Low-Cost Solutions to Maternal Mortality Already Exist

As foreign aid declines, policymakers in lower-income countries must increasingly focus on making better use of scarce resources. When it comes to maternal mortality, that means investing in simple, proven, and affordable interventions for postpartum hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, and obstructed labor.

Jul 9, 2026
Ifeanyi M. Nsofor

SILVER SPRING—In early June, Melinda French Gates pledged $215 million to improve women’s health globally, with a focus on underfunded areas such as maternal care in Africa. The announcement comes at a critical moment. Every day, more than 700 women die during and following pregnancy and childbirth, despite the fact that many of the leading causes of maternal mortality are preventable with affordable, evidence-based interventions.

These maternal deaths are not evenly distributed. Roughly 87% of them occur in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, with the latter alone accounting for nearly 70%. By contrast, high-income countries experience far lower rates, although stark inequities remain. In the United States, for example, Black women are more than three times as likely as white women to die from maternity-related causes.

Continued; https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/increase-funding-for-proven-simple-solutions-to-maternal-mortality-by-ifeanyi-m-nsofor-2026-07

09.07.2026

postpartum hemorrhage

UK: The Anti-Abortion Movement Is Coming for Contraception Too

There is a pattern here, and we are calling it out.

09 Jul 2026
Alisa Berry Ryan

This week, reproductive rights news has been full of the same old anti-abortion playbook: spread stigma, muddy the facts, pretend healthcare is dangerous, and then act shocked when people demand easier access to basic reproductive care.

The latest target? The morning-after pill.

Emergency contraception works best the sooner it is taken. Yet access still depends on whether your local pharmacy is open, whether you can travel, whether you can pay, and whether you are forced into a conversation at a counter when what you need is safe, effective, time-sensitive healthcare.

Continued: https://abortionrights.org.uk/the-weekly-spotlight-the-anti-abortion-movement-is-coming-for-contraception-too/

09.07.2026

Commentary

Alisa Berry Ryan

College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

emergency contraception

USA – A Single Abortion Clinic Closing Rarely Makes Headlines. What Happens When None Are Left?

Four years after Dobbs, the quiet shutdown of independent abortion clinics has become a nationwide crisis—leaving 14 states with zero clinics and countless communities without any nearby, in-person reproductive care.

July 8, 2026
by Erin Grant, Ms. Magazine

Picture a map of the United States. It’s 2022, and in southern states like Texas and Tennessee, there are clusters of black dots that represent independent clinic closures. These are abortion care black holes: communities where it’s no longer possible to get an abortion at a nearby clinic.

Fast forward to present. It’s 2026, four years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and black dots have multiplied in states across the country. It no longer matters if the state is red or blue governed by conservatives or progressives. None are immune to the increasing weight of political pressure, financial strain and operational difficulty that are forcing independent clinics to close or stop providing abortion care. Each of these black dots is a community suffering a healthcare crisis, and they are proliferating across the United States at a rapid rate.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/07/08/abortion-clinic-closures-dobbs/

08.07.2026

Commentary

Abortion Care Network

abortion clinic closures

Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization

This November, will the American people show up to the polls to defend reproductive freedom?

Or, will our elected officials succumb to pressure from extremists seeking to ban abortion nationwide?

Amanda Zurawski
Jul 08, 2026

In today’s post-Roe world, the current landscape of abortion care is not defined by a single sweeping law or dramatic congressional vote. Instead, it is shaped by something far more subtle, sinister, and more consequential for millions of Americans. As we speak, every lever of government is being used to chip away at our reproductive freedom—and anti-abortion extremists are just getting warmed up.

This November, will the American people show up to the polls to defend reproductive freedom? Or, will our elected officials succumb to pressure from extremists seeking to ban abortion nationwide?

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/abortion-on-the-ballot

08.07.2026

USA – What to Know About Later Abortions: Myths, Barriers and Patient Stories

As abortion bans spread and delays mount, women seeking care later in pregnancy face growing barriers and persistent misconceptions about why they need it.

7/7/2026
by Carrie N. Baker

Later abortion is one of the most stigmatized and least understood aspects of reproductive health—yet some of the voices perpetuating that stigma come from inside the reproductive rights movement itself.

Meanwhile, while most abortions happen in the first trimester, later abortions are increasing as restrictions and bans are delaying care and creating the very conditions that make them necessary. To address these misconceptions, Erika Christensen and Garin Marschall created Patient Forward after Christensen experienced a later abortion in 2016. The organization is dedicated to eliminating later abortion stigma and barriers.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/07/07/later-abortion-myths-late-term-facts-patient-stories-birth-weeks-gestation/

07.07.2026

Commentary

barriers to later abortion

Dr. Diana Foster Greene

The agony of women and girls in accessing abortion services in Zimbabwe

July 6, 2026
By Muchaneta Chimuka

Unsafe abortion cases remain rife among youth and adults in Zimbabwe. The challenges are fuelled by exorbitant medical costs, restrictive legal frameworks, an inadequate network of youth-friendly clinics offering sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, and deep-seated negative attitudes among healthcare providers.

Furthermore, infrastructure barriers, systemic policy hurdles, and a widespread lack of knowledge on how or where to seek safe services exacerbate the situation.

Continued: https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/the-agony-of-women-and-girls-in-accessing-abortion-services-in-zimbabwe/

Kenya’s abortion taboo is killing thousands of women

Nairobi (AFP) – Kenya has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, yet US and religious pressure means the government is afraid of discussing the issue -- a combination that causes thousands of maternal deaths, according to figures from the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC).

July 3, 2026

Abortion is illegal in Kenya, but allowed whenever "the life or health of the mother is in danger" -- a loophole wide enough for hundreds of private clinics to operate legally across the east African country.

But it remains taboo for many in the religiously conservative society, and the government refuses to even count how many abortions occur.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260703-kenya-s-abortion-taboo-is-killing-thousands-of-women

Philippines’ abortion ban drives women to risky, underground services

Filipinos wanting to end unwanted pregnancies have resorted to black-market alternatives that can result in life-threatening consequences

2 Jul 2026

The arrest of a 65-year-old woman accused of selling abortion pills in Manila has offered a glimpse into the shadow economy growing around ending unwanted pregnancies in the Philippines, one of the few countries in the world where the procedure remains criminalised in almost all circumstances.

For women and girls trying to end unwanted pregnancies, access often depends on online sellers, market vendors, whispered referrals and the uncertain quality of pills bought far from formal medical care, where complications can quickly become life-threatening.

Continued: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3359074/philippines-abortion-ban-drives-women-risky-underground-services

‘It is comforting to be haunted’: how attitudes to abortion have changed through the ages

The abortion debate – the language of life, choice and rights – severs women, and their pain, from history. I don’t want to forget my abortion and I don’t want to forget theirs

By Erin Maglaque
Thu 2 Jul 2026

The physical fact of my abortion caught me off guard. I had been so accustomed to defending abortion as an abstract right – as a right to privacy, to healthcare, to autonomy – that when it came to having one, I was surprised by the brutality of it. Fasting for hours before. Clammy and light-headed, my hands freezing and damp, in the clinic waiting room. Waves of contracting pain afterwards, the blood and the vomit from the anaesthesia, the days of cramping and bleeding. Soaking through pads. Cold sweat. I thought having an abortion would feel like the exercise of the hard-won autonomy of generations of feminists before me. But mostly it just hurt.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/jul/02/it-is-comforting-to-be-haunted-how-attitudes-to-abortion-have-changed-through-the-ages

10 key recommendations to track and combat the anti-rights youth movement

Ipas
July 2, 2026

Ipas’s 2026 report Future-Proofing: The Professionalization of an Anti-Rights Youth Generation examines the recruitment, funding, coordination, and mobilization of young people within anti-rights movements.

The report includes 10 key recommendations for countering the rising anti-rights youth movement—created in collaboration with a human rights-focused youth advisory panel.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/our-work/global-gender-and-rights-monitoring/10-key-recommendations-to-track-and-combat-the-anti-rights-youth-movement/

02.07.2026