Andorra: Activist on trial for raising concerns about total abortion ban at UN meeting

December 1, 2023
Amnesty International

Abortion rights activist, Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, should have never been charged with a crime or put on trial for defending human rights, said Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Women’s Link ahead of her defamation trial on Monday.

Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, President of Stop Violence (Stop Violències), a civil society organisation, was charged with criminal defamation after voicing concerns about Andorra’s total abortion ban at a meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to examine the country’s record on women’s rights in 2019.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/andorra-activist-on-trial-for-raising-concerns-about-total-abortion-ban-at-un-meeting/


Andorra’s abortion rights revolution

Andorra’s abortion rights revolution
Push to legalize abortion could tip country into constitutional crisis, opponents say.

By Meg Bernhard
10/22/19

ENCAMP, Andorra — There were no demonstrations in Andorra, until feminist campaigners took to the streets.

For decades, the mountaintop microstate was synonymous with winter sports and tax-free shopping — not political protests. Wedged between Spain and France, the independent principality, one of the world’s smallest countries, has largely been spared the mass social movements that have rocked its neighbors.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/andorras-abortion-rights-revolution/


The Last Places in Europe Where It’s Illegal to Get an Abortion

The Last Places in Europe Where It’s Illegal to Get an Abortion
European microstates are some of the richest countries on the continent, but human rights, including abortion, are curtailed.

by Sarah Souli; illustrated by Cathryn Virginia
Aug 19 2019

Lara hadn’t wanted to see the baby.

It wasn’t supposed to be hers, anyway; when she accidentally got pregnant at 18, she had decided the child would be raised by her aunt while she went off to university. The first few months of the pregnancy were normal: doctor’s visits, ultrasounds, the abrupt abandonment of cigarettes and beer. Then, around five months into her gestation, the pain and bleeding started. At the emergency room, a surprising diagnostic—fatally missed by her primary gynecologist—was announced. The baby was lacking two nerve bundles in its neck. A few days later, a second test with Lara’s gynecologist revealed a diagnosis of Down syndrome. The baby, doctors briskly explained to Lara, would be born “a vegetable.”

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/43kgn3/the-last-places-in-europe-where-its-illegal-to-get-an-abortion-v26n3


Andorra, one of Europe’s last abortion holdouts

Andorra, one of Europe's last abortion holdouts

28 September 2018
ANDORRA LA VELLA (ANDORRA) (AFP)

Andorra is best known as a ski destination and tax haven -- but it's the tiny principality's status as one of Europe's last countries with an abortion ban that activists want to highlight on International Safe Abortion Day.

Even in cases of rape or when their lives are in danger, women in the country of 85,500 people nestled in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, have no right to an abortion.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/20180928-andorra-one-europes-last-abortion-holdouts