💭 At least 66 clinics in 15 states have stopped providing abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to an analysis released Thursday.
The number of clinics providing abortions in the 15 states dropped from 79 before the June 24 decision to 13 as of Oct. 2, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
All 13 of the remaining clinics are in Georgia. The other states have no providers offering abortions, though some of their clinics are offering care other than abortions.
Nationally, there were more than 800 abortion clinics in 2020, the institute said.
The new report does not include data on hospitals and physician offices that provided abortion and stopped them after the court ruling, but Guttmacher researcher Rachel Jones noted that clinics provide most U.S. abortions, including procedures and dispensing abortion medication. Recent Guttmacher data show just over half of U.S. abortions are done with medication.
States without abortion providers are concentrated in the South.
Dr. Jeanne Corwin, who provides abortions in Indiana and Ohio, said clinic closures harm “women’s physical health, mental health and financial health.’’
In several states, access is under threat because bans were put on hold only temporarily by court injunctions. These include Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina, the analysis found.
“It is precarious from a medical standpoint and certainly from a business standpoint,’’ said Dr. Katie McHugh, an OB-GYN who provides abortions in Indiana. “It’s difficult to keep the doors open and the lights on when you don’t know if you’re going to be a felon tomorrow.”
💭 666 ALERT: India-Made Cough Syrups Linked to Deaths of 66 Children in Gambia: WHO
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on June 11, 2021
💭 130 Years of Cruelty😈 Against Tigrayans
😈 The level of their cruelty is difficult to comprehend
💭 131 Incidents of Blocking Tigray Aid by:
☆ Oromo / ENDF 👉 54x
☆ Eritrea / Somalia/ EDF 👉 50x
☆ Amhara Militias 👉 21x
☆ Oromo / ENDF + EDF 👉 4x
☆ TPLF 👉 1x
Oromos & Amharas have been working together for the past 130 years to persecute, starve massacre and expel all Tigrayans. It all begun with the Reign of Oromo/Amhara emperor Menelik.The naked and bitter truth.
There is no protest, or some kind of activism to show some solidarity with the people of Tigray by the Oromos, Amharas and other southern ethnics and tribes. Seven months into the #TigrayGenocide, but zero, zilch, zip, nada, nothing from these morally disengaged, unemphatic and cruel ethnic groups. Just two weeks ago, we saw a pro Abiy Ahmed huge rally organized by the authorities to show support for their positions – for the continuation of The #TigrayGenocide. We haven’t seen counter rallys or anti-genocide protests. Current Ethiopia is entirely lead by the Oromos – who have become a curse to historical Ethiopia since their disastrous to Ethiopia migrations five hundred years ago.
[Proverbs 6:16-19]
“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
🔥 Amhara & Oromos Used/ Using Rape & Hunger as a Weapon against People in Tigray for the past 130 years:-
The great famine is estimated to have caused 3.5 million deaths. During Emperor Menilk’s Reign, Tigray was split into two rgions, one of which he sold to the Italians who later named it Eritrea. Only two months after the death of Emperor Yohaness lV , Menelik signed the Wuchale treaty of 2 May 1889 conceding Eritrea to the Italians. It was not only Eritrea that Menelik gave away, he also had a hand in letting Djibouti be part of the French protectorate when he agreed the border demarcation with the French in 1887. Some huge parts of Tigray were put under Gonder. The Southern part, places like present day Alamata, Kobo etc were put under Wello Amhara adminstration.
👉 2. Haile Selassie (1892 – 1975)
Between 2 and 5 million’ people died between 1958 and 1977 as a cumulative result. Haile Selassie, who was emperor at the time, refused to send any significant basic emergency food aid to the province of Tigray,
👉 3. Mengistu Hailemariam (1937 – )
1979 – 1985 + 1987
Due to organized government policies that deliberately multiplied the effects of the famine, around 1.2 million people died from this famine. Mengistu & his Children still alive & ‘well’ while Tigrayans are again starving.
👉 4. Abiy Ahmed Ali (1976 – )
2018 – Until today: probably up to 500.000 already dead. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢 Unlike the past famine there is no natural or man-made drought, rather, Abiy simply uses war and hunger as a weapon. Abiy Ahmed sent his kids to America for safety, while bombing & starving Tigrayan kids!
In the past, and at present, the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front/ OLA) works together with Isaias Afewerkis’ ELF, TPLF, PP, ANM, EZEMA etc. So, are they all conspiring together against the ancient Christian people of Tigray so that they could be able to replace Ethiopia and create an Antichrist Islamic ‘Cush’ Caliphate of Oromia?
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on June 10, 2021
Seven Months of #TigrayGenocide later, Secretary-general of the United Nations Mr. António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres is awake from winter sleep.
✞ They all knew 100% seven months ago a catastrophe is coming, but they didn’t care enough to avoid it through sincere and humane engagement. They They didn’t want to take serious action because they wanted to protect their evil Nobel Laureate darling PM of Ethiopia. Isn’t this the reason why they put him into power – and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – license for genocide – to him in the first place?
All the parties, all sides in the conflict involved work towards the same goal: the Extermination of ancient Christians of Tigray – It’s a Battle for ‘THE TREE OF LIFE’. The Almighty is watching!✞
👉 USAID will provide enough food to feed three million people, as well as seeds, tools and fertilizers to help farmers replant crops.!
“Problem – Reaction – Solution” for ‘THE TREE OF LIFE‘.
One of the reasons they waited for so long is, because they want to show images of emaciated Ethiopian men, women and children to the world – so that they could blame Russia & China and kick them out of The SC.
Look around, the world immediately stands up with the Muslim Uyghurs of China, Muslim Rohingya of Myanmar and Muslim Palestinians — not with Christians of Syria, Armenia and Tigray. It’s all clear now!
Imagine The worldwide outrage if the 150,000 already dead Tigrayans in this genocide had actually been Palestinian, and the aggressors Israeli Troops.
👉 Now, I’m almost convinced that evil Abiy Ahmed + Isaias Afewerki + Debretsion all work for the UN-Agenda 21- its main aim is to control the world & “reduce” human population. The Almighty God is watching!✞
The UN allowed Afewerki & Ahmed to destroy plantations &Trees The intent of the armies rampaging through Tigray. Their goal is to reduce the Tigrayan people to penury, to grind them down so that “THE TREE of LIFE” can never grow again.
❖“When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?” [Deuteronomy Chapter 20:19]
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 15, 2021
For the last six months, communications blackouts and appalling access for human rights researchers and journalists alike have shrouded a conflict raging across the Tigray Region.
But as tens of thousands of Eritrean and Ethiopian national army troops have battled forces loyal to the regional government of Tigray, information has slowly and surely leaked out.
Continuing Atrocities and Denial of Humanitarian Access in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
US Department of State PRESS STATEMENT
The United States is gravely concerned by the increasing number of confirmed cases of military forces blocking humanitarian access to parts of the Tigray region. This unacceptable behavior places the 5.2 million people in the region in immediate need of humanitarian assistance at even greater risk. The United States unequivocally calls upon the Governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia to take all necessary steps to ensure that their forces in Tigray cease and desist this reprehensible conduct. We also again call on all parties to comply with obligations under international humanitarian law, including those relevant to the protection of civilians, and to cease immediately all hostilities and allow relief to reach those suffering and in greatest need of assistance. The Ethiopian government should lead in this regard and immediately facilitate full and unhindered access for humanitarian actors to all parts of the Tigray region.
There are many credible reports of armed forces in Tigray committing acts of violence against civilians, including gender-based violence and other human rights abuses and atrocities. The conduct of the Eritrean Defense Forces and Amhara regional forces have been particularly egregious. The continued presence of Eritrean forces in Tigray further undermines Ethiopia’s stability and national unity. We again call upon the Government of Eritrea to remove its forces from Tigray. Both Eritrean and Ethiopian authorities have repeatedly promised such a withdrawal, but we have seen no movement towards implementation. We equally urge the Government of Ethiopia to withdraw Amhara regional forces from the Tigray region and ensure that effective control of western Tigray is returned to the Transitional Government of Tigray. Prime Minister Abiy and President Isais must hold all those responsible for atrocities accountable.
👉“There is evidence of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Western Tigray. If carried out with the intent of eliminating Tigrayans, it may be classified as genocide,” says Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand.
👉“Taken all together, the serious crimes being committed against Tigrayans, including massacres of civilians of all ages, may meet the definition of genocide,” Ms Clark added.
🔥 #TigrayGenocide: A ‘pathetic’ international reaction:
„The silence from key international actors has been deafening”
🔥‘አሳዛኝ’ ዓለም አቀፍ ምላሽለትግራኝ ጭፍጨፋ፤
“ቁልፍ ከሆኑ ዓለም አቀፍ ተዋንያን ዝምታው ያደንቁራል“
👉 Imagine The Outrage if The 150,000 Dead Tigrayan Ethiopians Had Actually Been Palestinian, and The Aggressors Israeli Troops. We’re observing this right now! Watch how the world reacts to the current escalated Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.
Six months into northern Ethiopia’s shadow war, its atrocities are becoming harder to hide
When the first American bombs crashed into Baghdad in January 1991, the nature of war fundamentally changed.
Images of the First Gulf War were bounced off satellites and broadcast live to tens of millions of homes around the world.
Everyone saw how Iraq was systematically taken apart blow by blow. Since then, war has become more visible – its crimes ever harder to hide. But one conflict in the far north of Ethiopia has bucked the trend spectacularly, defying the information age.
For the last six months, communications blackouts and appalling access for human rights researchers and journalists alike have shrouded a conflict raging across the Tigray Region in shadows.
But as tens of thousands of Eritrean and Ethiopian national army troops have battled forces loyal to the regional government of Tigray, information has slowly and surely leaked out.
Humanitarian reports, grainy mobile phone videos, refugees accounts and journalistic dispatches all point the same way: dozens if not hundreds of mass killings, a systematic campaign of rape, ethnic cleansing and starvation being used as a weapon of war.
Last week, another bombshell hit. A video smuggled out of the country shows the head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church Abune Mathias saying the Ethiopian state is committing a ‘genocide’ on the ethnic Tigrayan people.
Several senior independent observers horrified by the tepid international response to the Tigray crisis broke ranks to tell the Telegraph what they thought was happening.
“It is crimes against humanity. It’s the crime of extermination. It’s the crime of mass starvation. It’s certainly a lot worse than Darfur,” says Alex du Waal, one of the foremost international experts on the Horn of Africa.
“There is evidence of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Western Tigray. If carried out with the intent of eliminating Tigrayans, it may be classified as genocide,” says Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand.
“Taken all together, the serious crimes being committed against Tigrayans, including massacres of civilians of all ages, may meet the definition of genocide,” Ms Clark added.
How did it come to this?
Tigray is populated mainly by ethnic Tigrayans who make up a small part of Ethiopia’s myriad of more than 80 ethnic groups.
Despite their small size, the ethnic group has played a huge role in the country’s modern history. In the 1980s, the Tigrayan’s People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led a rebel coalition to oust the Derg, Ethiopia’s Marxist dictatorship.
For the next three decades, the TPLF dominated Africa’s second-most populous nation, with Tigrayans holding key positions in the country’s government, armed forces and economy. But major TPLF abuses led to widespread hatred for the ethnic group.
Ethiopia’s current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed swept to power on a wave of anger at the status quo in April 2018. Mr Abiy moved to sideline the old Tigrayan guard and tried to increase the federal government’s power over regional governments.
Tigray openly resisted and held regional elections. An escalating war of words turned into an open conflict in November 2020. Mr Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a major federal government military base and launched a massive offensive to oust the group.
Mr Abiy enlisted the help of Eritrea, whose dictator Isaias Afwerki is a longtime foe of the TPLF and axe-wielding ethnic Amhara militias, to crush Tigray’s battle-hardened fighters in a three-pronged attack.
But any hopes of a quick blitzkrieg offensive have evaporated. Instead, the conflict has descended into a guerilla war with the Tigrayan Defence Forces, and a vast humanitarian catastrophe spread across the region of six million people.
An estimated 1.7 million people were displaced across the region at the end of March, while 4.5 million people are in need of emergency aid, according to the United Nations.
More than 60,000 refugees made it into eastern Sudan before Ethiopian forces sealed the border, preventing their very own Rohingya moment.
The situation is now so desperate that many women IDPs and refugees are selling sex for as little as £1, says the International Rescue Committee.
Breaking through the blackout
Only a handful of journalists have been granted limited access to Tigray. Their reports tell of horrifying suffering and abuses committed by all parties.
But most human rights analysts and reporters have had to investigate dozens of reported atrocities from a distance, calling up hundreds of survivors on encrypted lines to corroborate accounts and even trying to rent satellites to take pictures of mass graves.
Earlier this year, the Telegraph obtained the first video evidence of what appears to be a war crime carried out by the Ethiopian army. Around 40 bodies in civilian clothes can be seen in the video at Debre Abay in Central Tigray.
“You should have finished off the survivors,” the cameraman nonchalantly says as soldiers walk past a mortally injured man. One video analysed by CNN, the BBC, Amnesty and Bellingcat shows what appears to be Ethiopian soldiers killing dozens of men, then pushing their bodies off a cliff.
More recently, this paper published testimony from more than a dozen witnesses alleging that Ethiopian and Eritrean troops went from house to house in the Temben region of central Tigray, killing 182 people in the second week of February.
“I saw dead bodies scattered, bodies half-eaten by dogs. The soldiers did not allow anyone to get close to the corpses,” one 26-year-old man told reporters by phone at the time.
Almost every atrocity investigation has been hotly contested or flat out denied as fake news by the Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa. One Ethiopian ambassador has even insinuated journalists at this paper were paid up TPLF agents.
Yet observers say such abuses are probably just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. One team of researchers at the University of Ghent has documented almost 500 events where people were allegedly executed or massacred, mainly by Eritrean, Ethiopian national troops or militiamen.
After reporting extensively on the conflict for the last six months, Tsedale Lemma, the founder of the influential Addis Standard, believes ‘genocidal acts’ are being committed.
“Many people argue that because the number of people massacred may not be in its hundreds of thousands, it doesn’t qualify as genocide. What this argument misses is intent.”
“Intent, not just numbers, qualify acts of massacres as genocide. There are objectively corroborated reports of, for example, young men of fighting age being intentionally targeted and massacred.”
There are also reports of Tigrayans being forced to eat leaves to survive, displaced people turning up emaciated at ransacked healthcare centres and dying in their sleep of hunger.
One survey by a cluster of humanitarian groups found that half of all women surveyed were acutely malnourished. Experts have raised the alarm saying that starvation is being used as a weapon of war in the conflict.
The World Peace Foundation based in Boston released a report in April stating that food supplies were being destroyed and that the region’s elaborate food security system was being dismantled.
“There is a campaign that has been started to prevent farming. Regrettably, this campaign is being done by some of those tasked with law enforcement,” Abebe Gebrehiwot, deputy head of Tigray’s interim government, told Ethiopian state media on Monday.
A ‘pathetic’ international reaction
The silence from key international actors has been deafening. Over the last six months, the UN chief Antonio Guterres, the UN Security Council and the African Union have all refused to take any firm stance on the atrocities in Tigray.
Instead, they have spoken in muted tones about the need to get humanitarian access to the region. Part of the reason for this is Ethiopia’s considerable diplomatic heft — the African Union has its headquarters in Addis Ababa.
China and Russia have also blocked any serious attempt by Western nations in the Security Council to condemn the atrocities. Multiple critics said that part of the reason for Mr Guterres’ relative silence on Tigray was that he is up for reelection in January 2022 and needs African votes.
“UN Secretary-General António Guterres has abjectly abandoned his responsibilities. History will not judge him kindly even if he wins enough votes for reelection,” said Mr Waal.
Mr Guterres’ office said he was fully engaged in seeking an end to the conflict and “continues to call for all perpetrators of such violations to be held accountable and face justice.”
For Dr Mukesh Kapila, a former top UN official who raised the alarm about the ongoing genocide in Darfur in 2003, the situation is clear. “If you look at the pattern of killings and other incidents including sexual violence, use of starvation – there is a pattern of genocidal events. They’re taking place in close juxtaposition to each other. That points to a degree of orchestration.
“The fact that these genocidal acts are taking place in repeated places – points towards an organisation, it points towards a strategy. That is why I think of what is going on in Tigray as a set of genocidal acts, which taken together point towards an overall genocide,” Dr Kapila says.
“People are talking about this privately. But it hasn’t caught on publicly because it’s a huge, huge business to accuse a state of genocide. If you declare genocide convention, you are obliged to act,” Dr Kapila claims.
The US is beginning to wake up to the crisis. The US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, issued a stark warning saying that if the violence from Tigray spread across the nation of 110m it would make Syria look like “child’s play”.
Billene Seyoum, the spokesperson for the Ethiopian Prime Minister, hit back against the allegations of atrocities in Tigray.
“Whether from leading Ethiopian or international observers, such allegations need to be procedurally and thoroughly investigated on the ground and the results made public, which international and national human rights entities are doing,” she said in a statement.
“Anecdotal and unsubstantiated testimonies cannot count as fact and only serve to perpetuate a skewed narrative of a country. Ethiopia is making and realising commitment towards ensuring investigations take place.”
💭 A priest from the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray says killings, abductions and rape are still occurring. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢
❖ “Ethiopian troops and their allies of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The Ethiopian forces, the Amhara region special forces and Eritrean soldiers continue to hold their positions, and there are no signs they will withdraw anytime soon.”
❖ “The targets for killings are men and boys, who are being eliminated by armed forces and their allies, and women and girls, who are being repeatedly gang-raped to weaken any resistance.”
❖ “They want to annihilate Tigray. By killing the men and boys, they are trying to destroy any future resistance. They want to make sure that nobody can question their actions in future.”
❖ “They are raping and destroying women to ensure that they cannot raise a community in future. They are using rape and food a weapons of war.”
❖ “They want to destroy the people of Tigray. I am not clear why they want to declare genocide on the people of Tigray.”. Abune Mathias
❖ “Churches & monasteries were destroyed in heavy bombardment. Relics have been stolen, items of worship have been burned, belongings of believers have been desecrated.”
❖ “Farmers are being barred from farming and seeds are being blocked from reaching the region”
❖ “Tigrayan men or boys don’t want to die of hunger or be killed like their peers. They are joining the rebels so that they can live,”
“They want to annihilate Tigray. By killing the men and boys, they are trying to destroy any future resistance. They want to make sure that nobody can question their actions in future,”
A priest from the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray says killings, abductions and rape are still occurring in the region where a military offensive launched in November.
The targets for killings are men and boys, who are being eliminated by armed forces and their allies, and women and girls, who are being repeatedly gang-raped to weaken any resistance, according to the priest.
The cleric’s allegations come as individuals and organizations accuse the Ethiopian troops and their allies of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The Ethiopian forces, the Amhara region special forces and Eritrean soldiers continue to hold their positions, and there are no signs they will withdraw anytime soon.
“They want to annihilate Tigray. By killing the men and boys, they are trying to destroy any future resistance. They want to make sure that nobody can question their actions in future,” said the priest, who did not wished to be named to protect his safety. “They are raping and destroying women to ensure that they cannot raise a community in future. They are using rape and food a weapons of war.”
Earlier in May, Patriarch Mathias, head of the 36 million-member Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, urged international intervention in Tigray while alleging that the Ethiopian army and its allies were committing a genocide.
In a video statement reportedly recorded in April but released in May, Patriarch Mathias termed what happened in Tigray as the highest form of cruelty and brutality. He listed atrocities such as massacres, use of famine as a weapon of war and destruction of churches.
“They want to destroy the people of Tigray. I am not clear why they want to declare genocide on the people of Tigray,” he said in the widely quoted video statement.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali launched an offensive Nov. 3 to fight the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. He accused the leaders of the semi-autonomous region of attacking and looting weapons from a federal army base in Mekele, the capital.
Months on, the fighting is still continuing in at least three areas, according to the priest. He said Eritrean forces are carrying out most of the brutal acts, seemingly to exert revenge for the humiliation suffered during the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia.
Some of the documented atrocities include the cliff execution of young men near Aksum and the massacre of 160 people in Bora village in January. Hundreds of priests and thousands of believers were killed, the interreligious Council of Tigray said in February. Churches, monasteries and mosques were destroyed in heavy bombardment.
“Relics have been stolen, items of worship have been burned, belongings of believers have been desecrated,” said the interfaith group, which includes the Catholic Church. “Religious sisters and nuns have been violated and raped, mothers and daughters have been gang-raped.”
The priest said killings and torture are breeding nationalism among Tigrayans. He said men or boys who cannot attend school due to the war and can’t find food or fear being executed were joining the rebel ranks in droves, angry over the atrocities.
“They don’t want to die of hunger or be killed like their peers. They are joining the rebels so that they can live,” he said.
At the same time, farmers are being barred from farming and seeds are being blocked from reaching the region, according to an official from Tigray’s interim authority.
Abebe Gebrehiwot Yihdego, deputy head of Tigray’s interim government, told state-run Tigray TV that preventing farming and seeds from reaching the people would result in hunger.
“These two incidents that looked to supplement each other have no other message but to let the people of Tigray die,” Gebrehiwot said in an interview May 10.
Meanwhile, the Association of Member Episcopal Conference in Eastern Africa has issued a humanitarian appeal for the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat. Zambian Bishop Charles Kasonde, AMECEA chairman, said Catholic Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin had requested urgent humanitarian assistance for the people of Tigray.
Kasonde said Medhin had informed the conference that many people had been displaced from their homes and were forced to live in camps inside and outside Ethiopia.
“The people in the affected communities need food, medication, shelter, water, and health and sanitary items,” Kasonde said. “The church in Ethiopia and its Caritas partners are doing their best to assist the suffering communities with the meager resources they have.”
The bishop said with the increasing number of needy cases, the local church was getting overwhelmed.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 