UK – Abortion is close to decriminalisation. But how quickly can rights and progress be rolled back?

More than 100 women are believed to have been arrested on suspicion of illegal abortion over the last five years in England and Wales, but a new law will offer greater protections. The Big Issue asks experts if rights could still be under threat

Isabella McRae
13 Oct 2025

Women have been prosecuted for having an abortion for centuries. Even in recent years, in this country, women suspected of an illegal abortion have been arrested straight from the hospital ward, their homes searched and their children taken away. But a new law set to be passed in England and Wales means that abortion is a step closer to decriminalisation.

Abortion was legalised in 1967, meaning women can have an abortion up to 23 weeks and six days of a pregnancy, provided two doctors agree it meets certain criteria. The laws which are currently used to prosecute women in England were created in the Victorian era.

Continued: https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/abortion-decriminalisation-womens-rights-uk/

India – How Amended Abortion Law Is Good But Not Good Enough

The amended Act allows abortions up to 24 weeks for certain categories, like rape/incest survivors, minors, or foetal anomalies, with approval from two doctors or a medical board

Dr Nikhil Datar
October 11, 2025

‘Is my baby normal?’ Asha asked tearfully, her hands clenched tightly around her husband’s arm. I replied that we have run the tests twice and confirmed that her baby has hydrocephalus. I was trying to buy time with technical jargon, hoping she and her husband could compose themselves to receive the next piece of news. Even though it pained me to see the shock and disappointment on their faces, I had no option but to proceed with discussing these facts.

Asha’s unborn baby had developed a large head with fluid filling its brain, compressing the developing neural tissue. There was also a cyst on the spinal cord called a meningomyelocele. “Babies with hydrocephalus and meningomyelocele are born alive but will be severely restrained both physically and mentally," I told them. “Sometimes, they are paralysed from the waist down. Treatments and surgeries may help, but often, the outcomes aren’t great."

Continued: https://www.news18.com/opinion/opinion-how-amended-abortion-law-is-good-but-not-good-enough-9629694.html

11.10.2025

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

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

Luxembourg – If you oppose abortion, just don’t get one

Enshrining access to abortion in Luxembourg’s constitution would safeguard a human right, says editor-in-chief Cordula Schnuer

Cordula Schnuer, Editor-in-chief
20/09/2025

Luxembourg’s chief Catholic - Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich - has likened enshrining the right to abortion in the constitution to totalitarianism, saying people need to be free to express their opinion in a democratic country and that there are also women who oppose abortion becoming a constitutional right.

Hollerich is free to say this exactly because we live in a democracy. No one is refusing his right to his opinion, which includes believing that even in case of rape or incest women should not seek an abortion.

Continued: https://www.luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/if-you-oppose-abortion-just-don-t-get-one/91254221.html

20.09.2025

Opinion

Cordula Schnuer

Jean-Claude Hollerich

LUXEMBOURG – Healthcare rights are not political extremism

Written by Jana Degrott
Published on 15.09.2025

Cardinal Hollerich’s recent statements opposing constitutional protection for abortion access fundamentally misunderstand the nature of healthcare rights and constitutional protection.

The cardinal suggests that constitutional protection is unnecessary since abortion is already legal in Luxembourg. However, legal access without constitutional protection leaves medical care vulnerable to political shifts and legal uncertainties that can prove fatal. The tragic cases across Europe demonstrate this clearly:

Continued: https://delano.lu/article/healthcare-rights-are-not-political-extremism

15.09.2025

Opinion

Cardinal Hollerich

constitutional right to abortion

AUSTRALIA – ‘Why my abortion was the best thing that has ever happened to me’

A Perth woman has candidly opened up about why having an abortion was the “best thing” that has ever happened to her.

Ashlee Bunney
August 24, 2025

In 2020, at 32, I unexpectedly fell pregnant. After a lot of thought - I chose to have an abortion. It wasn’t easy, but it was right for me. I felt calm, certain, that I was handling it like a pro.

But trauma doesn’t always shout - it whispers. A year later, I started to hear it.

Twelve months after the procedure, sleep began to evade me. I felt detached from myself - moving through life in a kind of fog. I wasn’t just tired. I felt hollow. Like something was echoing inside me, but I didn’t know what it was saying.

Continued: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/why-my-abortion-was-the-best-thing-that-has-ever-happened-to-me/news-story/7cac949d9779c452f07878fe17339500

24.08.2025

Opinion

abortion is a blessing

MALTA – Outrage is not enough. Decriminalise abortion

We now have a woman whose police conduct has been tarnished because she made use of a procedure that is perfectly legal across all EU countries but not her own

6 August 2025
Editorial

There seems to be widespread consensus that a woman who has had an abortion should not be sent to prison. Even among those who oppose abortion, some argue against imprisonment despite agreeing that abortion should remain a criminal act.

Malta’s draconian anti-abortion law contemplates a prison term for both woman and doctor, who would have performed an abortion. Doctors also face the prospect of losing their warrant. The amendments enacted in 2023 only introduced a very limited exception to allow an abortion to take place if a woman’s life is in grave danger and left the criminal consequences untouched.

Continued: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/editorial/136362/outrage_is_not_enough_decriminalise_abortion

06.08.2025

Opinion

Jo Etienne Abela

Professional Secrecy Act

Malta – You Can Be Against Abortion And Still Be Pro-Choice

By Brian Scicluna
August 3, 2025

Earlier this week, it was reported that a young woman was handed a suspended prison sentence for taking abortion pills in Malta and then sought medical treatment for complications. The story shook many—myself included—not only because of the punishment, but because of the silence and isolation this woman must have endured.

Whatever one’s personal beliefs about abortion, there is something deeply troubling about watching another human being sentenced by the courts for a decision made in what was likely a private, and emotionally difficult moment.

Continued: https://lovinmalta.com/opinion/guest-post-you-can-be-against-abortion-and-still-be-pro-choice/

03.08.2025

USA – I’ve Kept This Secret For 56 Years. I’m Telling The Truth Now In The Hope That It Will Save Lives.

"I’m telling my story now because maybe it will help wake us up to the nightmare we’ve created."

By Cynthia Ehrenkrantz
Jul 20, 2025

“If your period is late, here’s what you do: Boil up half a bottle of red wine and drink it while it’s hot. Then stand on a chair and jump off several times. That should take care of it.”

It was March 1957, and I’d just finished packing my trunk. I would be leaving the next day to sail from England to the United States, where I would marry Ezra, my soldier-fiancé. Those were my mother’s final words of advice. Not “never go to bed angry,” or “pick your battles,” but how to abort a fetus.

Continued; https://www.huffpost.com/entry/92-year-old-secret-abortion-rights_n_68753d18e4b02462fe7a1980

20.07.2025

Goethe immortalised the shaming of German women 200 years ago – we’re still at it

Abortion is criminalised and stigmatised – and now the right has found a new female scapegoat in its US-style war on bodily autonomy

Fatma Aydemir
Sat 19 Jul 2025

Every nation has literary classics that shape its cultural identity. Germans have Faust, Goethe’s play about the successful but dissatisfied scientist Dr Heinrich Faust, who makes a deal with the devil. Faust has been performed, referenced and read in schools for more than two centuries now. Interestingly, the most tragic character in this tragedy is not the protagonist, but his “love interest”, Gretchen – a teenage girl groomed by the old man, impregnated and socially ostracised. Her solution? She drowns her “illegitimate” newborn child, accepts her death penalty and rejects Faust’s offer to save her from prison. In God’s mercy, the Christian girl seeks salvation and off goes Faust with the devil to new adventures in Faust, Part Two.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2025/jul/19/germany-goethe-shaming-women-abortion

19.07.2025