The U.N. Should Condemn the U.S.’ Human Rights Record on Abortion

The U.S. must be held accountable on the world stage for its escalating attacks on reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.

July 9, 2025
by Jaime M. Gher and Elise Keppler

The periodic U.N. review of the United States’ human rights record is coming up in November. With the Trump administration’s far-reaching, intensifying attacks, the timing could not be more opportune. Never have U.S. institutions, funding and initiatives that promote the rule of law, faced such an abject threat. This is a moment to shine a light on U.S. abuses on the global stage.

U.S. policymakers and the public rarely consider the experiences of U.S. residents through a human rights lens — but doing so is eye-opening. Abortion is a key case in point.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/09/united-nations-usa-abortion-human-rights-record-health-death/

09.07.2025

Commentary

United Nations

Universal Periodic Review

How a $5 Pack of Abortion Pills in Ethiopia Sparked a Movement to ‘Demedicalize’ Access in the U.S.

In her new book, Access, Rebecca Grant chronicles activists' decades-long fight to defy abortion restrictions—including the origin story of Plan C.

By Rebecca Grant
June 24, 2025

This is an excerpt from Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom, by Rebecca Grant. The book chronicles activists’ decades-long mission to defy abortion restrictions and fight for reproductive freedom, from the U.S. to France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and more.

In 2014, Elisa Wells and Francine Coeytaux were positioned outside a pharmacy in Ethiopia waiting for a colleague to come out. The pharmacy was sandwiched between two stores with green signs that read “Fujifilm Digital Print Shop” and set back from the bustling red-and-yellow sidewalk. A few moments later, their companion, a woman, emerged holding a box. White and light brown with a yellow rose and branded as a “Safe-T” kit, its label read: “This pack contains treatment for early medical abortion.”

Continued: https://www.jezebel.com/how-a-5-pack-of-abortion-pills-in-ethiopia-sparked-a-movement-to-demedicalize-access-in-the-u-s

The International Movement Behind Anti-Abortion Activism

It’s fueled by racism, says Professor Carol Mason in her new book.

Eleanor J. Bader
Jun 12, 2025

In From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary, Carol Mason, a professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Kentucky, draws a through line that connects both domestic and international anti-abortion activism to an ascendant network of white supremacist, Christian nationalist and authoritarian movements.

It’s a scary read, grounded in Mason’s three decades of attendance at rightwing events and perusal of scores of books, articles and pamphlets penned by anti-abortion conservatives. Her goal? To understand the ideology and motivating factors that have propelled the movement for the past half century.

Continued: https://indypendent.org/2025/06/the-international-movement-behind-anti-abortion-activism/

New NPR podcast explores a global effort to provide safe access to abortion, outside of a clinic

By Kyle Kellams
June 6, 2025
Podcast: 9:12 minutes

The Network is a new documentary podcast from NPR's Embedded and Futuro Media's Latino USA that explores a global effort to provide access to safe abortions outside of a medical clinic. Hosts Victoria Estrada and Marta Martínez explain how women in Brazil first repurposed an over-the-counter medication to safely end pregnancies. The reporters joined Ozarks at Large host Kyle Kellams for a preview of the series that premiered this week.

Continued: https://www.kuaf.com/show/ozarks-at-large/2025-06-06/new-npr-podcast-explores-a-global-effort-to-provide-safe-access-to-abortion-outside-of-a-clinic

06.06.2025

‘A direct attack’: US, European anti-rights groups descend on ‘family values’ events in Africa

Ultra-conservative groups from the US and Europe are attending a “family values” conference in Kenya this week – one of several planned in Africa this year – in what activists are describing as a “direct attack” on LGBT and women’s rights.

17/05/2025
By: Joanna YORK

The Pan-African conference on Family Values began in Nairobi on Monday with a call to wage a “biblical” fight for the family unit from Anne Mbugua, chairperson of event organiser the Africa Christian Professionals Forum.

The conference is one of several planned across Africa this year, backed by wealthy US ultra-Christian groups, including Family Watch International, Christian Council International, the Center for Family and Human Rights, and the Family Policy Institute.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20250517-a-direct-attack-us-european-anti-rights-groups-descend-on-family-values-events-in-africa

The US denies UN agency funding to provide care to pregnant women around the world

Sunday 11 May 2025

The Trump administration continues to withdraw funding to American and international organisations that pursue policies on sexuality, diversity, and minority rights that contradict its isolationist and conservative agenda.

Since February, the US has cut $377 million worth of funding to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN reproductive and sexual health agency. On Thursday, the US announced that it intended to deny future funding to UNFPA by triggering the so-called Kemp-Kasten Amendment from 1985.

Continued: https://www.brusselstimes.com/health-news/1573960/the-us-denies-un-agency-funding-to-provide-care-to-pregnant-women-around-the-world

11.05.2025

News

funding cuts for abortion research

Kemp-Kasten amendment

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

Dr. Malcolm Potts, gutsy global changemaker for reproductive health and women’s rights, dies at 90

May 9, 2025

A University of Cambridge–trained obstetrician and reproductive scientist, Dr. Potts emerged in the 1960s as a leader in what was then a revolutionary movement for access to reliable contraception and safe abortion.

Long before he joined the faculty of UC Berkeley School of Public Health in 1992 as the inaugural Fred H. Bixby Endowed Chair in Population and Family Planning, Potts was widely recognized as a visionary, with a rare gift for using science to win opponents over to his mission to promote women’s health—and the right to self-determination—around the world.

Continued: https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/news-media/school-news/dr-malcolm-potts-dies-at-90

Global voices on ending USAID, part 2

On 1 July 2025, USAID is officially to be dismantled. Since President Donald Trump froze the funds of the US development agency at the beginning of the year, we have been receiving messages from various parts of the world. The senders want to describe the situation in their countries, discuss the way forward – or simply express their shock. We want to offer the various voices a platform to summarise their thoughts in short statements. This is the second of two parts of their statements.

by D+C / E+Z
May 7, 2025

The end of USAID has had a profound impact on the reproductive health of women in Africa and Asia. In total, MSI Reproductive Choices has lost $ 14 million in funding because it refused to comply with the rules and regulations of the Trump administration. This funding must now be replaced by other funds, as must a further $ 6 million for services previously provided by UN organisations, state health systems and other organisations. One of the countries most affected by the cuts is Zimbabwe, where a combined $ 6.5 million in USAID funding has been cancelled. Only by filling these service gaps in a timely manner can a significant increase in unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and pregnancy-related deaths be avoided.

Across Africa, where I lead MSI’s work expanding access to lifesaving sexual and reproductive healthcare, the USAID cuts led by the world’s richest man are devastating for women living in the poorest communities of the continent. Denied this lifeline, women will no longer be able to safely space their pregnancies, pushing them further into the cycle of poverty, while those in the most desperate circumstances will be left with no option but to risk their lives by resorting to unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/president-donald-trump-froze-funds-us-development-agency-beginning-year-we-have-been-0

Resist and Persist: How Ipas will meet the changing global health landscape

April 2025

For 52 years, Ipas has supported communities around the world to ensure access to abortion and contraception for all. We have a deep history and experience working on abortion in places in the world with very restrictive laws, and with health systems that face critical challenges. Ipas has survived extraordinary challenges in the past, and our mission, persistence, and expertise are more critical than ever in the current moment.

The United States’ drastic dismantling of its $79.5 billion foreign aid program has significantly impacted development and humanitarian sectors and created chaos around the globe. Health systems have been crippled, and countless lives and livelihoods have been disrupted. This is a moment of inflection in the global health and development community.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/our-work/resist-and-persist-how-ipas-will-meet-the-changing-global-health-landscape/