This British overseas territory has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe – welcome to Gibraltar

This British overseas territory has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe - welcome to Gibraltar

Molly McElwee
20 August 2018

Last week, Argentina's senate blocked a bill to legalise abortion up to 14 weeks. In a year marked by progress for women's rights campaigners - including the Ireland referendum victory to repeal its outdated abortion laws - it has come as a huge setback.

Not even stories of 500,000 illegal abortions, leading to 100 unnecessary deaths every year - including one in the days since the bill was blocked - could break through the staunchly Catholic country's status quo.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/british-overseas-territory-has-strictest-abortion-laws-europe/

Together Gibraltar to campaign for referendum on abortion

Together Gibraltar to campaign for referendum on abortion

June 7, 2018
Chronicle Staff

Together Gibraltar to campaign for referendum on abortion

The Together Gibraltar movement will campaign for a referendum on the issue of abortion.

The movement, which was founded my Independent MP Marlene Hassan Nahon, decided to push for the referendum after a vote following a meeting last night.

continued: http://chronicle.gi/2018/06/together-gibraltar-to-campaign-for-referendum-on-abortion/

07.06.2018

Gibraltar abortion referendum

Gibraltar government will NOT repeal abortion ban, saying it has ‘already dealt with gay marriage’

EXCLUSIVE: Gibraltar government will NOT repeal abortion ban, saying it has ‘already dealt with gay marriage’

Gibraltar government says it will not consider revising its anti-abortion laws, despite the results of the recent Irish referendum vote
By Staff Reporter -
6 Jun, 2018

THE Gibraltar government has said it will not reconsider its anti-abortion laws despite Ireland’s recent landslide vote to repeal its ban.

Pro-choice campaigners had hoped it would put pressure on the Rock, but it seems their fight won’t be over any time soon.

Continued: http://www.gibraltarolivepress.com/2018/06/06/exclusive-gibraltar-government-will-not-repeal-abortion-ban-saying-it-has-already-dealt-with-gay-marriage/

The British territory with Europe’s harshest abortion laws

The British territory with Europe's harshest abortion laws

By John Owen
9 May 2018

The tiny British territory of Gibraltar has the harshest anti-abortion laws anywhere in Europe - the penalty for breaching the law is life imprisonment. But with Brexit looming and the Irish abortion referendum just weeks away, campaigners are hoping for change.

Gibraltar's residents, who live on a two-mile strip of land at the tip of Spain, are British citizens, and many feel a deep affinity with the UK.

But in one respect they are very different.

continued: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44008790

Gibraltar – part of the UK but like Northern Ireland, excluded from Britain’s abortion law

Gibraltar – part of the UK but like Northern Ireland, excluded from Britain’s abortion law
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
March 13, 2018

Gibraltar is a peninsula hanging off the edge of Spain, separated from Spain by an airport runway, belonging to the UK but excluded from British abortion law. Gibraltar is governed by a 2011 law that is based on the 1861 Offences against the Person Act, which calls for life imprisonment for anyone seeking an abortion or anyone aiding someone else to do so.

Two women’s groups have recently become active in Gibraltar as regards abortion. The Gibraltar Women’s Association believes it is time to change the law. They say they know of many women who have suffered physical and mental health problems after being forced to travel to Spain for “poor quality operations”. When the women return home, they keep what they did secret and don’t seek further medical care for fear that news of their abortion will spread. The Association says the situation is forcing many women to travel to Spain or have backstreet abortions in Gibraltar. Women who are unable to obtain a visa to travel to Spain, such as migrants or refugees, are particularly vulnerable, says the Association’s spokeswoman, Anne-Marie Struggles.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/gibraltar-part-of-the-uk-but-like-northern-ireland-excluded-from-britains-abortion-law/

Isle of Man: Abortion Is Still Illegal On This British Isle, But That Could Be About To Change

Abortion Is Still Illegal On This British Isle, But That Could Be About To Change
UK law on abortion was never extended to the Isle of Man, off the northwest coast of England, but the island might be about to decriminalise it entirely.

Posted on February 10, 2018
Laura Silver, BuzzFeed News Reporter

The Isle of Man became the first place in the world to permanently give women the vote in national elections in 1881, but more than 130 years later, the small island less than 100 miles off the northwest coast of England is one of the last places in Europe where women still don't have legal access to abortion.

The Abortion Act 1967, the UK law that allows women to access abortion, was never adopted by the Isle of Man, a self-governing region of the British Isles. This is also the case in Gibraltar, a British territory in the Mediterranean, where many women cross the border to Spain to access the procedure.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeed.com/laurasilver/abortion-is-still-illegal-on-this-british-isle-but-that

Brexit Could Worsen Abortion Rights For The Women Of Gibraltar

Brexit Could Worsen Abortion Rights For The Women Of Gibraltar

“What will happen after Gibraltar leaves the EU too? We just don’t know. Will women still be able to get in to Spain to get abortions there, or will they need long border queues or a visa? No one knows.”

Posted on April 17, 2017

Gibraltar is equal parts beautiful and bizarre, created through treaty in the 18th century as a little slice of England dozens of miles from the Costa del Sol. Today more than 32,000 people live in the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar from which the British overseas territory takes its name.

More than 300 years after the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, the Rock remains true to the spirit in which it was first established – an outpost of traditional British culture. Most Gibraltarians are bilingual but speak English with clipped accents, use the pound sterling as currency, and shop in the local Waitrose and Debenhams.

Continued at source: Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/siobhanfenton/how-brexit-could-affect-the-abortion-rights-of-thousands-of

17.04.2017