‘Trojan horse moment’: anti-rights groups seize chance to fill void left by US aid cuts

Ultra-conservative Christian organisations look to reshape global health landscape as new aid agreements open door to demands restricting family planning services

Isabel Choat
Wed 17 Dec 2025

The sudden stop work order on USAID in January 2025 sent shock waves around the world. Many health clinics were immediately shut down, leaving millions without access to vital medicines and facilities, with potentially deadly consequences, especially for HIV patients, children, and women and adolescent girls.

To many, the subsequent axing of 83% of USAID programmes seemed like pure nihilism, engineered by ideologues who wanted to kill off the agency. But there was a long-term vision behind the destruction. The gutting of USAID has cleared a path for the next phase of a plan to reshape the global health landscape, say reproductive justice campaigners.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/17/trojan-horse-moment-anti-rights-groups-fill-void-us-aid-cuts

Argentina – We Are All Belén

by Michelle Young
December 15, 2025

Belén (2025) is Argentina’s International Feature Film entry for the upcoming Oscars. The story is a true one, and it follows Belén, a pseudonym for a real woman who is falsely imprisoned for having an abortion, when she really had a miscarriage. Belén is held for over two years in Tucumán, Argentina, before being released in 2016. By telling her story, the film shows us a society that’s happy to predetermine a woman’s guilt when it comes to questions around abortion.

Unaware she’s pregnant, Belén goes to the hospital presenting with severe abdominal pain. The doctor determines she’s having a miscarriage at 22 weeks, which is considered the second trimester. It’s important to know that it’s entirely possible to be pregnant for this long and not know it – there’s even a term for it – a cryptic pregnancy.

Continued: https://latinamedia.co/belen/

Rollback and Resistance: The Erosion of Abortion Access in Argentina

Dec 10, 2025
Mercedes Sayagues

The movie “Belén”, Argentina’s submission for the 2026 Oscars, tells the story of a 26-year-old woman who suffered a miscarriage in a hospital in Tucuman province in 2014 and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2016 after being convicted of procuring an illegal abortion.

Her case sparked a nationwide campaign to decriminalize abortion, known as the Green Tide after the green scarves protestors wore.

In December 2020, the Green Tide won: abortion was legalized on request up to 14 weeks, and later in cases of rape or risk to the woman’s physical or mental health.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/rollback-and-resistance-the-erosion-of-abortion-access-in-argentina/

The crisis of unsafe abortion in Malawi: When human rights are denied, women and girls die

By Mandipa Machacha and Tsidi Leatswe
8 December 2025

When Tadala Zindawa**, (21) from Tata village in Lilongwe’s Chitukula area, fell pregnant while in secondary school, she was overcome by fear and panic. Scared of her parents’ disapproval and with abortion criminalized in Malawi, Tadala resorted to unsafe methods using Aloe Vera or Surf Soap to induce abortion. The procedure not only failed, but it led to severe pain and heavy bleeding. She survived after post-abortion care, but the psychological and physical scars are lifelong.

Nevertheless, Tadala is one of the lucky ones.

Every year, hundreds of women and girls in Malawi die or are injured from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. According to the Malawi Ministry of Health and the Guttmacher Institute, about 141,000 abortions occur annually in Malawi, the vast majority unsafe and accounting for 6–18% of maternal deaths.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2025/12/the-crisis-of-unsafe-abortion-in-malawi-when-human-rights-are-denied-women-and-girls-die/

Faroe Islands scraps one of Europe’s strictest abortion laws

Dec 4, 2025
Adrienne Murray

The parliament of the Faroe Islands voted on Thursday to legalise abortion until the end of the 12th week of pregnancy, overturning a decades-old law that prohibited abortions in most cases.

Previous legislation allowed abortions only in certain circumstances - such as rape, incest or risk to the health of the pregnant woman - and meant the self-governing Danish territory had among the most restrictive abortion policies in Europe.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyd8j71m7mo

05.12.2025

News

abortion law reform

Amnesty International

Bjørt Lind

Centre for Reproductive Rights

Faroe Islands: Vote to amend outdated law “an important step towards safe and legal abortion”

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.   

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/12/faroe-islands-vote-to-amend-outdated-law-an-important-step-towards-safe-and-legal-abortion/

04.12.2025

Commentary

News

abortion law reform

Amnesty International

Faroe Islands

Turið Maria Jóhansdóttir

Europe: Existing barriers to abortion access compounded by alarming attempts to roll back reproductive rights

6 November 2025
Amnesty International

European governments must act to ensure equal and universal access to abortion care in the face of ongoing restrictions and intensifying efforts to further limit access to abortion across the region, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

When rights aren’t real for all: The struggle for abortion access in Europe reveals how – despite hard won progress – harmful and dangerous obstacles continue to undermine access to abortion care. This is taking place in the context of increasingly well-resourced anti-rights groups ramping up their efforts to negatively influence policies and laws, often through the spread of fear and disinformation, aimed at further restricting access to abortion.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/11/europe-existing-barriers-to-abortion-access-compounded-by-alarming-attempts-to-roll-back-reproductive-rights/

06.11.2025

Commentary

Amnesty International

belief-based care denial

Monica Costa Riba

When rights aren’t real for all: The struggle for abortion access in Europe

Malawi: Landmark High Court Ruling Affirms Rights of Sexual Violence Survivors

October 29, 2025
Amnesty International

Reacting to a ruling by the High Court in Malawi that denying a 14-year-old rape survivor access to a safe termination of pregnancy violated her sexual and reproductive health rights under Sections 19 and 20 of the Gender Equality Act (GEA), Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa regional office, Tigere Chagutah, said:

“In a country where abortion remains largely criminalized, this landmark ruling sets an important precedent. It affirms that forcing a woman or girl to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term is a violation of their rights. It safeguards the constitutional and human rights of survivors of sexual violence to access quality abortion care, while protecting them from the life-threatening risks associated with unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/malawi-landmark-high-court-ruling-affirms-rights-of-sexual-violence-survivors/

29.10.2025

News

Amnesty International

Chileka Health Centre

Global: Amnesty delegation meets abortion defenders as backlash against human rights intensifies

29 October 2025

An Amnesty International delegation will join abortion providers and defenders from across the globe at two gatherings in Bogotá, Colombia, to review progress on expanding access to safe abortions and to discuss new strategies to counter rising threats to human rights.

The delegation will take part in a number of panels at the Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI) (30 Oct – 1 Nov), and the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) (4-6 Nov). 

“While many advances have been made towards ensuring life-saving abortion services are available and accessible, anti-abortion narratives and legislation are gaining ground around the world, posing new threats,” said Fernanda Doz Costa, Director of the Gender Justice, Racial Justice, Migrants and Refugees Programme at Amnesty International, who will take part in a number of panels.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2025/10/global-amnesty-delegation-meets-abortion-defenders-as-backlash-against-human-rights-intensifies/

29.10.2025

Events/Campaigns

Amnesty International

CLACAI

ernanda Doz Costa

International Conference on Family Planning

Latin American Consortium against Unsafe Abortion

US prosecutors keep charging women with ‘pregnancy-related crimes’

In the two years after Roe v Wade was overturned, hundreds were charged amid growing acceptance of ‘fetal personhood’

Arwa Mahdawi
Sat 4 Oct 2025

The pregnancy police are racking up arrests

Every 74 seconds, someone in the US is sexually assaulted. And every nine minutes that ‘someone’ is a child, according to statistics collated by the anti-sexual violence non-profit Rainn.

Instead of sending alleged sex offenders to court, the Trump administration seems more interested in putting them in positions of power. Less than 4% of reported rapes, sexual assaults and child sexual abuse allegations in certain cities across the country ever lead to a sex crime conviction, an NBC News investigation from earlier this year found. To reiterate: that’s reported assaults. By some counts, nearly 80% of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/04/week-in-patriarchy-pregnancy-crimes

04.10.2025