‘Coercive’ Trump-led US health deals could cause global abortion access to collapse, charities warn

Special Report: Leading NGOs fear the deals in Africa – offering financial assistance in exchange for things like mining rights and access to health data – are worded vaguely enough for the US to impose restrictions on reproductive rights

Rachel Schraer Global Health Correspondent
Friday 16 January 2026

'Coercive' health agreements between the US and poorer countries could block them from spending their own tax money on things Donald Trump’s administration disagrees with, leading NGOs warn – risking already-fragile access to legal abortion collapsing.

After a complete freeze on foreign aid spending when Trump took office, the US is now in the process of striking new funding agreements with African governments. These promise aid money in exchange for certain conditions – from mining rights and access to valuable patient data, to agreements to spend national health budgets on priorities dictated by America. The deals replace a patchwork of previous health agreements under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been dismantled during Trump’s first year back in the White House.

Continued: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-abortion-health-aid-africa-b2900590.html

America’s abortion wars: inside the clinic on the front line

Since the overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022, abortion is illegal in 13 US states. New Mexico has become the nearest place for many women to terminate a pregnancy — if they can get past the religious activists on a mission to change their minds

George Grylls
Friday January 16 2026

Haley Nathan, 19, writes down the details of women’s cars on a clipboard outside an abortion clinic in New Mexico, braced for the day ahead. New Mexico is the closest option for any Texan woman to receive an abortion since the overturning of Roe v Wade in June 2022.

She’s frequently yelled at, or shown the middle finger. “I try not to let it bother me because it’s gonna affect my performance on the sidewalk,” says Nathan, a young intern, fixated on the clinic’s door as she prepares herself for the hostility coming her way. “I like to say it’s not me who’s doing the work. It’s God in me. I step out, God steps in.”

Continued: https://archive.is/6FX9Y
(https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/abortion-roe-v-wade-h2j7j9lm9)

Year One of Project 2025: Tracking the Trump Administration’s Devastating Campaign Against Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Guttmacher institute
Jan 15, 2026

During the 2024 campaign, President Trump repeatedly tried to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation’s far-right policy agenda Project 2025,1 claiming to know nothing about the framework or the people behind it (despite many of its authors having roles in his first administration). One year in, however, it is clear that Project 2025 is serving as the Trump administration’s playbook for implementing an extreme policy agenda at the federal level, attacking sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) both domestically and globally.

… This fact sheet summarizes key components of Project 2025’s anti-SRHR agenda and then describes how and to what extent each has been implemented during the first year of the current administration.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/year-one-project-2025-tracking-trump-admins-campaign-against-srhr

15.01.2026

USA – A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion.

In North Carolina, a state that had legislated its commitment to life, Ciji Graham spent her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.

by Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana
January 14, 2026

When Ciji Graham visited a cardiologist on Nov. 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat. The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure.

In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Graham’s heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didn’t offer to shock her. Graham texted her friend from the appointment: “Said she can’t cardiovert being pregnant.”

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/north-carolina-abortion-laws-ciji-graham

Colombia – ‘It’s not the 90s any more’: the all-women team reinventing abortion advice for the TikTok age

The irreverent approach of the Colombian hotline Jacarandas has made it the most-followed abortion account on social media in the Spanish-speaking world

Isabel Choat
Tue 13 Jan 2026

What do a purple cartoon cat and abortion have in common? Nothing – and that is the point, say the women behind Jacarandas, a Colombian abortion helpline. Determined to set themselves apart from more traditional reproductive health organisations, Jacarandas commissions street and graphic artists to create eye-catching illustrations – most recently a cartoon feline called Gataranda, inspired by the team’s much-loved office pet.

The aim is not to make light of abortion but to appeal to the teenagers and young women who use Jacarandas’ services. “A lot of people do not connect with [an image of] the uterus on fire, so we thought ‘what can we do to connect more with young women?” says Carolina Benítez Mendoza, the deputy director.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/13/its-not-the-90s-any-more-the-all-women-team-reinventing-abortion-advice-for-the-tiktok-age

In Post-Roe America, Abortion Care Is Being Reborn From the Ground Up

A British doctor finds fear and legal chaos being transformed into a new, decentralized model of reproductive freedom

Sabrina Das
Jan 13, 2026

Along the broad, ceremonial expanse of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., its lanes framed by rows of evenly spaced trees, Amy Allina paused to remember how her career began. Years before she established herself as a consultant for reproductive rights nonprofits, she learned how to perform abortions with nothing more than a length of plastic tubing and a mason jar.

It was the early 1990s. She was part of a loose network of feminist health collectives — women who believed, with a conviction that feels almost radical now, that information belonged to everyone, especially when it concerned their bodies. A mentor taught her “menstrual extraction,” a low-tech method capable of removing the contents of the uterus in very early pregnancy. The procedure was performed in living rooms and kitchens, surrounded by friends. There were no machines, no metal instruments, no men in white coats.

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/in-post-roe-america-abortion-care-is-being-reborn-from-the-ground-up/

13.01.2026

crisis pregnancy centers

Dr. Victoria Williams

self-managed abortion

Self-Managed Abortion; Safe and Supported project

shield laws

Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity

telemedicine abortion

Brussels, the quiet front line of Europe’s abortion wars

Conservative religious groups, US-linked think tanks and faith-based organisations are increasingly using the EU capital to push hardline anti-abortion views – blurring the line between belief, lobbying and politics

Emma Pirnay / Thomas Mangin – Euractiv
Jan 7, 2025

Brussels has become an unlikely hub for a well-funded conservative push against abortion rights, as religious organisations, lobby groups and foreign think tanks quietly expand their footprint near the EU’s centres of power.

In late September, American preacher Franklin Graham came to Brussels’ ING Arena to take centre stage at his Festival of Hope. A multimillionaire who inherited his father Billy’s evangelism empire, Graham is known for comparing abortion to “murder” and for his close ties to Donald Trump.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/news/ripe-for-harvest-brussels-growing-web-of-anti-abortion-religious-influence/

07.01.2026

Commentary

Camille Gervais

Center for Reproductive Rights

European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Franklin Graham

Heritage Foundation

My Voice My Choice campaign

UK – ‘Women have to fight for what they want’: UK campaigner’s 60-year unfinished battle for abortion rights

Diane Munday helped secure legal terminations in 1967 and, aged 94, is still calling for wider reproductive rights

Hannah Al-Othman
5 Jan 2026

When the 1967 Abortion Act cleared parliament, marking one of the most significant steps forward for women’s rights in history, Diane Munday was among the campaigners raising a glass of champagne on the terrace of the House of Commons.

“I’m only drinking a half a glass,” she told her colleagues at the time, “because the job is only half done.”

And, she was right. “Fifty years later, women were still going to prison,” says Munday, who co-founded the British Pregnancy Advice Service. She was also a leading member of the Abortion Law Reform Association during the 1960s and 1970s and is a patron of Humanists UK.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/05/uk-campaigner-diane-munday-unfinished-battle-abortion-rights

US abortion pill access under fire: Lawsuits and regulatory battles to watch in 2026

By Daniel Wiessner
January 5, 2026

Since the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, nearly half of U.S. states have banned or severely restricted the procedure, driving a surge in medication abortion - now used in more than 60% of abortions nationwide.

That has fueled a new wave of legal battles, with Republican-led states and conservative groups pressing to curb access to the abortion drug mifepristone, while providers and Democratic-led states push to expand it. Here's a look at the key lawsuits and regulatory fights whose outcomes could impact access to the drug in the year ahead:

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-abortion-pill-access-under-fire-lawsuits-regulatory-battles-watch-2026-2026-01-05/

05.01.2026

Commentary

FDA

Food and Drug Administration

Understanding Abortion Care: WHO Guidelines, Global Health Impact, and Access Challenges

January 3, 2026

Abortion remains one of the most common medical procedures worldwide, yet access to safe, respectful, and evidence-based care varies dramatically across different regions. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides comprehensive guidelines to ensure that abortion services meet international health standards while protecting women’s rights and wellbeing. This article examines the current state of abortion care globally, drawing from WHO’s latest recommendations and research.

The Global Scale of Abortion - The statistics surrounding pregnancy and abortion reveal a significant public health reality. Approximately 121 million pregnancies occur unintentionally each year worldwide. Of these unintended pregnancies, 60 percent end in induced abortion. Overall, three out of every ten pregnancies globally conclude with an induced abortion, making it a routine aspect of reproductive healthcare that affects millions of women annually.

Continued: https://observervoice.com/understanding-abortion-care-who-guidelines-global-health-impact-and-access-challenges-in-2025-170509/

03.01.2026