Purple Smoke Fills Streets as Activists Target Mexico’s Abortion Law

Video – 6:48 minutes
Apr 29, 2026

Feminist activists gathered outside the Congress of Mexico City to mark the 19th anniversary of partial abortion decriminalisation, demanding the complete removal of abortion from the penal code. Protesters used purple smoke flares, chants, and symbolic actions, including breaking a piñata representing the penal code, as part of their demonstration.

Speaking during the rally, activists from the Information Group on Chosen Reproduction (GIRE) argued that abortion should be treated as a healthcare service rather than a criminal offence. They warned that restrictive laws continue to undermine reproductive rights and bodily autonomy across the region, calling on Latin America to defend the right to choose amid concerns of a broader rollback of abortion access.

Abortion is currently legal in Mexico City within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, but remains restricted beyond that period except under specific circumstances such as rape or health risks.

Continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBc8b-dB2i0

29.04.2026

Videos/Images

abortion decriminalization

GIRE

Information Group on Reproductive Choice

Stalled Sierra Leone Abortion Bill Leaves Women Few Options

World Of Africa
Dec 23, 2025
Video - 4:44 minutes

Abortion is illegal in Sierra Leone unless the mother's life is at risk, pushing many women to drastic and dangerous lengths to terminate a pregnancy. A bill to decriminalise abortion, introduced in parliament last year, has stalled with little sign of revival

Continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM-oP_SkG0k

23.12.2025

Videos/Images

Morlai Sesay

Planned Parenthood Association of Sierra Leone

Canada – Anti-abortion billboards in West Kelowna, B.C., coming down

December 9, 2025
Video – 2:24 minutes

Billboards with anti-abortion messages may soon be coming down in the Kelowna area. For many years, a local billboard company has allowed the signs along Highway 97 through West Kelowna. As Brady Strachan reports, pressure from a local pro-choice advocate has led to a policy change.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7009750

09.12.2025

Videos/Images

anti-choice billboards

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

BC Billboards

BC Humanist Association

Will El Salvador’s Total Abortion Ban Be a Model for the U.S.? Maria Hinojosa Investigates

October 02, 2025
Video: 59 minutes

A new investigation by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Maria Hinojosa looks at reproductive rights in El Salvador, which has one of the world’s most restrictive anti-abortion laws and has imprisoned women who suffered obstetric emergencies like miscarriages or stillbirths.

While exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, one woman who spent time in prison in El Salvador for a miscarriage estimated “that 90% of the women who are in prison in El Salvador are in prison for this,” says Hinojosa.

Hinojosa also cautions that a version of El Salvador’s law could make its way to the United States as states pass more abortion bans following the end of Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/2/maria_hinojosa

02.10.2025

Film, Art, Books

Videos/Images

anti-choice misogyny

jailing women for abortion

jailing women for miscarriage

Rising together: How grassroots leaders are lifting the next generation in Nepal

Ipas
Aug 8, 2025

In rural Nepal, women’s lives have often been restricted by silence and unspoken rules. From menstruation taboos to misinformation on family planning and abortion, many young women are taught to accept harmful practices as normal. For years, Himali Khatri did too. “I am almost 40 years old, and until now, I have never received such knowledge about reproductive health,” she says.

Everything shifted for Khatri when she was selected for Natural Leaders training through Ipas Nepal, a five-day program designed for women with the potential to influence change in their communities. The training covers sexual and reproductive health and rights, safe abortion, family planning, gender-based violence, and climate resilience.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/rising-together-how-grassroots-leaders-are-lifting-the-next-generation-in-nepal/

08.08.2025

Commentary

Videos/Images

gender-based violence

Himali Khatri

Ipas Nepal

Natural Leaders training

Colombia’s push for safe abortion access

Michelle Begue
May 21, 2025
Video: 2:47 minutes

Colombia has been pushing for citizens to have better access to safe abortions. In 2022, the country witnessed a landmark ruling where the Constitutional Court made abortions legal before the 24th week of gestation. Three years later, more than 150,000 women have exercised their right to a safe abortion.

Continued: https://america.cgtn.com/2025/05/21/colombias-push-for-safe-abortion-access

21.05.2025

Videos/Images

Colombia Constitutional Court

Diana Moreno

La Mesa

Laura Castro Gonzalez

Togo: Limited abortion access forces women into dangerous procedures

March 4, 2025
Video – 2:19 minutes

The limited access to abortion in Togo means that thousands of women undergo underground procedures every year. This physically and legally risky choice, some women's rights campaigners say, makes the lives of vulnerable women even more difficult.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250304-togo-limited-abortion-access-forces-women-into-dangerous-procedures

04.03.2025

Sally Field Details Her ‘Traumatic’ and ‘Hideous’ Illegal Abortion From 1964 to Urge Voters to Elect Kamala Harris: ‘We Can’t Go Back’

By Zack Sharf
Oct 7, 2024

Sally Field posted a video to Instagram in which she remembered the “hideous” and “traumatic” illegal abortion she underwent in 1964 before her Hollywood acting career took off. The Oscar winner first wrote about the abortion in her 2018 memoir “In Pieces,” but she revived the story ahead of the upcoming presidential election as a call for voters to elect Kamala Harris.

“I’ve been so hesitant to do this, to tell my horrific story,” Field wrote in the caption to the video. “It was during a time even worse than now. A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married. But I feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe, like me, they must want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country.”

Continued: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sally-field-abortion-story-kamala-harris-support-1236169893/

07.10.2024

Sally Field's abortion

United States

Health

Human Rights

Activists address reality of unsafe abortions in Kenya

August 04, 2024
by Halima Gongo
Video: 3:17 minutes

Abortion is restricted in Kenya, but in Kilifi County on the southern coast many women and girls with unplanned pregnancies say they have no choice but to undergo dangerous abortions without the intervention of a nurse or doctor. Local activists say the practice is contributing to high maternal mortality in the region. Halima Gongo reports.

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/a/activists-address-reality-of-unsafe-abortions-in-kenya/7729603.html

04.08.2024

Rights Activists Protest In Rio As Congress Debates Abortion Bill

By Florian PLAUCHEUR
June 24, 2024
Video: 1:31 minutes

Hundreds of abortion rights activists protest on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro against a controversial bill under consideration in Congress that would equate abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy to homicide and impose up to 20 years in prison, including in cases of sexual abuse.

Continued: https://www.barrons.com/news/rights-activists-protest-in-rio-as-congress-debates-abortion-bill-ddd09e12

24.06.2024