A powerful and coordinated movement against human rights is growing in the UK

July 9, 2025
Amnesty International UK

A powerful anti-rights movement is growing in the UK, threatening to roll back our hard-won freedoms and rewrite the rules on whose rights, bodies and lives deserve protection.

Our groundbreaking analysis has uncovered a rapidly expanding network of organisations working to undermine human rights protections, targeting reproductive freedoms, LGBTI rights and promoting dangerous practices such as so-called "conversion therapy".

This threat is real, organised and growing. But we see their game, and we won’t stand for it.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/anti-rights

A “Striking” Trend: After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage

A new ProPublica data analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

by Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Andrea Suozzo
July 1, 2025

Before states banned abortion, one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided: Doctors could offer a dilation and curettage procedure, which quickly empties the uterus and allows it to close, protecting against a life-threatening hemorrhage.

But because the procedures, known as D&Cs, are also used to end pregnancies, they have gotten tangled up in state legislation that restricts abortion. Reports now abound of doctors hesitating to provide them and women who are bleeding heavily being discharged from emergency rooms without care, only to return in such dire condition that they need blood transfusions to survive. As ProPublica reported last year, one woman died of hemorrhage after 10 hours in a Houston hospital that didn’t perform the procedure.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-miscarriage-blood-transfusions

USA – Abortion Bans May Be Making Second-Trimester Abortions More Likely

Jun 26, 2025
by Chantelle Lee

The fraction of people who got an abortion in their second trimester more than doubled in states that enforced near-total abortion bans after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, new research has found.

The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health on Thursday, found that the proportion of abortions that took place at or after 13 weeks of pregnancy jumped from 8% before a ban was enforced to 17% afterward. The average point in pregnancy when the people who participated in the study were able to obtain an abortion also rose, from 7.7 weeks gestation pre-ban to 8.8 weeks gestation post-ban.

Continued: https://time.com/7297838/abortion-bans-second-trimester-travel-burden/

26.06.2025

News

Research

Diana Greene Foster

negative effects of abortion bans

United States

Health

Human Rights

Australia – General practice nurses could be key to better contraception and abortion care

19 June 2025
Monash University

A significant opportunity to increase women’s access to the most effective form of contraception and abortion care is being missed in Australia, according to new research from Monash University’s SPHERE Centre of Research Excellence.

A comprehensive study, published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, reveals practice nurses – registered or enrolled nurses working within a general practice setting – are underutilised when it comes to advice, and treatment, for patients about long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). A second study from the same research, also published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, reveals similar results. The online survey involved about 500 practice nurses, most of whom were women working as registered nurses in metropolitan settings.

Continued: https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2025-articles/general-practice-nurses-could-be-key-to-better-contraception-and-abortion-care

19.06.2025

Research

Dr Sharon James

Journal of Advanced Nursing

LARCs

long-acting reversible contraceptives

Monash University

Therapeutic Goods Administration

How Abortion Restrictions Foretell Broader Human Rights Violations

May 9, 2025
American Political Science Review, Journals, Public Scholarship Program

In recent years, many countries have enacted restrictions on abortion rights, sparking intense debates and concerns about human rights. A new APSR study by Nazli Avdan, Amanda Murdie, and Victor Asal explores whether these abortion restrictions could signal a broader decline in human rights protections, particularly physical integrity rights (PIR), which include rights to personal security, freedom from torture, and bodily autonomy.

The authors begin by highlighting global instances where restrictions on abortion rights have coincided with increased authoritarianism and reduced democratic freedoms, and recent notable cases of such rulings such as in Poland, Hungary, and the United States after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. They argue that restricting abortion rights is not only harmful to women and marginalized groups but also serves as a precursor to broader human rights abuses.

Continued: https://politicalsciencenow.com/how-abortion-restrictions-foretell-broader-human-rights-violations/

09.05.2025

physical integrity rights

Victor Asal

Global

Human Rights

Kenya’s national study reveals urgent gaps in reproductive health—and a path forward

Carolyne Okallo, Youth and Communications Advisor, Ipas Africa Alliance
May 9, 2025

A recently released national report details a study highlighting gaps in Kenya’s sexual and reproductive health services—and gives compelling evidence that expanding access to modern and effective family planning and contraception is crucial to preventing unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortion methods.

Ipas Africa Alliance was part of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) that provided support for the study, “Incidence of Induced Abortions and the Severity of Abortion-related Complications in Kenya”. The joint study conducted by the Ministry of Health, the African Population and Health Research Center and Guttmacher Institute outlines the systemic changes needed to improve women’s reproductive health in Kenya.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/kenyas-national-study-reveals-urgent-gaps-in-reproductive-health-and-a-path-forward/

09.05.2025

Research

African Population and Health Research Center

Under Texas’ Abortion Ban, Where a Pregnant Woman Lives Can Determine Her Risk of Developing Sepsis

POLITICO - by Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Andrea Suozzo
May 7, 2025

Nearly four years ago in Texas, the state’s new abortion law started getting in the way of basic miscarriage care: As women waited in hospitals cramping, fluid running down their legs, doctors told them they couldn’t empty their uterus to guard against deadly complications.

The state banned most abortions, even in pregnancies that were no longer viable; then, it added criminal penalties, threatening to imprison doctors for life and punish hospitals. The law had one exception, for a life-threatening emergency.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-rates-dallas-houston

How inadequate government funding for health is fuelling unsafe abortions

The Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance
6 May 2025

A recent study by the Ministry of Health, the African Population and Health Research Centre, and the Guttmacher Institute has shown that an estimated 792,694 induced abortions occurred in Kenya in 2023[1].

The study also revealed that more than half of all women with post-abortion complications received treatment in public health facilities.

However, the capacity of health facilities to provide basic and comprehensive post-abortion care was low, with only 18.3 per cent of primary health facilities offering all the elements of basic post-termination care and 24.1 per cent of referral-level facilities providing the full package of comprehensive post-abortion care.

Continued: https://khrc.or.ke/press-release/how-inadequate-government-funding-for-health-is-fuelling-unsafe-abortions/

06.05.2025

News

Research

Abuja Declaration

African Population and Health Research Centre

Center for Reproductive Rights highlights

Guttmacher Institute

post-abortion complications

Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance

Kenya – Hospitals unprepared for post-abortion care, study finds

Sunday, May 04, 2025
By Kamau Maichuhie

A new study has lifted the lid on the unpreparedness of health facilities to deal with post abortion care in the country.

The study titled “Incidence of Induced Abortions and the Severity of Abortion-related Complications in Kenya released on Friday, shows only 18 percent of Level Two and Three facilities offer post-abortion care in the country, thus putting thousands of women at risk.

The study further indicates that only 24 percent of referral-level facilities could provide comprehensive post-abortion care (PAC) services.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/hospitals-unprepared-for-post-abortion-care-study-finds-5027950

Stability in the Number of Abortions from 2023 to 2024 in US States Without Total Bans Masks Major Shifts in Access

Isaac Maddow-Zimet and Kimya Forouzan, Guttmacher Institute
April 2025

New full-year estimates from Guttmacher Institute’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study show that the total number of abortions provided in all US states without total abortion bans remained relatively stable between 2023 and 2024, increasing by less than 1%, and the proportion of people traveling across state lines to obtain an abortion declined slightly, from 16% to 15%.

The overall stability in the number of abortions in states without total bans continued despite shifts in policy that have increased obstacles to accessing this care in many states. In 2024, 14 states* had total bans on abortion in effect, and Florida and Iowa implemented bans at six weeks’ gestation that drastically narrowed options for abortion access for both their own residents and (in the case of Florida) for residents across the region more broadly.

https://www.guttmacher.org/report/stability-number-abortions-2023-2024-us-states-without-total-bans-masks-major-shifts-access

15.04.2025