A Public Health Emergency: How Abortion Bans Are Fueling Maternal Deaths in America

People living in states that have banned abortion are nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or soon after compared with those in states where abortion remains legal and accessible.

Sylvia Ghazarian, Common Dreams
Apr 10, 2026

The maternal mortality crisis in the United States is a national embarrassment, and it’s unfolding in real time. The US continues to have one of the highest maternal death rates among high-income countries, and the situation is getting worse, not better. Behind this trend is a growing body of research showing that state abortion bans directly contribute to increased maternal mortality, especially in communities already burdened by systemic inequities.

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/abortion-bans-public-health


Zero Sum Game—Trump Budget Request Proposes Zeroing Out Family Planning Funds and Continues to Starve Global Health Programs

April 10, 2026
PAI

On April 3rd, the White House released its “skinny” budget for fiscal year (FY) 2027, proposing a massive $16.2 billion in cuts to the diplomatic and foreign assistance activities of the U.S. government, while making note that the administration does not believe U.S. foreign assistance funding should support “unfettered access to birth control.” The proposed cuts to the State Department and other international affairs agencies and programs reduce funding by nearly a one-third from the FY 2026 enacted level. Although a figure of “0” does not appear next to an international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) line-item in any of the budget documents released so far, it is a virtual certainty that the Trump regime will not request any bilateral or multilateral funding for these programs for the second year in a row.

Continued: https://pai.org/resources/trump-fy-2027-budget-request/


The Trump administration kills children abroad while being ‘pro-life’ at home

In Georgia, a woman was charged with murder after allegedly taking pills to induce a termination. Yet America happily drops bombs on children abroad

Arwa Mahdawi
Sat 21 Mar 2026

How many children has the US helped kill this week in the Middle East? It’s hard to keep track, but Unicef reports that more than 1,800 children in the region have been killed or injured since the US and Israel started a war with Iran on 28 February.

In Lebanon, a US-backed Israel is killing or wounding a classroom’s worth of children every day, Unicef’s deputy executive director told Reuters. That’s just after killing more than 20,000 children in Gaza in two years, all with the help of US taxpayer dollars.

Classrooms full of massacred children sounds pretty shocking to any normal person. But remember, when it comes to the Middle East, the situation is always complicated. Certainly, our lawmakers aren’t losing any sleep over dead brown kids.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/21/trump-administration-pro-life-ice-israel-palestine


Zimbabwe – Traditional leaders thwart attempt to smuggle in contentious clause on abortion

March 15, 2026 
Zvamaida Murwira

A CLAUSE in the Medical Services Amendment Bill that sought to legalise abortion was removed after traditional leaders protested, describing it as an abomination and taboo against traditional practices, The Sunday Mail has learnt.

The Bill had sailed through the National Assembly, but the Senate rejected it after traditional leaders said they could not approve of a practice that runs against traditional customs.

Continued: https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/traditional-leaders-thwart-attempt-to-smuggle-in-contentious-clause-on-abortion/


Texas – The girls of San Benito, the center where Trump sends pregnant migrant minors

The Department of Health is transferring them to Texas, where abortion is virtually banned, despite objections from officials at the federal agency responsible for them

Jesús Jank Curbelo
Houston - MAR 13, 2026

Since last July, the Trump administration has been sending all unaccompanied migrant girls who show up pregnant at the U.S. border to a single center located in San Benito, a small border town in South Texas, the state with one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. In recent months, more than a dozen girls have been transferred to this facility. At least half of them became pregnant as a result of rape. Some are 13 years old.

In theory, everyone who arrives at the San Benito center has the right to be informed of their options, including abortion, through a notification called a Garza notice. In practice, however, that right is in jeopardy, according to Sarah Corning, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “We remain concerned that doctors will refuse to perform abortions for fear of prosecution, something we’ve seen happen far too often since the ban went into effect” in the state, she says.

Continued; https://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-03-13/the-girls-of-san-benito-the-center-where-trump-sends-pregnant-migrant-minors.html


Polish doctors jailed for denying woman abortion

March 3, 2026

Warsaw (AFP) – A Polish court on Tuesday sentenced three doctors to prison sentences over the 2021 death of a pregnant woman, which sparked nationwide protests and renewed scrutiny of the country's restrictive abortion laws.

The woman, Izabela, whose last name has not been made public, died of sepsis in 2021 while experiencing complications in the 22nd week of pregnancy. Her death came a year after a law toughening abortion restrictions in the mainly Catholic country came into effect and reignited mass protests.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260303-polish-doctors-jailed-for-denying-woman-abortion


State-Enabled Intimidation: How Anti-Abortion Extremism Is Undermining Legal Healthcare in Poland

12.02.2026
ASTRA Network

Poland is experiencing a coordinated and escalating campaign of anti-abortion intimidation and disinformation that directly undermines women’s access to lawful healthcare. This campaign is driven by fundamentalist actors and increasingly reinforced by political figures and state institutions that legitimize and amplify these practices. Together, these dynamics create a climate in which legally guaranteed medical services are systematically obstructed through fear, harassment, and institutional pressure.

Abortion Access in Poland: Law and Reality
Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion legislations in Europe. Following politically captured rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal, abortion is now effectively permitted only when a pregnancy poses a threat to a woman’s life or health, or when it results from a criminal act.

Continued: https://astra.org.pl/state-enabled-intimidation-how-anti-abortion-extremism-is-undermining-legal-healthcare-in-poland/


USA – A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion.

In North Carolina, a state that had legislated its commitment to life, Ciji Graham spent her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.

by Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana
January 14, 2026

When Ciji Graham visited a cardiologist on Nov. 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat. The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure.

In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Graham’s heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didn’t offer to shock her. Graham texted her friend from the appointment: “Said she can’t cardiovert being pregnant.”

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/north-carolina-abortion-laws-ciji-graham


European Citizens’ Initiative on abortion rights reaches milestone after hearing

Thursday 4 December 2025
By The Brussels Times Newsroom

The European Parliament hosted on Tuesday a hearing on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “My Voice, My Choice” on safe and accessible abortion for all women in the EU.

At the heart of the initiative is a concrete proposal which respects that health is a national competency: A European financial mechanism that supports EU Member States in providing access to safe abortion care free of charge to women without access in their own country and does not interfere with national legislations.

Continued:; https://www.brusselstimes.com/1867634/pro-choice-european-citizens-initiative-holds-hearing-in-the-european-parliament


Polish police detain father, son over acid attacks on Warsaw abortion clinic

24.11.2025
Polskie Radio

Polish police have detained a father and his 18-year-old son suspected of hurling butyric acid at the country's only abortion clinic in Warsaw in the fourth such attack since March, the first arrests in a months-long campaign of harassment.

News website Gazeta.pl reported that on Friday, Nov. 14, butyric acid was poured for the fourth time outside the Abotak clinic on Wiejska Street, forcing a response by firefighters and a specialist clean-up crew.

Continued; https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7789/Artykul/3611825,polish-police-detain-father-son-over-acid-attacks-on-warsaw-abortion-clinic