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Thai Women Ponder Abortion Due to Covid-19 Coronavirus

Planned Parenthood abortion

As the covid-19 coronavirus wreaks havoc on Thailand economy some pregnant women are pondering abortions due to financial restraints. Koi, a 39- year-old vendor, decided to terminate her pregnancy after her family’s earnings plummeted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The pregnancy was unplanned. I was six weeks in. This new reality was disorienting. I know it isn’t a good way and many people may think what I’m about to do is morally-wrong, but I have no choice and it’s hard to accept,” said Koi, who has two children, aged 14 and 10.

Koi and her husband opened a food shop at flea market in downtown Khon Kaen. But shortly after the government imposed a curfew barring people from going out between 10pm-4am, customers started staying away. Their income dropped by 50-70%, her savings plummeted, while their debt soared.

She said she understands the situation, as Covid-19 is wrecking havoc on economies worldwide and many are affected by the disease. But she said it is hard for her struggling family to survive through this period.

Koi and her 40-year-old husband were earning around 30,000 baht a month by selling food, but now they make less than 10,000 baht a month — not enough to raise their family, the Bangkok Post reports.

Couldn’t afford another Child

“When I found out I was pregnant again I was shocked, because I don’t know how I can afford a third child. We have extremely limited funds and live in a small house she said.

While the pregnancy was not planned, she had discussed the issue with her husband. Her husband urged her to consider carefully before she had an abortion.

“We agreed on the need to make extra money, but that may be difficult at the moment. No one knows when we will return to ordinary life. The Covid-19 pandemic has really destroyed our livelihoods,” she said.

And when schools reopen, she would need more money to spend on her children’s school uniforms, fees and other educational costs. And until now, she still can’t think of a way to raise the money to cover her children’s educational expenses.

Planned Parenthood for Abortion

After discussing the unplanned pregnancy with her husband, Koi spent many days contemplating. She thought hard about what she should do with her third pregnancy, before her friend took her to a family planning clinic in Khon Kaen run by the Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand (PPAT) under the Patronage of HRH the Princess Mother.

The Planned Parenthood is a pioneer in family planning in Thailand. First registered in 1970, it will mark its 50th anniversary tomorrow.

Koi said she wasn’t reluctant to seek help when she learned the clinic has doctors who can provide her with advice to prevent unplanned pregnancies.

“I needed someone who could advise me and listen to my problems. I came to the right place, as the doctor here paid attention to my case. She talked openly about the consequences of unintended pregnancy but let me make my own decision.

“She did not pressure me and explained everything to me, especially things which were pertinent to my family’s financial status and the risk of conceiving at 39-40 years old.

“So, I thought it over and decided to end my pregnancy. I want my child to grow up with good health and access to high-quality education. I don’t want him or her to be a burden on society, if he or she is not properly nourished,” she added.

Will Meet Again with Doctors

Koi says she and the doctor will meet to talk again until she is confident she really does want to terminate her pregnancy. However, she insisted that she is unlikely to change her mind.

Somchai Kaemthong, director of PPAT’s information and public relations department, said PPAT works under the medical guidelines and practices of the Medical Council, saying women can have an abortion if they are no more than 12 weeks pregnant and they must give their consent before.

If women under 20 want to end their unwanted pregnancy, their parents must give their consent, Mr Somchai said.

He said each family planning clinic under PPAT provide counselling to about 7-8 women with unplanned pregnancies a day, but not all women opt to end their pregnancy.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unintended pregnancies remain an important public health issue. Globally, 74 million women in low and middle-income countries have unintended pregnancies annually. This leads to 25 million unsafe abortions and 47,000 maternal deaths every year.

Surasak Thaneepanichsakul, chairman of PPAT, said the counselling process at family planning clinics under the PPAT observe international standards regarding sexual and reproductive health.

Planned Parenthood 10 Clinics Nationwide

PPAT, a non-governmental organization in sexual and reproductive health. Its also a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

Dr Surasak said it is a shame PPAT is marking its 50th anniversary as Covid-19 is laying waste to people’s lives.

He has assigned PPAT’s volunteers at 10 clinics nationwide to work closely with health volunteers of the Public Health Ministry in helping educate people in how to protect themselves against the new coronavirus disease.

One of the key messages PPAT wants to convey is that people should avoid having sex at this time as it could help spread the disease.

Dr Surasak said Planned Parenthood Thailand is also hoping to for greater access to the targeted population. Particularly disadvantaged groups, hilltribe people and people living in border areas. It wants to provide them with sexual and reproductive health information. Above all so they can take good care of themselves.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

shkreli

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

shkreli

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

shkreli

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP

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