Stanisław Kaleta
29.05.2026
A prominent far-right activist has been sentenced to 10 months of unpaid community service for manhandling a protester during mass demonstrations triggered by a tightening of Poland’s abortion laws.
A Warsaw court ruled on Friday that Robert Bąkiewicz must carry out 30 hours of supervised community work per month and pay 5,000 zloty (around €1,200) in compensation to women’s rights activist Angelika Domańska.
Anti-abortion activist concedes pictures of human foetuses may have been sugar glider joeys
Joanna Howe posts on social media that if purported images of human foetuses are in fact sugar gliders, ‘it doesn’t actually matter’
Tory Shepherd
Thu 28 May 2026
The anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe has conceded she may have used a “scam” email featuring a picture of sugar glider joeys, referring to them as human foetuses, to promote her views – but it “was an insignificant detail”.
In a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, Howe said it appeared she had been “scammed” when someone emailed her claiming to give details about their medical abortion, including an image that Howe referred to as twin girls she called Ruth and Emma.
27 May 2026
Ayesha Khan, Claire Carson
This year the United Nations (UN) hosted the 70th Commission on the Status of Women conference, a gathering of dignitaries, diplomats and civil society leaders who annually take stock of progress towards gender equality.
Its successes have been praised by women leaders, notably the vote for the agreed conclusions despite opposition from the United States (US), and the fact that thousands of civil society representatives from all over the world overcame visa, travel and funding restrictions to participate in person. Traditionally, the civil society organisations that participate are progressive, setting a feminist agenda that expands gender equality.
But now, an alternative civil society gathering is attempting something altogether different.
openDemocracy and the Fuller Project exposed Reform’s growing anti-abortion rhetoric. Its candidate’s comments proved our case.
By Sian Norris
May 27, 2026
“Abortion is the cowardly act of murdering a defenceless baby,” reads one post on the now-deleted X account of Robert Kenyon, Reform UK’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election.
… The revelations about Kenyon’s alleged anti-abortion social media activity, published in the Observer, come after openDemocracy and the Fuller Project revealed Reform’s growing antagonism towards abortion rights.
We found a 40% increase in abortion mentions by nearly 80 Reform politicians, supporters, hard-right news websites and far-right influencers over the past two years, as well as an uptick in pro-Reform accounts sharing anti-abortion disinformation and emotive language.
Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/dont-be-shocked-by-makerfield-candidates-sexism-this-is-reform/
Documentary film: 1 hour 16 minutes
Deutsche Welle
April 28, 2026
The situation of women’s rights in the USA is increasingly dramatic. Radical abortion bans and unequal treatment in the justice system are leading to significant restrictions on fundamental rights.
The documentary reports from the USA, a country where women go to prison for the crimes of their husbands, and a man is allowed to marry a ten-year-old girl. Abortions are illegal even in cases of rape and incest. The documentary sheds light on the mechanisms behind Trump's freedom-restricting policies. The rise of the conservative-puritanical ideology of Christian nationalism has led to a massive restriction of the fundamental rights of US citizens in the USA. In many places, women are dying because of a lack of gynecological care. In states with radical abortion bans, more than 100,000 women have already been forced to give birth to a child after being raped. Since Donald Trump's return as US president, the future for women in the US looks bleak. The documentary looks at the machinations of anti-abortion centers. Through interviews, it reveals how these freedom-restricting and backward-looking policies work. But the film also shows resistance, led by those who refuse to accept these developments.
Continued: https://amp.dw.com/en/usa-the-war-against-womens-rights/video-76966507
The decision, in a country where thousands of women die yearly from unsafe abortions, held that abortions deprive unborn children of the “right to life.”
By Pranav Baskar
April 24, 2026
A court of appeal in Kenya on Friday struck down a ruling that had affirmed the right to an abortion, dealing a blow to reproductive rights in a country where thousands of women die each year from unsafe abortions.
The decision, which is likely to be appealed to Kenya’s supreme court, holds that abortions deprive unborn children of the “right to life,” which it said begins at conception. “Abortion is not a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution,” the judges wrote in their ruling.
Continued: https://archive.is/A1a7J
(https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/world/africa/kenya-court-abortion-ruling.html)
By Evelyne Musambi, The Associated Press|
Apr 24, 2026
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A court of appeal in Kenya Friday overturned a ruling that affirmed the right to access abortion, setting up a legal clash that is likely to be appealed again to the Kenyan Supreme Court.
The appeal was based on the 2022 case of a teenager who went to the hospital with pregnancy complications. A doctor who examined her determined she had lost the pregnancy, and provided emergency post-abortion care. They were acquitted by the high court.
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
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/
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.
Facebook
Google+
Twitter
LinkedIn