MALAWI – MPs called to tackle abortion law reform

30 Sep 2025
By Innocent Chunga

Reproductive health advocates have called on Malawi’s newly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) to urgently review the country’s restrictive abortion law, warning that unsafe procedures continue to claim women’s lives.

Faith Kadzanja, representative of the Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (Copua), made the call during this year’s International Safe Abortion Day commemorations.

https://www.pressreader.com/malawi/the-daily-times-malawi/20250930/281840059846377

30.09.2025

News

abortion law reform

Chief Kalimanjira

Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion

Dr Amos Nyaka

Faith Kadzanja

International Safe Abortion Day

Philippines: Making a safe space for abortion

Sep 30, 2025
Ana P. Santos

From shielded spaces of hotel conference rooms to the sprawling urban communities that dot our riverbanks and back alleys, women and people with vulvas have an abortion story to tell

If you give a woman a safe enough space, she will tell you her abortion story. I know because many women have entrusted me with theirs.

One woman told me about getting an abortion after an incident of marital rape left her with an unwanted pregnancy just as she was about to leave her abusive husband.

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/health-and-wellness/dash-of-sas-making-safe-space-abortion/

30.09.2025

Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network

Hundreds of US women charged with pregnancy-related crimes since fall of Roe

Study finds prosecutors targeting low-income women mainly in US south – and figure likely to be an undercount

Carter Sherman
Tue 30 Sep 2025

In the first two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, prosecutors in 16 states charged more than 400 people with pregnancy-related crimes, new research released on Tuesday found.

Of the 412 cases tracked by Pregnancy Justice, the vast majority took place in the US south, targeted low-income women and involved allegations that women broke laws against child abuse, endangerment or neglect, according to the research, which was compiled by the reproductive justice group. About 300 prosecutions took place in Alabama and Oklahoma. In 16 cases, law enforcement charged women with homicide.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/30/pregnancy-us-women-crimes-study

30.09.2025

prosecuting women for abortion

prosecuting women for miscarriage

prosecuting women for pregnancy

USA – Catholic Hospital Mergers Pose Growing Threat to Abortion Access

Center for American Progress
Sep 29, 2025

Washington, D.C. — By 2020, at least 1 in 6 U.S. hospital beds were located in Catholic hospitals. While consolidation has been increasing in American health care, Catholic health care providers are uniquely constrained by religious directives that restrict contraception access, abortion, gender-affirming care, fertility treatments, and other forms of lifesaving reproductive health care.

As the market share of Catholic hospital networks continues to grow, patients are left with fewer choices, charged higher prices, and forced to face greater challenges in accessing high-quality reproductive care. A new report from the Center for American Progress discusses this aspect of health care consolidation and recommends policies to slow consolidation, increase transparency, and protect patients’ access to care.

Continued: https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release-catholic-hospital-mergers-pose-growing-threat-to-abortion-access/

29.09.2025

Research

Barak Richman

belief-based care denial

Catholic directives

Catholic hospitals

Center for American Progress

Federal Trade Commission

The abortion pill is safe. But why should Trump let facts get in the way?

RFK Jr is conducting a review of mifepristone, citing a deeply flawed study. The move could be devastating for women

Moira Donegan, Guardian
Mon 29 Sep 2025

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s health department is conducting a new review of mifepristone, the drug used in the majority of American abortions, claiming that a new study from a conservative thinktank has raised concerns about its safety.

Mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA 25 years ago this month, has repeatedly been proven safe and effective for use terminating pregnancies in both multiple medical trials and in widespread patient use over the past quarter of a century. The report cited by Kennedy, meanwhile, comes from the Ethics and Public Policy Center – a group that applies “the Jewish and Christian traditions” to modern law and pushes back “against the extreme progressive agenda while building a consensus for conservatives” – and was not peer reviewed. The study has been heavily criticized by medical experts for its methodology and lack of transparency regarding how it obtained and analyzed its data.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/29/abortion-pill-mifepristone-trump-rfk

29.09.2025

Head of Korean human rights watchdog flip-flops on abortion rights ahead of GANHRI special review

After removing his name from last year’s statement, Ahn Chang-ho appears to have done a 180 on the issue only a month out from a special review by GANHRI

2025-09-29

Marking International Safe Abortion Day on Sunday, Ahn Chang-ho, the head of South Korea’s human rights watchdog, issued a statement saying that Korea can “no longer neglect the legislative vacuum regarding guarantees for the right to a safe abortion.”

The statement called for guarantees for abortion rights and for the country to make abortion pills available. But only a year earlier, Ahn called for his name to be removed from a press release making similar demands, raising suspicions about his sudden about-face.

Continued: https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1221384.html

29.09.2025

News

abortion law reform

Ahn Chang-ho

International Safe Abortion Day

Nam Kyu-sun

National Human Rights Commission of Korea

Kenya – Rights Groups urge Ruto to decriminalise safe abortion

The lobbyists also pointed to the Maputo Protocol, which explicitly recognises abortion as a right

by GEORGE OWITI, Nairobi
29 September 2025

Human rights lobby groups have called on President William Ruto’s administration to decriminalize safe abortion in Kenya, citing rising numbers of unsafe procedures and maternal deaths.

The African Civil Society Organizations, including the Centre for Reproductive Rights, SUPERB, FIDA Kenya, Women Collective Kenya, Women’s Probono Initiative, Reproductive Health Network Kenya and Health Development Initiative, issued the call during this year’s International Safe Abortion Day on Sunday.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/counties/nairobi/2025-09-29-rights-groups-urge-ruto-to-decriminalise-safe-abortion

NIGERIA – As Abuja court affirms right to safe abortion for sexual violence survivors

As Abuja court affirms right to safe abortion for sexual violence survivors

By Caroline Wambui
September 29, 2025

For far too long, survivors of rape and incest in Nigeria have faced significant challenges, second trauma: being forced by law and stigma to carry unwanted pregnancies.

A Federal High Court judgement in Abuja may finally begin to change that reality. In June 2025, Hon. Justice Olotu delivered a groundbreaking judgment affirming that when a woman or girl is impregnated through sexual violence, forcing her to continue the pregnancy violates her fundamental rights.

Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/09/as-abuja-court-affirms-right-to-safe-abortion-for-sexual-violence-survivors/

NIGERIA – Group urges Lagos to act on safe abortion as maternal deaths rise

29th September, 2025
By Diana Omueza

The Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) Africa has appealed to the Lagos State Government to reinstate its suspended Safe Termination of Pregnancy (STOP) guidelines.

Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, WARDC Africa’s Founding Director, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja, said reinstating the guidelines would help reduce maternal deaths caused by unsafe procedures.

Continued: https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2025/09/29/group-urges-lagos-to-act-on-safe-abortion-as-maternal-deaths-rise/

29.09.2025

News

Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi

Babajide Sanwo-Olu

WARDC

Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre

UK – Reform ‘proudly embracing’ anti-abortion politics as experts warn issue faces US-style politicisation in UK

Athena Stavrou
Sun 28 September 2025

Campaigners have warned that Reform UK has become a “political refuge for anti-abortion politicians” amid fears Britain could experience a US-style politicisation of the issue.

Pro-choice activists have raised the alarm after several political figures who have previously called for greater restrictions on abortion defected to Nigel Farage’s party.”

Continued: https://au.news.yahoo.com/reform-proudly-embracing-anti-abortion-100056164.html