Abortions on the rise and birth rate decreasing in Gaza

Gaza health authorities have warned of a drastic increase in abortions and a drop in birth rates as a result of the ongoing crisis in the territory following two years of Israeli aggression.

December 31, 2025

The Director General of the Ministry of Health in the coastal enclave, Munir Al-Barsh, announced a decrease in the number of newborns of up to 40% annually.

He considered that this indicator reflects the depth of the health and humanitarian crisis the sector is experiencing.

Continued; https://www.plenglish.com/news/2025/12/31/abortions-on-the-rise-and-birth-rate-decreasing-in-gaza/

31.12.2025

Israel – Medical Experts Warn Ideology Could Eclipse Science Under New Far-right Health Committee Chair

Health professionals called for revoking MK Limor Son Har-Melech's appointment, warning that her positions on abortion, vaccines and the World Health Organization could dangerously influence policy at the key committee

Ido Efrati
December 23 2025

Israel's Knesset appointed far-right MK Limor Son Har-Melech as chair of the Health Committee on Monday, a move that has alarmed health experts who warn the role demands scientific leadership at a time of mounting pressure on the health system.

… [Hagai Levine] added that Son Har-Melech's conservative-messianic worldview is likely to shape the committee's agenda. "We are concerned she may push restrictions on abortion," in line with her other policies tied to gender segregation, Levine said.

https://archive.is/4CPCf
(https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-12-23/ty-article/.premium/doctors-warn-new-far-right-health-committee-chair-may-push-abortion-restrictions/0000019b)

23.12.2025

Iranian Sentenced to Death Over 140 ‘Illegal Abortions’

September 17, 2025

An Iranian defendant has been sentenced to death after being convicted of performing at least 140 illegal abortions, state media reported.
Tasnim news agency said the case is currently under review by the country’s Supreme Court.
No additional details about the defendant’s identity or how the case was discovered have been released.
Under Iranian law, abortion outside legally defined conditions is considered a crime.
Those involved in the procedure, including doctors or mothers, face severe penalties ranging from imprisonment and blood money payments to death sentences.
The case has drawn attention to Iran’s restrictive abortion laws and harsh punishments, which have been repeatedly criticized by women’s rights and reproductive health advocates.

Source: https://iranwire.com/en/news/144886-iranian-sentenced-to-death-over-140-illegal-abortions/

17.09.2025

News

abortion in Iran

death penalty for abortion provision

Anglican church in Istanbul bars MPs from entry over abortion vote

Sign affixed to front door of Christ Church in Turkey tells British politicians not to cross its threshold

Genevieve Holl-Allen
12 July 2025

An Anglican church in Istanbul barred British MPs from entry after they voted to decriminalise abortion up to birth in England.

Christ Church in Turkey’s largest city was slapped down by the Church of England for putting up a sign on its doors telling MPs not to cross its threshold.

A sign affixed to the front door said that British MPs should “refrain” from entering after the “shameful vote” to decriminalise abortion last month.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/12/anglican-church-istanbul-bars-mps-entry-over-abortion-vote/

12.07.2025

News

Christ Church in Istanbul

English Chaplaincy Istanbul

Turkey: Three-plus children for the economy

27 January 2025
Our new series returns to our Welcome to Gilead campaign, exploring global restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. This edition revisits the chapter on Turkey from our 2021 Welcome to Gilead report.

Like China and Iran, Turkey is no stranger to using reproductive policy to control population size. Following its War of Independence in the early 20th century, Turkish leaders instituted pronatal policies in a nationalist attempt to replace war casualties. Contraception, sterilisation, and even sharing contraception information was made illegal, and abortion was codified as a crime against “racial integrity”.

In the 1960s, however, Turkey joined many other countries in realising that population growth was a threat to economic development and changed its tune, providing free contraception and later legalising abortion. Again, it was economic growth, not women’s rights, that drove the agenda.

Continued: https://populationmatters.org/news/2025/01/turkey-three-plus-children-for-the-economy/

27.01.2025

Commentary

Justice and Development Party

Iran launches hotline to discourage abortions

Jan 9, 2025

Iran's health ministry has introduced a hotline aimed at dissuading citizens from having abortions as the theocratic system attempts to confront slowing population growth.

"Trained individuals help callers keep their pregnancies and decide against abortion," the head of the ministry's Center for Population Growth, Saber Jabari, said Thursday.

Continued: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202501099418

09.01.2025

Basij Medical Society

Center for Population Growth

hotline to discourage abortion

More Iranian women forced into illegal abortions

Hundreds of thousands of women seek illegal abortions every year in Iran, defying strict family planning laws enforced by the Islamist regime.

Elina Farhadi
Jan 6, 2025

Although Iranian authorities have widely restricted access to abortion in an attempt to reverse demographic decline, more women are going outside the law to end unwanted pregnancies.

According to figures from the Iranian Ministry of Health reported by the Khabaronline news website in June 2024, over 600,000 illegal abortions are performed annually in Iran.

Experts say poverty, joblessness, and lack of social security are contributing factors forcing women to undergo an abortion despite serious risks.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/more-iranian-women-forced-into-illegal-abortions/a-71229081

Jordan’s Abortion Conundrum

The country’s strict laws leave women with impossible choices and facing financial struggles, stigma and dangerous procedures

Meghan Davidson Ladly
November 29, 2024

Amal watches her children play on the living room floor of her house on a quiet street in a suburb of Jordan’s capital. As dusk settles over the sloping hills of Amman, she sinks into a sofa and lights a cigarette, adjusting her hijab.

“It is illegal, but you can’t know how I feel,” she says. “I couldn’t think of anything except getting rid of this pregnancy. Even my kids — I couldn’t think of them. And I knew I had to make a decision.”

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/jordan-abortion-conundrum/

How Israel’s War in Gaza Ripped a Major Abortion Fund Apart

A nonprofit took a stand on Palestine. A senior employee resigned and published her account. Then the backlash started.

By Christina Cauterucci
Oct 14, 2024

It all started with an Instagram post. On a Monday in October 2023, Jade Hurley was looking for a way to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples Day, an alternative to Columbus Day celebrated by those who don’t consider the colonization of the Americas an occasion worth celebrating. As the communications manager at the D.C. Abortion Fund, Hurley was tasked with posting to the organization’s Instagram account, which has a modest audience of about 7,000 followers.

In DCAF’s Instagram Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, Hurley reposted another organization’s graphic, which asserted that the Indigenous peoples of Guam, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Palestine are entitled to reclaim the land that colonizers stole from them or their ancestors.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/10/israel-gaza-palestine-abortion-fund-dc-tablet.html

14.10.2024

Commentary

Alisha Dingus

Allison Tombros Korman

Democrats Shouldn’t Isolate Abortion Access

Democratic leaders appear set on siloing abortion access from other critical issues—including the genocide in Gaza. That’s a mistake.

Anne Rumberger
August 19, 2024

About a thousand activists with the group Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws marched through downtown Chicago on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, chanting slogans like “One, two, three, four, fund abortions not war! Five, six, seven, eight, Israel is an apartheid state!”

Organizers designed the march, in part, to underscore to Democratic leaders — especially Vice President Kamala Harris — that they would do well to note the level of popular support for three key issues the party seems to have largely atomized: abortion access, queer rights and an end to the genocide in Gaza.

Continued: https://inthesetimes.com/article/democrats-abortion-gaza-genocide-queer-dnc