Fact Check: British MPs have not voted to legalise abortion up to birth

By Reuters Fact Check
June 25, 2025

British members of parliament have voted to decriminalise abortions for women, not legalise all abortion up to birth, contrary to online posts using the different legal terms interchangeably.

MPs backed a Crime and Policing Bill amendment, opens new tab on June 17 that would mean criminal penalties would no longer apply in England and Wales to women who abort their own pregnancies.

Labour MPs have voted in favour of legalising abortion up to birth," said a June 18 post, referring to the vote.

Continued; https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/british-mps-have-not-voted-legalise-abortion-up-birth-2025-06-25/


Graphic lies and gendered disinformation: Anti-abortion organizing and campus politics in Canada

by Emma Cowman and Pauline Tennent
June 20, 2025

At the University of Manitoba (UM), springtime brings warmer weather, the return of the geese, final exam stress, and the inevitable return of anti-abortion groups on campus. With their volunteer base temporarily bolstered by high school students participating in “Pro-Life Bootcamps,” representatives from the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform (CCBR) (this link contains graphic imagery) appear in front of UM’s central student building holding five-foot-tall posters plastered with misleading and graphic images of allegedly aborted fetuses. A variation of this scene is repeated on campuses across Canada, including at the University of Toronto.

The CCBR frequents university campuses seeking to “inform” students of the supposed harms of this essential form of healthcare. These activities occur under the watchful eye of CCBR leaders, who discreetly film interactions with students, faculty, and staff.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/human-rights/graphic-lies-and-gendered-disinformation-anti-abortion-organizing-and-campus-politics-in-canada/


EU gives anti-abortion group €400k to educate girls on reproductive health

EU criticised for ‘mind-boggling’ decision to give the World Youth Alliance funding for girls’ reproductive health education

Sian Norris, OpenDemocracy
15 October 2024

AUS-based anti-abortion charity was given a €400,000 grant from the European Union to run a reproductive health and rights education project, in a decision that experts describe as “mind-boggling.”

The World Youth Alliance (WYA), which has a Brussels office, claims that abortion poses a risk to fertility and future pregnancies – claims rejected by the NHS. Its founder, Anna Halpine, has also compared abortion to “the Nazis and their campaign to dehumanise Jews”.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/anti-abortion-ngo-eu-funding-reproductive-health-programme/


Supreme Court mifepristone case will affect millions. Don’t base ruling off junk science.

Access to safe and effective medications like mifepristone should be based on rigorous scientific research and the medical community consensus – not the fringe opinions of a few extremists.

Julia Kaye
Jan 31, 2024

Overturning Roe v. Wade was just the beginning.

In Idaho v. United States, the question is whether states can disregard longstanding federal protections and bar doctors from providing abortions to patients experiencing medical emergencies.

The second case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration, targets access to mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used in most abortions in this country and for miscarriage management. Since its FDA approval a quarter century ago, mifepristone has been safely used by more than 5 million people.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2024/01/31/supreme-court-abortion-pill-mifepristone-junk-science/72370445007/


GOP legislatures in some states seek ways to undermine voters’ ability to determine abortion rights

Legislative efforts in Missouri and Mississippi are attempting to prevent voters from having a say over abortion rights

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press
January 28, 2024

CHICAGO -- Legislative efforts in Missouri and Mississippi are attempting to prevent voters from having a say over abortion rights, building on anti-abortion strategies seen in other states, including last year in Ohio.

Democrats and abortion rights advocates say the efforts are evidence that Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents are trying to undercut democratic processes meant to give voters a direct role in forming state laws.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/gop-legislatures-states-seek-ways-undermine-voters-ability-106743537


UK anti-abortion charity with links to MPs ran misleading Facebook ads

Right to Life UK boosted its spend on the social media platform tenfold in three years

Sian Norris and Manasa Narayanan
Sat 16 Dec 2023

A leading UK anti-abortion charity with ties to MPs and peers has increased its Facebook advertising spend more than tenfold in three years, spending nearly £190,000 on advertising campaigns.

In a joint investigation, the Observer and the Citizens analysed the spend and content of hundreds of Facebook ads paid for by Right to Life UK between June 2020 and November 2023. The findings reveal the charity – which provides the secretariat for the Pro-Life All Party Parliamentary Group – spent an average of £117,000 in 2023, an increase from an average £11,400 in 2020, £16,900 in 2021 and £43,600 in 2022.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/16/anti-abortion-charity-misleading-facebook-ads-mps-right-to-life-uk


‘I feel conned into keeping this baby’

An anti-abortion millennial couple promised women thousands of dollars to cancel their abortions. The women had their babies, but the couple didn't always hold up their end of the deal. BI investigated, and now they say they'll pay out $10,000 the women never got.

Bethany Dawson, Louise Ridley, and Sarah Posner
Dec 8, 2023

Tara couldn't afford to keep the baby.
It was fall 2021, and she and her husband were "totally broke and really struggling," she said.

They were staying at Tara's mother-in-law's home in Texas, sleeping with their kids in a converted garage with no air conditioning or heat. They could barely buy formula for their 3-month-old or food for their toddler. Her husband, an electrician, hadn't had work since the pandemic started, and Tara had incapacitating postpartum depression. "It was hard for me to get out of bed every day," she said.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/pro-life-let-them-live-promised-women-money-cancel-abortion-2023-12


15-week abortion bans are the center of Republican debate. Experts say that cutoff is arbitrary.

Anti-abortion politicians have recently linked 15-weeks to fetal pain. That benchmark has been moving for years — and it's still not accurate.

Shefali Luthra
December 6, 2023

The Republican debate over abortion has centered around one number: 15. Backers of a 15-week federal ban tout it as a compromise measure, even in the face of recent electoral defeat.

Anti-abortion advocates hope congressional candidates will embrace this measure, and they’re pushing GOP presidential candidates to promise they would sign such a bill.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/12/15-week-abortion-bans-arbitrary-number-republican-debate/


California Brings First-Time Lawsuit Against Anti-Abortion Movement’s ‘Abortion Pill Reversal’ Scheme

“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance—not lies and misinformation,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

10/9/2023
by JENIFER MCKENNA and CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21 against a chain of California crisis pregnancy centers and its national parent organization for false advertising of “abortion pill reversal” (APR)—an unproven and possibly dangerous high-dose progesterone intervention the anti-abortion movement claims can “reverse” an underway medication abortion. This is the first lawsuit in the country challenging the CPC industry’s promotion of APR.

AG Bonta’s complaint charges RealOptions Obria, a five-site crisis pregnancy center chain in Northern California, and the Ohio-based Heartbeat International with violating California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition law by falsely advertising “abortion pill reversal” as safe and effective. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to block further dissemination of the misleading claims, in addition to other remedies and penalties available under state law.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/09/abortion-pill-reversal/


Americans Deserve Better Than Abortion Pill Misinformation

Self-managed abortion through pills is safe, private and effective. Media outlets have a role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation.

9/16/2023
by JENNIFER LINCOLN

Since the fall of Roe, there have been countless attempts to chill speech about abortion, and misinformation has run rampant. Just last month, a prominent newspaper published one of the most egregious examples yet: an op-ed by David Reardon titled “Coercive Abortions Are at the Heart of the FDA Abortion Pill Case.”

Reardon holds a degree from Pacific Western University, an unaccredited correspondence school that closed in 2006 after a lawsuit from the state of Hawaii. Medical professionals and researchers have repeatedly criticized his research for methodological flaws and biases—and reproductive health experts have argued that his conclusions are not supported by scientific evidence.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/16/mail-order-abortion-pills-safe/