Chile Abortion Bill Puts Women’s Choice Through a Political Stethoscope

The Latin American Post
July 15, 2026

A far-right proposal in Chile would require doctors to offer fetal cardiac audio before legal abortions, then deny the procedure when patients decline. The contradiction has reopened a struggle over autonomy, trauma and President José Antonio Kast’s promised political restraint.

A Choice That Cancels Itself
The scene written into Chile’s latest abortion bill is intimate by design. A doctor tells a patient that embryonic or fetal cardiac activity is detectable, then offers to make it audible. She may say no. Under the bill’s own language, the physician must then refuse the abortion and record her decision. This is the controversy’s hinge: the proposal calls her refusal free, yet attaches the loss of care to it. Choice becomes ceremony, then consequence. The clinical room becomes a checkpoint, and consent becomes conditional, too.

Continued: https://latinamericanpost.com/life/chile-abortion-bill-puts-womens-choice-through-a-political-stethoscope/

The threat to abortion in Australia and what’s at stake

Kamala Emanuel
July 13, 2026

Attempts by conservative forces to whittle back abortion rights in NSW, South Australia and Queensland have all been defeated for now. But what’s behind these efforts and what is at stake?

In the 19th century, each state and territory inherited a version of the British criminal or penal code. All contained some kind of offence of “illegal abortion” with most not stipulating what in particular made abortion illegal. However, all of them formed a framework of prohibition that (like alcohol prohibition) gave rise to illicit, often dangerous, abortion provision and corruption.

Continued: https://www.greenleft.org.au/2026/1458/analysis/threat-abortion-australia-and-whats-stake

13.07.2026

Commentary

abortion postcode lottery

anti-choice restrictions

Australia – Real question on SA abortion care is who decides?

As a controversial anti-abortion lobbyist announces she is taking SA police to court, academic Dr Judith Dwyer AM says the real question about abortion care is “who gets to decide”?

Dr Judith Dwyer
Jul 09, 2026

Anti-abortion lobbyist Joanna Howe has filed a $5000 claim against SA Police in Adelaide Magistrates Court over being told to leave a voting booth during the state election. Following a recent, controversial third attempt to pass legislation to restrict later-term abortions in this state, Dr Judith Dwyer recognises the issue won’t go away but says the real question at the heart of this debate is not ‘should there be more restrictions on abortion care?’

Last month, when members of the House of Assembly voted overwhelmingly (36 to 9) to defeat the most recent bill seeking to restrict abortions later in pregnancy, it wasn’t mostly about conscience.

Almost everyone in the chamber knew that the vote was about preserving the 2021 abortion law. The Bill was a rearguard action against that law, arising as part of a collection of right-wing populist campaigns that make up the current ‘culture wars’.

Continued: https://www.indailysa.com.au/news/opinion/2026/07/10/real-question-on-sa-abortion-care-is-who-decides

09.07.2026

Commentary

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice restrictions

Australia – ‘Women should be the ones who decide’: SA GPs push back on abortion restrictions

Royal Australian College of GPs
Sep 7, 2025

South Australian GPs are speaking out against new proposed restrictions on abortion access. It comes following independent MP and former One Nation member, Sarah Game, planning to introduce a bill on Friday limiting access to abortion after 23 weeks.

RACGP South Australia Chair, Dr Siân Goodson, said that decisions on abortion should be made by patients in consultation with healthcare professionals. “Abortion services are essential healthcare, and we strongly oppose these plans,” she said.

Continued: https://newshub.medianet.com.au/2025/09/women-should-be-the-ones-who-decide-sa-gps-push-back-on-abortion-restrictions/117325/

07.09.2025

News

anti-choice restrictions

Dr Clare Keogh

Dr Siân Goodson

Kyam Maher

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

Royal Australian College of GPs

UK – James Cleverly opposes moves to cut abortion time limit

Apr 25, 2024
By Nick Eardley & Becky Morton, BBC Politics

Home Secretary James Cleverly has said he opposes attempts to reduce the time limit for abortion. Several MPs are seeking to change the law on abortions through the Criminal Justice Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.

But Mr Cleverly urged his colleagues not to pursue the abortion debate as part of the bill before the election. "This is not the kind of bill where we should have something like this," he said. Speaking to journalists in Westminster, he said: "I am pro-choice. Safe and legal access to abortion is incredibly important."

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68900657

25.04.2024

News

anti-choice restrictions

UK – Lower abortion limit from 24 weeks, 700 doctors urge MPs

Reduction ‘long overdue’ because of increased numbers of babies born at 22 or 23 weeks now able to survive

Charles Hymas,
10 March 2024

The abortion time limit should be lowered from 24 to 22 weeks, more than 700 doctors have urged MPs. In a letter to all 650 MPs, the medics have called on them to back an amendment to the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill to reduce the time limit, in what would be the biggest change to the law for a generation.

The medical professionals – ranging from senior consultants to GPs – said a reduction is “long overdue” because of the increased numbers of babies born at 22 or 23 weeks who are now able to survive.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/10/lower-abortion-limit-from-24-weeks-700-doctors-urge-mps/

USA – The Impact Of Restrictive Abortion Laws In 2023

JANUARY 1, 2024
15-Minute Listen

From NPR's daily news podcast, Consider This: Nearly two years into Roe v. Wade being overturned, pregnant people continue to have a hard time accessing abortion and miscarriage care. This year saw the addition of new restrictive abortion laws in some states and protection of existing abortion laws in others.

What does this mean for abortion care in 2024, and how might all of this affect the 2024 elections?

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2024/01/01/1197958788/restrictive-abortion-laws-2023

01.01.2024

Interviews/Podcasts

anti-choice restrictions

barriers to access

restrictive abortion laws

NARAL Pro-Choice America Releases New Research on Anti-Abortion Extremism

June 1, 2023

Washington, DC — Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America released a series of new research memos detailing how anti-abortion extremists are ramping up their radical attacks on our rights in a post-Dobbs America. Emboldened by the fall of Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion lawmakers and groups are sneaking “personhood” ideology into state and federal law, targeting contraception, and working to enact once-unthinkable policies such as instituting the death penalty for people who have an abortion.

NARAL Pro-Choice America Vice President of Communications and Research Angela Vasquez-Giroux released the following statement: “It’s never been clearer that anti-abortion extremists like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and the politicians who do their bidding were never going to stop at Roe….”

Continued: https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/2023/06/01/naral-pro-choice-america-releases-new-research-on-anti-abortion-extremism/

01.06.2023

News

Angela Vasquez-Giroux

anti-choice extremism

anti-choice restrictions

anti-choice violence

Naral Pro-Choice America

pro-life murders

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

United States

Anti-choice

Doctors Are Still Confused by Abortion Exceptions in Louisiana. It’s Limiting Essential Care

BY ANISHA KOHLI
MAY 24, 2023

The Louisiana state legislature shot down two bills last week that aimed to clarify the legality of abortion and miscarriage care in pregnancies with complications.

The existing laws in Louisiana allow for abortions in certain cases when a pregnant patient’s life or health may be at risk, but physicians have criticized the texts for being confusing and limiting their ability to provide essential medical care.

Continued: https://time.com/6282288/louisiana-abortion-exceptions-confusion-doctors/

USA – The short life of Baby Milo

By Frances Stead Sellers, Thomas Simonetti and Maggie Penman
May 19, 2023

Milo Evan Dorbert drew his first and last breath on the evening of March 3. The unusual complications in his mother’s pregnancy tested the interpretation of Florida’s new abortion law.

Deborah Dorbert discovered she was pregnant in August. Her early appointments suggested the baby was thriving, and she looked forward to welcoming a fourth member to the family. It didn’t occur to her that fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a half-century constitutional right to abortion would affect them.

Continued: https://wapo.st/41XRJzA

19.05.2023