{"id":204368,"date":"2019-06-12T06:58:43","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T11:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=204368"},"modified":"2019-06-12T00:55:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T05:55:53","slug":"guam-abortion-doctors-unwilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/guam-abortion-doctors-unwilling\/","title":{"rendered":"Guam wants to expand abortion… but can’t find willing doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The governor of Guam is on a mission to expand abortion access for Guam residents and find an abortionist for the island. While abortion is legal in the predominantly Catholic territory, no doctors have been willing to commit the procedure since the island’s\u00a0last abortionist retired<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n

Governor Lourdes Leon Guerrero campaigned<\/a> for greater abortion rights before her election, but since taking office in January she’s been unable to bring abortion back to the territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe that women should have control of their bodies,\u201d she\u00a0told<\/a> The Associated Press. \u201cI\u2019m very sad and very nervous about what\u2019s happening across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abortion is currently legal in Guam within the first 13 weeks<\/a>, but anyone who ends a pregnancy without assistance from a doctor can be charged with a felony. Without an abortionist on the island, any woman who wants an abortion must travel to Hawaii, a nearly 8-hour flight. Over the past six months, an estimated<\/a> two-to-three women have made that trip.<\/p>\n

READ:<\/strong><\/em> In parts of Italy, 90% of doctors refuse to commit abortions<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Jayne Flores, director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs on Guam tells Pacific Daily News<\/a> that she is working on a preliminary plan to recruit an abortionist to the island.<\/p>\n

“The governor and I both support a woman’s right to choose, …. in all cases,” she said. “A woman has to have control over her own body.”<\/p>\n

In campaigning for greater abortion access, Guerrero and other abortion advocates are pushing false scare tactics that claim that women suffer due to a lack of abortion access.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big problem. Abortion care is pretty basically reproductive health care \u2014 we know that many women will need an abortion during the course of their reproductive years,\u201d said Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro, an OBGYN and professor at the University of Hawaii. \u201cWe know that making abortion inaccessible doesn\u2019t eliminate it, it forces women to seek unsafe measures to end a pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerrero echoed these sentiments.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m concerned about it going underground because then we can\u2019t really control it, we can\u2019t really monitor, we can\u2019t really make sure that the women are doing it in an environment that is conducive to a healthy recovery,” she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are commonly-used claims in the fight to expand abortion, though they were debunked<\/a> long ago<\/a>. In reality, women continue to suffer – and even die – at the hands of legal abortionists.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The governor of Guam is on a mission to expand abortion access for Guam residents and find an abortionist for the island. While abortion is legal in the predominantly Catholic territory, no doctors have been willing to commit the procedure since the island’s\u00a0last abortionist retired in 2018. Governor Lourdes Leon Guerrero campaigned for greater abortion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":184931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGuam wants to expand abortion... but can't find willing doctors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The governor of Guam campaigned for abortion rights but has been unable to bring abortion back to the territory since no doctors are willing to commit it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/guam-abortion-doctors-unwilling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guam wants to expand abortion... but 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