New Rio de Janeiro law requires public hospitals to display anti-abortion signs

Opponents view the controversial act as part of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict abortion access

Tiago Rogero in Rio de Janeiro
Thu 19 Jun 2025

A new law has just come into force in Rio de Janeiro requiring all public hospitals and clinics run by the municipal government to display anti-abortion signs bearing messages such as: “Did you know that the unborn child is discarded as hospital waste?”

Reproductive rights activists view the act as the latest example of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict access to abortion in a country that already has some of the world’s most restrictive laws.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/19/rio-de-janeiro-anti-abortion-signs

19.06.2025

News

anti-abortion signs

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice propaganda

Debora Diniz

Eduardo Paes

Jair Bolsonaro

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

USA – Abortion opponents are coming for mifepristone using what medical experts call “junk science”

Using flawed studies and scientific journal publications, abortion opponents are building a body of research meant to question the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone, a key target for the movement.

Shefali Luthra
May 30, 2025

The effort comes as federal officials have expressed a willingness to revisit the drug’s approval — and potentially impose new restrictions on a medication used in the vast majority of abortions.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2025/05/abortion-opponents-mifepristone-junk-science/

‘I lost control of my life’ How one Russian region made abortions almost impossible to get — without passing any new laws

April 24, 2025
Source: Glasnaya

The Russian government declared 2024 the Year of the Family. In practice, this meant tighter restrictions on reproductive rights, including limiting access to certain emergency contraceptives, outlawing so-called “childfree propaganda,” and sending priests with anti-abortion films into schools, universities, and women’s clinics. Officials and lawmakers also spent the year debating the prospect of a nationwide abortion ban.

Although no such ban has been passed yet, in some regions it’s already become a de facto reality. In places like the Republic of Karelia, women face so many barriers to accessing abortion services that many are forced to travel to neighboring regions for care. Despite national laws that still protect the right to abortion, local restrictions in Karelia have made the procedure increasingly difficult to obtain. Meduza has translated a report by the independent outlet Glasnaya detailing the growing obstacles women face when seeking abortions in the western Russian region.

Continued: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/04/24/i-lost-control-of-my-life

Bolivian teens seeking abortions meet misinformation online

Bolivian teens with unwanted pregnancies can be stymied by anti-abortion groups using online sites to spread misinformation.

Nathalie Iriarte
April 23, 2025

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia - When Kasandra, a teenager in Bolivia, discovered she was pregnant at 15 as a result of rape, her already troubled life fell apart.

The unwanted pregnancy was a horrible milestone in the years of sexual abuse and beatings she had endured at the hands of her stepfather that began when she was 11.

"To have a child was the worst. My stepfather was going to kick me out of the house or kill me," Kasandra, who did not want her real name used, told Context.

Continued: https://www.context.news/big-tech/bolivian-teens-seeking-abortions-meet-misinformation-online

Spain – Right and far-right parties launch global anti-abortion offensive in Madrid

The senate became a “theme park” against women’s reproductive and sexual rights.

Fernando Heller, EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es
Dec 3, 2024

Right-wing and far-right politicians launched an offensive against abortion on Monday at an 'ultra' summit in the Spanish Senate, despite the left-wing government's criticism of Spain's right-wing Partido Popular for compromising the neutrality of this state institution.

The Spanish Senate, where Spain’s Partido Popular (PP/EPP), the main opposition force to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's (PSOE/S&D) government, has a majority, hosted the VI Transatlantic Summit Against Abortion, an international forum bringing together 300 representatives of the far-right and right-wing camps from 45 countries.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/right-and-far-right-parties-launch-global-anti-abortion-offensive-in-madrid/

USA – Study of Crisis Pregnancy Centers Reveals Misleading and Dangerous Claims

A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first national assessment of crisis pregnancy centers and their operations

December 02, 2024
Mika Ono

A new study from scientists at the University of California San Diego introduces a powerful new approach to understanding the operation of crisis pregnancy centers, non-profit organizations dedicated to an anti-abortion agenda. The study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first account of the practices of crisis pregnancy centers (CPC) operating in the United States.

"While our study shows crisis pregnancy centers provide valuable community services, like parenting classes, there is a clear need for consumer safety measures to prevent the promotion and use of their questionable medical services," said John W. Ayers, Ph.D., who is deputy director of informatics at the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, in addition to scientist at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute, co-creator of ChoiceWatch.org and study coauthor.

Continued: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/study-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-reveals-misleading-and-dangerous-claims

Guatemala – Hidden in plain sight: The lobby group restricting rights in Latin America

Founded by members of shadowy Catholic organisation Opus Dei, the AFI has become one of Guatemala’s most influential groups

26 November 2024
OpenDemocracy

In the first half of this year, seven girls aged between 10 and 14 gave birth in Guatemala every single day.

Guatemalan law states that these 1,298 girls are the victims of sexual violence. Medical professionals say their pregnancies pose a high risk to their physical and mental health. But the Asociación la Familia Importa (AFI), Guatemala’s most influential anti-abortion organisation, has focused on preventing such girls from having abortions at any cost – and it is succeeding.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/afi-guatemala-opus-dei-anti-abortion-restrict-rights-latin-america/

26.11.2024

American Convention on Human Rights

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice terrorism

anti-choice violence

Asociación la Familia Importa

Beatriz abortion

Bernardo Arévalo

Catholic Church

César Brañas Castillo

comprehensive sexuality education

Elvira Estradé

Enlace

Family Matters Association

Family Research Council

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Guatemala Leaks

Heritage Foundation

Human Life international

Humberto Grazioso

Jordán Rodas

Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer

Ligia Briz

Mayra Figueroa de Poggio

Mirna Cardona de González

Mirna Montenegro

Opus Dei

OSAR

Parliamentary Front for Life and Family

Quebec announces province’s first abortion access plan

It includes $7.5 million to be spent on information campaigns, improving access to abortion services, research and consultations.

Jack Wilson
Published Nov 18, 2024

Quebec will make it easier for women to obtain the abortion pill, increase funding to pro-choice organizations and support additional abortion services as part of a three-year plan to bolster access to abortion, says Martine Biron, minister for the status of women.

The action plan outlines steps the government will take between now and 2027 and is Quebec’s first plan to improve access to abortion.

“Everywhere in the world, we’re seeing setbacks in women’s rights. A shock wave came in 2022 with the reversal of Roe v. Wade” in the United States, Biron said Monday.

Continued: https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-announces-provinces-first-abortion-access-plan

Crisis pregnancy center’s forms give rare insight into anti-abortion practices

The free organizations offer counseling while trying to dissuade women from having abortions. They promise to protect health data but aren’t bound by federal privacy law.

Oct. 13, 2024
by Abigail Brooks

A free family planning center in Twin Falls, Idaho, asks its visitors for sensitive, private information, including nonmedical questions about religion and financial status, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

While the Sage Women’s Center promises to protect the information of its clients, it isn’t bound by medical privacy laws and may be misleading women who are coping with unplanned pregnancies, consumer advocates say.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/crisis-pregnancy-centers-forms-privacy-abortion-rcna172566

The Anti-Abortion Movement Is Relentless. But So Is Jessica Valenti.

She once worried there wouldn’t be enough abortion news to cover. Now she’s just trying to keep up.

Ruth Murai
Oct 8, 2024

“Today’s newsletter will probably overwhelm you,” Jessica Valenti wrote in a note preceding the Wednesday, September 25, edition of Abortion, Every Day, the Substack where she breaks down the news on reproductive rights. The first order of business: an explanation of how a powerful anti-abortion group is directing an ad campaign that blames pro-choice advocates for the deaths of Candi Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman. Miller and Thurman were two Georgia women who, according to a ProPublica investigation, died because of the state abortion ban. “Honestly, how dare they,” Valenti wrote. “How dare they use these women’s names; how dare they use their pictures. It’s just beyond the pale.”

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/10/jessica-valenti-abortion-book-profile/