by Bailiwick Express News Team
January 2, 2026
Ministers have missed their self-imposed deadline to put forward plans for an overhaul Jersey’s abortion law which has been described as a “distressing” and “dehumanising” system for patients.
The Government had pledged to put forward updated legislation by the end of 2025, but Assistant Health Minister Andy Howell confirmed to Express this week that the work is still not complete.
By EFE
27/12/2025
San Juan.— Feminist groups in Puerto Rico are mobilizing against a new law recognizing the unborn as a natural person, warning it could threaten abortion rights despite privacy protections.
The legislation was enacted this week by Governor Jenniffer González and has led to strong reactions from activists, legal experts, and medical professionals.
By Ana Tortell
December 24, 2025
957 students in Malta said the punishment of up to three years’ imprisonment for a woman who has an abortion should be removed from the law. Out of 1,074 respondents, just 137 disagreed with this prompt.
Similarly, 824 respondents agreed that punishing healthcare professionals for assisting an abortion with up to four years in prison should be removed from the law, while 159 disagreed and the remainder did not express an opinion.
4 December 2025
Amnesty International
Reacting to today’s vote by the Faroese parliament (the ‘Lagtinget’/‘Løgting’) to amend the law to permit access to abortion on request up until the end of the twelfth week of pregnancy, Turið Maria, Director of Amnesty International Faroe Islands said:
“Today’s vote amending the Faroe Islands’ deeply outdated and restrictive abortion law is an important step towards ensuring the provision of safe and legal abortion.
The Senate started its debate with promises of “updating” Nigeria’s Criminal Code, but somehow, in the process, abortion rights got lost in translation.
Margaret Aladeselu
November 22, 2025
There’s a common belief that misogyny is always silently lurking right outside the door of every Nigerian woman. And despite the rise of new-age feminism and increased awareness of women-focused issues, recent events keep reminding us that this belief isn’t a lie.
For many Nigerians, the idea that “abortion is healthcare” has always clashed with strong religious and moral beliefs, often leaving vulnerable women without real autonomy over their bodies. That risk might get even worse soon. On October 26, the Nigerian Senate started considering a controversial bill that proposes a 10-year jail term for abortion-related offences.
Continued: https://www.zikoko.com/citizen/nigerias-abortion-laws-are-changing/
November 14, 2025
Ipas
The High Court in Malawi has ruled that adolescent survivors of sexual violence have the right to access abortion services in both public and private health facilities. Previously, abortion was only legally permitted to save a pregnant person’s life.
Ipas Malawi welcomed this landmark decision affirming the right of women and girls to sexual and reproductive health. This win is the result of relentless advocacy by Ipas and partner organizations in a country that has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Africa, despite unsafe abortion accounting for 18% of maternal deaths.
Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/malawi-high-court-approves-abortion-access-survivors-sexual-violence/
Amendment would have watered down law to allow abortion only where it would save life of mother or another foetus, or for significant risk of abnormalities
Tory Shepherd
Thu 13 Nov 2025
A bill to restrict access to abortion after 22 weeks and six days has been defeated in the South Australian parliament.
The former One Nation MLC Sarah Game, who is now an independent, worked with the controversial anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe on the legislation that went before the SA parliament on Wednesday night.
It was voted down by 11 votes to eight.
By Eva Blandis, Kathryn Bermingham
Nov 12, 2025
A new push to change South Australia's abortion laws to limit terminations after 23 weeks has been voted down in state parliament's upper house.
The vote was carried out at 9pm, with 11 members voting against and eight members voting for.
Upper House MP Sarah Game, an independent formerly of One Nation, launched the bill in September to place limits on abortions after 23 weeks.
Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-12/sa-abortion-voted-down/106001338
The Insider
12 November 2025
Authorities in Russia’s Smolensk Region are planning to severely restrict access to abortions in private clinics, governor Vasily Anokhin announced on Nov. 10. The official insisted the measure was only a “recommendation,” but based on the experience of other regions, such regulations make it virtually impossible for women to terminate a pregnancy absent a clear medical justification. According to The Insider’s estimates, more than 30 Russian regions now enforce either full or partial bans on abortion procedures.
The starting point for restricting abortion rights in many Russian regions has been the adoption of local laws banning the so-called “inducement to artificial termination of pregnancy.” Smolensk adopted such a law in May 2024, defining “inducement” as “taking actions or putting forward demands with the aim of compelling a pregnant woman to artificially terminate her pregnancy by persuasion, proposals, bribery, [or] deception.”
Continued: https://theins.ru/en/news/286765
By Shalom Tewobola
Nov 2, 2025
In a country where an estimated 1.25 million unsafe abortions occur annually, Nigeria’s Senate is considering legislation that would make a dire situation catastrophic. The Criminal Code Amendment Bill 2025, which recently came before the Senate for concurrence, proposes a ten-year jail term for anyone supplying drugs or instruments to procure abortions. This represents more than a threefold increase from the current three-year penalty. But as confusion erupted among lawmakers over the bill’s vague language during Tuesday’s plenary session, a more fundamental question emerged: are we criminalizing healthcare itself?
Senate President Godswill Akpabio suspended consideration of the bill and referred it to the Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters after senators couldn’t agree on what constitutes an “unlawful abortion.” When lawmakers themselves cannot determine the boundary between criminal acts and medical care, how can doctors be expected to navigate these waters while a patient hemorrhages before them?
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