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why am I finding out from REDDIT that Trump removed guidelines instructing hospitals to perform emergency abortions to save a woman's life in America over a week ago

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Teenage girls know a lot more about democracy and what makes it tick than teenage boys, but when it comes to political ambition the boys win hands down.

A global study of 82,000 teenagers from 22 countries showed that almost without exception girls had a greater engagement with and understanding of government, equality, public trust, voting and representation, than their male peers.

But boys were more likely to say they were interested in becoming a politician

“Australian girls are outperforming boys on knowledge, attitudes and values that support a greater competency when it comes to participation in civic life,” said Rachel Parker, from the Australian Council of Educational Research, who worked on the study.

“One of the few areas where boys outperform girls in the study is the intention to be politically active.”

The report, Education for Citizenship in Times of Global Challenge, found that girls were far more knowledgeable about how parliament works, globalisation, independence of statutory authorities and voting and representation.

Girls were also far more likely than boys to support gender equality and equal rights for migrants and cultural groups to access education, employment and political participation.

They were more engaged with big issues such as environmental protection and more likely to participate in civic activities.

However, girls were less likely to report expecting to join a political party or a trade union or stand as a candidate in an election.

The study did not dig into the reasons why, but previous research identified parental influence and societal expectations as feeding gender norms relating to political ambition, as well as widely held perceptions that politics is a man’s world.

Indeed, 40 per cent of boys thought men are better suited to being political leaders than women, while 25 per cent agreed with the statement that women should stay out of politics.

Ella Curran, 18, harboured an ambition to become a politician when she was in Year 9, but a school excursion to Canberra cured her of that notion.

“I started to think more realistically about the sort of lifestyle I wanted for myself. And we did a legal studies excursion to Parliament House and watched question time,” she told AFR Weekend.

“I felt it was so aggressive and personal in the insults that were being thrown about that I just thought it was not the sort of workplace I could feel comfortable in,” said Ms Curran, a first-year arts and philosophy student at the University of Sydney.

“I’m just not prepared to face that kind of abuse or have my appearance or relationship status mocked in public rather than focus on what I am actually doing.”

Ms Curran’s two great passions are climate change and gender equality.

“I’m concerned about climate change, particularly Australia’s response to that because we are one of the worst countries in the world for our emissions,” she said.

Lulu Hamilton, 16, who counts women’s rights and climate change as her two greatest passions, also harboured a fleeting ambition to become a politician when she was younger but abandoned it without any fanfare.

“I thought it was the best platform to make change because if I could have power, I could make my goals become a reality,” Ms Hamilton said.

Having spent the first 12 years of her life in China, seeing democracy in action, including the free exchange of information and ideas, was a head-spinning affair.

“It was such a jarring difference. I never would have spoken to my friends in China about climate change, gender or politics. Even our textbooks had stuff whited out because the Chinese government didn’t want us to read about Tibet and Taiwan. We had very limited access to media.”

As for a future in politics? That’s out of the question.

“I feel the negatives outweigh the positives.”

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Pretending you're fine when people cross your boundaries doesn't make you a really nice person, it just makes you a really shitty communicator. Far too many people pride themselves on being "too nice" when it's just that they have zero conflict resolution skills and will seethe in resentment for months instead of articulating the problem

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"you don't get it, the usa is a fascist country full of government propaganda, and our rights as women and queer people are constantly attacked!! you have no idea what that's like!!" i'm hungarian 👍

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Men's porn-watching history should be shown to the jury during rape/SA/CSA trials. If that seems unfair to you then you've got some thinking to do.

While we're at it, female jury members which are discharged by the defence should only be able to be replaced with other women. There's nothing unjust about that. Yall have no idea how many rape trials end up being done with only 1-3/12 female jury members because defence has i think 8(?) opportunities to discharge a jury member without explanation, and in MANY rape trials they'll just. Keep discharging women until there's as few left as possible.

We sit around wondering why so few women go to police after being raped and why so few rapists are convicted? Its not (just) because "omg but its sooo hard to prove!!" its because the supposed "representations of the general public" are selected to be mainly young, often tradie men. Yall have no idea how many cases I've witnessed of rapists literally confessing, either in a recorded call or to a psychiatrist, thinking it was confidential, or some other way, and said confession is played in court and STILL they're found not guilty. That's not a fucking coincidence, it's a feature of the system.

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why do men want to be gynecologists? why? why. gynecology is for females and should be practiced solely by women imo 

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5 minute read

Thousands of protesters marched through central London (Saturday) afternoon as they demanded Carla Foster to be freed from jail, after her sentencing earlier this week reignited calls for abortion to be decriminalised.

Ms Foster was given a 28-month extended sentence on Monday after she admitted illegally procuring her own abortion during the pandemic when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

Protesters marched from the Royal Courts of Justice to Whitehall today chanting “Free Carla Foster” and waving signs saying “abortion is healthcare”.

They called for an end to Victorian legislation that renders abortion a criminal act in England, Scotland and Wales, with women granted exemptions in certain circumstances up until 24 weeks of pregnancy.

There are seven exemptions that can be granted to allow a woman to have an abortion, but none stating that a woman simply does not want a baby. For 98 per cent of women who had an abortion last year, it was recorded as being “performed because of a risk to the woman’s mental health”, classified as “F99 (mental disorder, not otherwise specified)”.

Under current legislation, abortions can only take place after 24 weeks in specific circumstances including when the mother’s life is at risk or if the child will be severely disabled.

Labour MP Stella Creasy delivered a speech to protesters who gathered in Whitehall this afternoon, claiming that current abortion legislation is no longer “fit for purpose”.

“This week proves what some of us have been trying to tell, often at length, patiently, to middle-aged men on Twitter,” she said.

“We do not have a legal right to choose in England and Wales, and that has very real consequences.”

She later told i that the significant turnout to the march “shows women aren’t prepared to accept to the possibility of prosecution hanging over their right to choose”.

“Lawmakers who think they can ignore these concerns fail to understand how important protecting a womans right to choose is to so many,” she said. “Parliament has to act as with more prosecutions on the way this issue isn’t going away.”

Lucy Wing, a 21-year-old from Walthamstow in London who attended the march, said she was “outraged” at Ms Foster’s case.

“I am here because I do not believe that the law that Carla Foster was sentenced under was at all just,” she said.

“A legal understanding of what a person is does not encompass a foetus and it does not encompass a child that was born not breathing. That child does not have any human rights because it is not seen as a person.”

Ms Foster was jailed earlier this week after being found to have ended her pregnancy in May 2020 with “pills by post” that allowed women under 10 weeks pregnant to receive abortion medication during the first Covid lockdown, when access to health services ground to a halt.

The “pills by post” scheme, which was intended to be a temporary measure ushered in during the pandemic, has now been introduced permanently.

Ms Foster, a mother-of-three, pleaded guilty to administering drugs to procure abortion significantly beyond the 10-week time limit, contrary to the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. The offence carried a maximum life sentence.

The judge, Mr Justice Pepperall, had received a letter from medical bodies including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives urging him to pass a non-custodial sentence.

However, he said this was “inappropriate” and sentenced the woman on the basis of the law as it stands.

The case has reignited calls to decriminalise abortion in the UK, with charities launching a fresh campaign to reform “outdated” laws that allow woman to face life imprisonment for ending their own pregnancies. 

Ed Dorman, 64, an obstetrician and gynaecologist who also attended the march, said that Ms Foster’s case had “galvanised” the abortion movement and drawn attention to the punity of current laws. 

“As you can tell from today, it has galvanised a lot of very strong feeling about the inappropriateness of the way the law, if it’s applied, can result in somebody being sent to prison for ending their own pregnancy,” he said. 

“I would like to see, as in Northern Ireland, the whole remit of abortion care being taken out of the criminal law and, whilst still regulated, be like any other part of healthcare.”

Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019 after Westminster passed laws while the government at Stormont had collapsed.

However, abortion is still technically illegal in the rest of the UK as legislation brought into force in 1861 has not yet been repealed.

No 10 said earlier this week that the Government has no plans to alter abortion laws despite outrage over Ms Foster’s sentencing. 

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Tuesday: “Through the Abortion Act, all women have access to safe abortions on the NHS up to 24 weeks and we have made changes so that now includes taking abortion pills at home.

“We think this approach provides the right balance and … there are no plans to change this.”

The spokesman added: “We recognise that this is a highly emotive issue and obviously we recognise that the strength of feeling on all sides.”

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I don't know if anyone actually buys this but it comes up in fiction a lot so I'll say it anyway: people don't bruise that easily, and it's less predictable than you might think. I know we all walk into coffee table corners and forget immediately and then have bruised shins and feel like it happens at the slightest provocation, but actually it doesn't.

I've done martial arts for a few years now and it never ceases to amaze me what doesn't bruise - I've been strangled against a wall by someone who ignored me tapping out, and I've had my eye bashed full force into someone's knee (hard enough that I was checked for a concussion afterwards), and not a single mark for either. I trained breaking out of wrist locks (you grip as hard as you can) with an absolute mountain of a man and had a slightly yellow tinged oval where his thumb was and nothing else.

So no, an abuse victim is not going to have a perfectly hand shaped bruise on their arm or ring around their neck necessarily.

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the thing tiktokers do where they all force themselves to do some other unnecessary activity while they talk to the camera just to give off a casual appearance is legitimately so... i don't even know the word. insufferable?

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“We’re all viewed the same in the eyes of facists” okay and what does that have to do with the fact that you’re being actively homophobic

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remember that post that was like "historical fiction/fantasy writers need to stop creating female characters who resist their arranged marriages because for noble girls arranged marriage was basically their career and they would have grown up expecting it" oh yes bc no one has ever been reluctant to do something that society expected of them. so insightful