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Despite bans Abortions have hit the highest level in 10 years

States-Highest-Abortion-rates

Important Takeaways:

  • Abortions have reached their highest level in 10 years, despite bans on the procedure in more than a dozen states.
  • A report released Tuesday by reproductive health firm Guttmacher Institute showed that there were 1 million abortions in the US in 2023, the equivalent of 16 per every 1,000 women.
  • That was up 10 percent from the 14.4 per 1,000 in 2020 and the highest since 2014, when the rate was 14.6 per 1,000.
  • The rise is largely being driven by medical abortions, which can be ordered from pharmacies online and soon-to-be in person, though they are illegal in over a dozen states that have banned abortion.
  • The findings come after Vice President Kamala Harris made history as the first vice president or president to visit an abortion clinic last week – which was hailed by pro-abortion campaigners but slammed by critics as a sign that she has ‘spent her whole career in the pocket of Big Abortion.’
  • The report also found that 63 percent of abortions performed in 2023 were from medications, such as the two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprotol. In 2000, no abortions were done with this method.

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Mexico inflation quickens faster than expected to 20-year high

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican annual inflation accelerated faster than expected in November to its highest level in over two decades, official data showed on Thursday, reinforcing bets the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate again when it meets next week.

Figures from national statistics agency INEGI showed inflation in Latin America’s No. 2 economy jumped to 7.37% last month from 6.24% in October. That compared with the consensus forecast of a Reuters poll for 7.22%.

The November figure took inflation to its highest level since January 2001.

The core rate of inflation, which strips out some volatile items, reached 5.67%.

The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) last month raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 5%, the fourth consecutive hike. It also revised up its expectations for Mexican inflation at the close of this year.

Banxico’s final monetary policy meeting for the year is due on Dec. 16. The bank targets inflation of 3%, with a one percentage point tolerance range above and below that.

Earlier this week, Irene Espinosa, a member of the central bank’s board, said Banxico’s monetary policy stance continues to be accommodative and that it should respond forcefully to anchor inflation expectations.

Month-on-month, Mexican consumer prices increased by 1.14% in November, the INEGI data showed. Meanwhile, the core index of prices rose by 0.37% from October.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

German coronavirus infection rate hits highest since pandemic began

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany’s coronavirus infection rate has risen to its highest level since the start of the pandemic, public health figures showed on Monday, and doctors warned they will need to postpone scheduled operations in coming weeks to cope.

The seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 201.1, higher than a previous record of 197.6 in December last year, the figures from the Robert Koch Institute showed on Monday.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 4,782,546 from 4,767,033 a day earlier. The number of deaths increased by 33 to a total of 96,558.

Christian Karagiannidis, scientific director at the DIVI association for intensive and emergency medicine, said an expected rise in coronavirus cases in coming weeks meant some scheduled operations would have to be postponed.

“We will only be able to cope with the burden of all emergencies if savings are made somewhere else, though definitely not with surgical cancer treatments,” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

Germany has already had to relocate some patients from regions with overburdened hospitals.

The three German parties in talks to form a coalition government by early December have agreed not to extend a nationwide state of emergency.

Instead, they presented a draft law late on Monday that would amend existing legislation to allow for measures such as compulsory face masks and social distancing in public spaces to continue to be enforced until March next year.

The draft law is due to be presented to the Bundestag lower house of parliament on Thursday and voted on in a special session a week later.

Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder earlier called for more decisive action in view of the new peak in the incidence rate. More needs to be done “than a little compulsory testing in old people’s homes,” he told Deutschlandfunk radio.

He called for tests to be offered free of charge again, vaccination centers to be reactivated and for states and the federal government to coordinate their strategies. Germany has abolished free testing to incentivize people to get vaccinated.

(Writing by Vera Eckert, Paul Carrel and Sarah Marsh, Additional Reporting by Alexander Ratz; editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Heinrich and Alex Richardson)