Nigeria – Why are women still whispering about their bodies?

Women Empowering Women Initiative (WEWIN)
June 11, 2025

In Nigeria today, conversations about women’s bodies are still conducted in hushed tones. From menstruation to contraception, and especially when it comes to pregnancy decisions, silence and shame often shape the narrative. Behind closed doors, women talk. However, their needs are buried under stigma in public, policy, and healthcare settings.

This silence is not just cultural; it is deeply political. It affects how women access care, how they are treated when they seek help, and whether they live or die when faced with reproductive health crises. For many, the stakes of whispering are not just personal; they’re fatal.

Continued: https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/why-are-women-still-whispering-about-their-bodies/

11.06.2025

Women Empowering Women Initiative

‘Reclaiming our bodies,’ a revolution towards sexual reproductive justice for Women in Africa

Some Women make decisions with fear while others live with stigma because the laws have stippled them their sexual reproductive health rights.

By ROSEMARY ONCHARI
April 22, 2025

KISII, Kenya – For decades ,Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) narratives of African women are narrowly told in a dehumanizing lens, reducing them into numbers and problems which can be solved without giving these women a right over their bodies ,choices and their future.

In the 21st century, women in Africa have no freedom as many access health care with shame, some make decisions with fear while others live with stigma because the laws have stippled them their sexual reproductive health rights.

Continued: https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2025/04/reclaiming-our-bodies-a-revolution-towards-sexual-reproductive-justice-for-women-in-africa/

22.04.2025

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Scottish ministers accused of failing women who cannot get later abortions

Campaigners say ‘extremely vulnerable women’ are having to travel hundreds of miles to visit English clinics

Libby Brooks, Scotland correspondent
Mon 21 Apr 2025

Campaigners have warned Scottish ministers that they are failing in their legal and moral duties as growing numbers of “extremely vulnerable women” have to travel hundreds of miles south because they cannot access later-term abortions in Scotland.

Not one of Scotland’s 14 regional health boards provide abortion care after 20 weeks except in the specific cases of foetal abnormality or threat to a woman’s life. This is despite the Scottish government promising to rectify this “explicit inequality” three years ago, and abortion being legal on broad grounds until 24 weeks across the UK.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/21/scottish-government-failing-women-who-cant-access-later-term-abortions-campaigners-say

Nigeria – Unsafe abortion is not a choice: How stigma pushes women into danger

Women Empowering Women Initiative (WEWIN)
April 8, 2025

In Nigeria, the conversation around abortion is often shrouded in silence, stigma, and misinformation. For many women and girls, abortion is not a decision taken lightly—it is a decision made within constrained realities, limited options, and in some cases, in a desperate bid for survival. Yet, the societal and institutional stigma attached to abortion drives many into unsafe conditions, endangering lives that could otherwise be protected by comprehensive reproductive health care.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, approximately 1.8 million induced abortions occur in Nigeria every year, with over half of them deemed unsafe. The restrictive legal framework, where abortion is only permitted to save a woman’s life, means access to safe abortion services is limited and often shrouded in secrecy. But beyond legal restrictions, stigma plays a more insidious role, silencing women, discouraging healthcare providers, and eroding the dignity of those who seek reproductive autonomy.

Continued: https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/unsafe-abortion-is-not-a-choice-how-stigma-pushes-women-into-danger/

08.04.2025

Women Empowering Women Initiative

From Emergency Room to Prison: Health Care Providers Are Most Likely To Report Pregnant People

What new research into the criminalization of self-managed abortions hints about a post-Dobbs world.

KATIE HERCHENROEDER, JULIANNE MCSHANE, Mother Jones
Nov 20, 2023

In 2013, an Indiana woman showed up at an emergency room suffering from severe vaginal hemorrhaging. At first, Purvi Patel denied she had been pregnant. But, eventually, Patel told doctors she had a stillbirth. The hospital staff did not believe her. So, her doctor—a member of the anti-abortion American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists—called the cops.

As a new report shows, Patel isn’t alone: Even before the fall of Roe, women were reported by doctors to law enforcement for conducting self-managed abortions, or SMAs. While only one state, Nevada, outright criminalizes SMAs, health care workers still reported pregnant people to law enforcement all across the country. And in a post-Dobbs world, experts worry this criminalization could get worse.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/abortion-criminalization-healthcare-providers/

20.11.2023

Commentary

abortion stigma

American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Abortion is decriminalized in Mexico, but the social and cultural stigma remains

Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide in September, but reproductive rights advocates grapple with the challenge of “social decriminalization.”

Nov. 2, 2023
By Isabela Espadas Barros Leal

MEXICO CITY — Every recovery room at Fundación ILE, an abortion clinic in Mexico City’s Roma Sur neighborhood, is equipped with a small bed, blankets, sanitary pads and a turquoise journal.

The journals are filled with letters written by women minutes after having had abortions.

Some of them detail the reasons they chose to undergo the procedure. Others have messages of encouragement for the next women who will be in their position.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-abortion-legal-social-cultural-stigma-remains-rcna123029

UK – Abortion and sexual health are still top ‘taboo’ women’s health issues, study finds

Menstruation, menopause, and mental health are other topics that women consider to be "private matters", the research found.

By MARTIN WINTER
Sun, Oct 8, 2023

Abortion, sexual health, and menstruation are still the top “taboo” subjects surrounding women’s health, according to research. The study of 5,022 women found 29 percent believe there are stigmas around discussing menopause, while a quarter (24 percent) feel the same way about mental health.

This figure rises to 34 percent among 18-34s – but decreases to 13 percent in respondents over 55.

Continued: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1821074/women-health-issues-abortion-menopause-menstruation-taboo

08.10.2023

Uganda – Abortion-associated stigma affecting access to Post-Abortion Care – MOH

The Independent
September 30, 2023

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | While the government has put in place medical care services to support mothers who need post-abortion care in all healthcare centers, the Ministry of Health reveals that many of them still die due to complications without seeking help.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Dr. Charles Olaro, the Director of Curative Services in the Health Ministry revealed that despite awareness efforts about the availability of such services that help women battling complications post-abortion, many still end up in the medical ward even when they turn up to hospitals because they provide wrong information to health workers.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.ug/abortion-associated-stigma-affecting-access-to-post-abortion-care-moh/

30.09.2023

News

abortion stigma

Dr. Charles Olaro

Penal Code Act of Uganda Cap 120

post-abortion care

Rose Wakikona

Uganda Health Ministry

Women’s Link Worldwide

World Contraception Day

Imprisoned for abortion: Many Rwandan women are now free but stigma remains

September 2, 2023
Sarah McCammon

On the day she was attacked, Akimanizanye Florentine had been trying to earn money to help get through a difficult time at home.

Akimanizanye, who goes by Florentine, was in her late teens then, living in northern Rwanda. She says her family had been struggling after her father had died

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/09/02/1194431567/rwanda-women-abortion-laws-kagame-presidential-pardon-jail

Canada – How pro-life bias is limiting reproductive healthcare access in rural Ontario

Right-to-life groups are increasing stigma and barriers to preventing and eliminating pregnancies

By Mary Baxter
August 2, 2023

After the condom broke, Amanda’s* boyfriend hurried to the drugstore to get the morning-after pill. Anxiety eddied as Amanda waited for him to return. The teenage couple had experienced pregnancy scares before but had never resorted to emergency contraception. A baby couldn’t be in the picture yet, Amanda knew.

In 2018, Amanda was 19 years old. The teen from Chatham-Kent, a rural municipality in southwestern Ontario, had dropped out of high school in Grade 11. They struggled with mental health and lived with their parents. They were unemployed. Their boyfriend, the same age, hit them.

Continued: https://broadview.org/abortion-access-rural/

02.08.2023