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13317 articles found

UK – MP behind abortion bill: My own experience inspires campaign

Tonia Antoniazzi, who has tabled an amendment to decriminalise abortions, said she kept a termination secret as she feared losing her job

Carlos Jasso for The Times, Sanchez Manning, Social Affairs Correspondent
Monday April 20 2026

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi was a student when she had a first abortion and a language teacher at a school when she had her second. In her own words, what she went through was “terrible”.

She felt unable to seek help from her parents and, on her second termination, had to keep the procedure secret from her school employer in case she lost her job. She could only turn to her two brothers for support.

Continued: https://archive.is/yahCj
(https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/mp-abortion-bill-tonia-antoniazzi-crp7hb3kn)

Eswatini – Teen pregnancies reach 3 376 in nine months

by Sethembumenziyedwa Samuku
20 Apr 2026

Mbabane – A total of 3 376 teenage pregnancies were recorded between January and September 2025, highlighting adolescent vulnerability and raising concerns over unsafe abortion practices.

Continued: https://www.pressreader.com/eswatini/times-of-eswatini/20260420/281659671624782

20.04.2026

California is now the front line of America’s maternal mortality crisis

By Sylvia Ghazarian
April 19, 2026

California has become a refuge for reproductive care, but it’s now absorbing the consequences of a national public health failure. The United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among high-income countries, and it’s only getting worse.

A growing body of research shows that abortion bans are driving this crisis, increasing preventable deaths, especially among communities already burdened by systemic inequities. The Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP), a national abortion fund headquartered in Los Angeles, is witnessing this surge firsthand, as more patients cross state lines and require financial support to access even the most basic, time-sensitive care.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-04-19/california-maternal-mortality-crisis

19.04.2026

Commentary

black maternal mortality

Gender Equity Policy Institute

maternal mortality

Sylvia Ghazarian

Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project

Abortion: the possibilities of progress

Editorial, The Lancet
Volume 407, Issue 10538, P1483, April 18, 2026

Women's bodily autonomy and health, particularly with regard to abortion, are under attack. The politicisation of women's bodies and choices is part of a wider attempt to roll back human rights and freedoms of women and marginalised groups. Political parties with regressive ideologies, rising across the world, are finding common cause with anti-gender religious groups. Transnational anti-gender movements have become professionalised and influence national and international agendas. Overseas aid has become a bargaining chip for abortion and gender rights, with dire consequences to sexual and reproductive health. Access to reproductive health information is being restricted by tech corporations, while misinformation is left to proliferate. These trends might prompt despair, but they should not obfuscate the incredible longer-term gains in abortion rights and connected health improvements of the past 60 years, nor the possibility of further ensuring legal, free, and safe abortion for all.

Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00753-1/fulltext

18.04.2026

India – Illegal ‘abortion’ clinic running for last 12 years busted in Odisha’s Badamba

The raid was led by SI Biswa Bandita Sahoo, who posed as a patient seeking abortion to gather evidence.

17 Apr 2026

CUTTACK: Badamba police on Friday arrested a 55-year-old man on charges of impersonating a doctor and running an unlicensed clinic. He is alleged to be performing illegal abortions for over a decade.

The police also seized several medical equipment from the accused, Jayant Bastia of Sunapal under Badamba block, which include a manually-operated suction machine, surgical dilators and tools, injections and medicines. Bastia was running the clinic from his house at Sunapal. Badamba IIC Paramananda Nayak said following a tip-off, the police conducted a raid at the clinic on the day and caught Bastia red-handed while he was reportedly performing an abortion. A woman, who was in critical condition and bleeding profusely, was rescued and admitted to the Badamba CHC.

Continued: https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bhubaneswar/2026/Apr/18/illegal-abortion-clinic-running-for-last-12-years-busted-in-odishas-badamba

17.04.2026

Nigeria – Ondo State Monarch Accused Of Impregnating 21-Year-Old Woman, Forcing Abortion, Issuing Death Threats

Kehinde explained that the relationship led to pregnancy, which she claimed the monarch insisted must be terminated under threats.

April 17, 2026

A 21-year-old woman from Ipele in the Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State has accused a traditional ruler in her community of impregnating her, coercing her into terminating the pregnancy, and subjecting her to threats, intimidation, and harassment.

The victim, Ifemide Kehinde, in an exclusive interview with SaharaReporters, alleged that the monarch — whom she described as the Kabiyesi of her town — initially proposed to make her his second wife before the relationship turned abusive.

Continued: https://saharareporters.com/2026/04/17/ondo-state-monarch-accused-impregnating-21-year-old-woman-forcing-abortion-issuing-death#goog_rewarded

17.04.2026

UK – Labour plans will encourage ‘lunch-hour’ abortions, critics claim

Campaigners argue Streeting’s strategy to incentivise clinics for ‘same day’ treatments will leave women with less time to reconsider

Gabriella Swerling
17 April 2026

Labour would encourage “lunch-hour” abortions under new plans, critics have claimed. A change to the payment structure for abortion clinics would provide a “financial incentive” to rush women through treatment, claimed anti-abortion campaigners.

The new payment process was launched as part of Wes Streeting’s renewed women’s health strategy for England, in which he promised to tackle medical misogyny and improve women’s care.

Continued: https://archive.is/zXYiH
(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/04/17/labour-plans-lunch-hour-abortions-critics/)

17.04.2026

News

Andrea Williams

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Texas Medical Board Sanctions Three Doctors for Delayed Care That Led to the Deaths of Two Pregnant Women

Porsha Ngumezi and Nevaeh Crain died during miscarriages in Texas. The state’s medical board ruled that the doctors’ substandard care led to the deaths and ordered them to complete extra training.

by Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser
April 17, 2026

The Texas Medical Board has disciplined three doctors ProPublica previously investigated whose patients died after receiving delayed or inappropriate pregnancy care under the state’s strict abortion ban.

Two of the doctors failed to properly intervene as a pregnant teenager repeatedly sought care for life-threatening complications, the board found. The third did not provide a dilation and curettage procedure to empty a miscarrying patient’s uterus, and she ultimately bled to death.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/tmb-disciplines-doctors-ngumezi-crain-cases

UK – MPs and peers approve law to pardon women convicted over abortions as far back as 1800s

Law will also expunge police records for women arrested in England and Wales, and stop future prosecutions

Hannah Al-Othman
Fri 17 Apr 2026

Legislation to pardon women who have been convicted of illegal abortions has passed its final parliamentary hurdle, paving the way for a landmark change in the law in England and Wales.

The amendment to the crime and policing bill, which will also expunge the police records of those arrested and investigated over illegal abortions, was considered in the House of Lords during a phase of parliamentary ping-pong, where a bill passes back and forth between the Lords and Commons.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/17/law-pardon-women-convicted-abortions-passes-uk-parliament

17.04.2026

News

1861 Offences against the Person Act

abortion law reform

Crime and Policing bill

La Voisin, the 17th-Century Witch Who Ran a Huge Abortion Network in Paris

La Voisin helped women get abortions, which were illegal in 17th-century France, where the Catholic Church had significant influence over the country’s laws. Sound familiar?

By Danielle Han
April 17, 2026

Catherine Monvoisin (commonly known as La Voisin) was born in 1640—but in many ways, it feels like she belongs to the year 2026. She enjoyed telling fortunes; was anti-king enough to (almost) kill off Louis XIV; and despite living in a time when abortion was illegal, was not afraid to provide women with life-saving care. Per some records, it also seems like she slept with a good fraction of Paris. Good for her! If she were alive today, I’m sure we would have been great friends.

Alas, she died at 40, when she was executed for alleged witchcraft, after failing to murder King Louis. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

Continued: https://www.jezebel.com/la-voisin-the-17th-century-witch-who-ran-a-huge-abortion-network-in-paris