Pulitzer Center Update

Pulitzer Center Grantee Laura Bassett Wins Population Institute's Global Media Award

The procedure room in the Kibera clinic. Often, abortions conducted at such facilities put women at great risk of infection, injury and death. Image by Jake Naughton. Kenya, 2015.

The procedure room in the Kibera clinic. Often, abortions conducted at such facilities put women at great risk of infection, injury and death. Image by Jake Naughton. Kenya, 2015.

Pulitzer Center grantee Laura Bassett is a winner of The Population Institute’s 37th Annual Global Media Awards for Excellence in Population Reporting. The category for Best Article or Series of Articles is recognizing her story, "Instruments of Oppression," which was published in Huffington Post Highline. Grantee Jake Naughton photographed all images for the piece.

Bassett’s article details the plight of women and young girls in countries such as Uganda and Kenya who suffer from a lack of safe abortion practices in large part due to the U.S.’s unwillingness to repeal the Helms amendment, which prevents American aid from being used to pay for abortions. 

“Instruments of Oppression” delves into the life of Consolatta, a young woman in Kenya who underwent a botched abortion after being repeatedly raped by a neighbor. Bassett also interviews several doctors and nurses who have been harassed and imprisoned because of their participation in providing safe abortions to women in need.

Bassett is a senior politics reporter for The Huffington Post, where she has covered women's health and rights for five years. The Population Institute’s award ceremony will be held on January 31, 2017 in Washington, D.C.

To read more of Bassett's reporting, see her project "Unsafe Abortion in Kenya and the Ripple Effects of U.S. Foreign Aid Policy".