant Kurdish group TAK has admitted carrying out an attack that killed 28 people in Ankara last week. The Turkish government had blamed the PKK and its Syrian offshoot the YPG for the bomboing. Some commentators still see the YPG as the mastermind. Others say it is innocent and suspect a deliberate strategy behind the Turkish government's rhetoric.

After the most recent attack in Ankara observers fear Turkey could hit back with an offensive in Syria, provoking an open confrontation between Moscow and Ankara. How will the two countries react?

The EU summit in Brussels is turning into a showdown on the Brexit issue. Will Prime Minister David Cameron manage to secure enough concessions from his EU partners to persuade his countrymen to stay in the EU?

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and Polish popular hero Lech Wałęsa is once again facing allegations that he worked for the communist secret service. Files have surfaced which reportedly confirm this. Will Polish history have to be rewritten?

Apple chief Tim Cook has refused to help the FBI disable the security features of an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernadino attackers. In an open letter he said he would defy a court order to cooperate with the intelligence service. Is Apple right to insist that its mobile phones must not be broken into?