‘If not now, when?’: Melinda French Gates on acting without fear as a philanthropist in the Trump era

By Emma Hinchliffe
June 4, 2026

It has been two years since Melinda French Gates left behind the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her former husband, Bill Gates. With an estimated net worth of $19.2 billion, she now has full control over how her philanthropic resources are used for the first time in her career—no husband or cofounder to debate.

“It’s very freeing,” she says.

So what is she doing with that freedom? She’s showing other billionaires how to spend their money—starting with addressing a lack of funding for women’s health in the U.S. and around the globe.

Continued: https://archive.is/jOVky
(https://fortune.com/2026/06/04/melinda-french-gates-pivotal-interview-womens-health-philanthropy-billionaires-trump/)

04.06.2026

Center for Reproductive Rights

Gates Foundation

Mackenzie Scott

Melinda French Gates

National Women’s Law Center

She Faced a Life-Threatening Miscarriage. Under Arkansas’ Abortion Ban, Even Calls to the Governor’s Office Didn’t Help.

by Kavitha Surana
May 26, 2026

On the morning of Sept. 16, 2024, Emily Waldorf’s preschooler found her curled on the bathroom floor. Waldorf had felt a strange pressure during a shower, like a balloon bulging into her vagina, and was now bleeding. “I can be your pillow, mommy,” her daughter said, nuzzling into her neck.

Waldorf was 17 weeks pregnant. She and her husband, Justin, dropped their daughter off at her grandparents’ and rushed to Washington Regional Hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Waldorf worked as an acute care physical therapist.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/arkansas-abortion-ban-miscarriage-care

Kenyan court recriminalizes abortion

Reproductive rights advocates warn that the ruling spells grave danger for both doctors and pregnant women, thousands of whom die of unsafe abortions every year in Kenya.

April 27, 2026
by Pavan Kulkarni

Advocates for reproductive rights in Kenya, where thousands die every year of complications due to unsafe abortion, expressed outraged at the ruling on April 24 by the Court of Appeal in the town of Malindi. The court overturned a 2022 High Court ruling and recriminalized abortion.

The 2022 decision held that abortion is a constitutional right, but the appellate court ruled that this was an incorrect interpretation. The constitution adopted by Kenya in 2010 allowed for abortion if “there is a need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger.” It has, however, remained criminalized in practice for over a decade as the colonial-era penal code has not been amended to reflect this.

Continued: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/04/27/kenyan-court-recriminalizes-abortion/

Court of Appeal Delivers Setback to Reproductive Rights in Kenya, Reinstates Criminal Prosecution of a Young Woman and Health Provider

April 24, 2026
Center for Reproductive Rights

In a deeply disappointing decision, the Court of Appeal in Malindi has today delivered its judgment in Civil Appeal No. E029 and E030 of 2022, setting aside the High Court’s decision in Malindi Petition No. E009 of 2020 and reinstating criminal proceedings against a young woman and a healthcare provider.

In September 2019, *PAK, a 16 -year-old girl in Kilifi County, experienced pregnancy complications, including severe abdominal pain, dizziness and vaginal bleeding. She went to a clinic where a trained clinical officer, Salim Mohammed, examined her, and determined she had lost the pregnancy, and provided emergency post -abortion care. The Police arrested both PAK and Mohammed, a licensed healthcare professional and detained them. PAK was arrested from her hospital bed and detained her at Ganze Police Patrol Base for two nights, without medical care. A few days later, police officers stormed the clinic and seized PAK’s medical records and forced her to undergo a medical examination against her will. The Police also compelled PAK to sign a statement that did not reflect her account of events, and she was remanded at Malindi Juvenile Remand Prison for over a month.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/news/court-of-appeal-malindi-decision/

24.04.2026

Commentary

abortion is a fundamental right

Center for Reproductive Rights

High Court of Kenya

Kenya Court of Appeal

Malindi Petition No. E009

Kenyan Court Strikes Down Ruling Protecting Right to Abortion

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)

24.04.2026

Center for Reproductive Rights

Kenyan appeal court overturns ruling that affirmed the right to abortion

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.

Continued: https://halifax.citynews.ca/2026/04/24/kenyan-appeal-court-overturns-ruling-that-affirmed-the-right-to-abortion/

Texas Medical Board Sanctions Three Doctors for Delayed Care That Led to the Deaths of Two Pregnant Women

Porsha Ngumezi and Nevaeh Crain died during miscarriages in Texas. The state’s medical board ruled that the doctors’ substandard care led to the deaths and ordered them to complete extra training.

by Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser
April 17, 2026

The Texas Medical Board has disciplined three doctors ProPublica previously investigated whose patients died after receiving delayed or inappropriate pregnancy care under the state’s strict abortion ban.

Two of the doctors failed to properly intervene as a pregnant teenager repeatedly sought care for life-threatening complications, the board found. The third did not provide a dilation and curettage procedure to empty a miscarrying patient’s uterus, and she ultimately bled to death.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/tmb-disciplines-doctors-ngumezi-crain-cases

States pass laws allowing pregnancy centers to evade regulation and countersue for damages

Mar 31, 2026
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris

States with and without abortion bans are advancing bills that would shield anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers from certain government mandates and attempts at regulation, allowing them to sue for damages if any part of the law is violated.

At least four states introduced the legislation this session, and two of them, Kansas and Wyoming, made it law. Montana also passed a similar law in 2025. The bills are still pending in Oklahoma and New Hampshire.

Continued; https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/states-pass-laws-allowing-pregnancy-centers-evade-regulation-and-countersue-damages

Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Urges Poland to Guarantee Effective Access to Lawful Abortion Care – Statement

March 12, 2026
Center for Reproductive Rights

GENEVA—This week, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a decision urging Poland to ensure effective access to lawful abortion without further delay. The Committee expressed continued concern that Poland has yet to fully comply with the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments in the cases of Tysiąc v. Poland, R.R. v. Poland, P. and S. v. Poland, and M.L. v. Poland, which require the authorities to ensure that access to lawful abortion is accessible in practice.

More than 18 years after the first of these landmark judgments became final, systemic barriers remain. Poland’s highly restrictive abortion law and the criminalisation of abortion continue to have a chilling effect on the provision of lawful abortion care. Combined with regulatory gaps, ineffective complaint procedures, frequent refusals of care based on the “conscience clause,” and the stigma surrounding abortion, these barriers leave many women who are legally entitled to abortion unable to access these services in practice. The situation deteriorated further following the regressive Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling in 2020, which effectively imposed a near-total ban on abortion.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/news/coe-committee-of-ministers-poland-access-abortion-care/

From Criminalization to Constitutional Clarity: A Defining Moment for Reproductive Rights in Africa

March 11, 2026

Across Africa, a series of transformative legal and policy wins signal a clear regional trajectory–the recognition of reproductive healthcare as a constitutional and human right, not a political or socioeconomic privilege.

From Rwanda to Zambia, Kenya to Malawi to Nigeria, courts and parliaments are reaffirming the message that women and girls must not be punished for exercising their reproductive rights, or denied the care they need.

But what makes these transformations different is not simply the number of legal wins–it is the clarity they provide. Across diverse legal systems and political contexts, the message is becoming harder to ignore: reproductive rights are enforceable rights grounded in constitutional guarantees, and inseparable from dignity, equality, and the right to health for all women and girls in Africa.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/news/a-defining-moment-for-reproductive-rights-in-africa/