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/

Zambia – She was denied a legal abortion and sent to prison over an illegal one. Now she tells her story

By JACOB ZIMBA and GERALD IMRAY
February 16, 2026

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — She says she was let down at every step. By a partner who abandoned her when she was pregnant. By a health service that denied her a legal abortion. And by a justice system that sent her to a maximum-security prison for illegally terminating her pregnancy on her own.

Violet Zulu, a house cleaner in Zambia earning $40 a month, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024 after representing herself in court with little understanding of the consequences of her actions. She didn’t see her two children or other family members for nearly two years.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/africa-abortion-zambia-prison-court-7008cfbc50b59229c764fbcd48c3adbb

16.02.2026

Commentary

abortion stigma

Center for Reproductive Rights

Rosemary Kirui

Sharon Williams

Violet Zulu

Women and Law in Southern Africa

GUAM – AG: court decisions on abortion won’t change ‘religious and moral dilemmas’ for lawmakers

John O'Connor | The Guam Daily Post
Feb 9, 2026

Attorney General Douglas Moylan has commented on his recent loss at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in his case to dissolve the injunction on Guam's old abortion ban.

"This issue remains divisive in every community throughout our nation," Moylan said. He added that in the end, the choice on abortion, which he called "the choice to kill the unborn," will continue to affect every person and family "in ways unrelated to court decisions about what is 'legal' or what is 'not legal.'"

… Jayne Flores, the recently retired director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs and an advocate for the reproductive rights group Guam People for Choice, said a more productive use of public funds would be to start a campaign convincing "men of all races on Guam not to rape women and girls."

Continued: https://www.postguam.com/news/local/ag-court-decisions-on-abortion-wont-change-religious-and-moral-dilemmas-for-lawmakers/article_24cfa945-3fd5-493f-a256-7172e9d6cedc.html

09.02.2026

News

Center for Reproductive Rights

Douglas Moylan

Guam People for Choice

Court Overturns Conviction, Affirms Reproductive Justice and Access to Abortion in Zambia

Center for Reproductive Rights
January 16, 2026

Today, the High Court of Zambia overturned the conviction of Violet Zulu and set her free from a 7-year prison sentence. Violet, a young single mother of two, was sentenced to seven years in prison for procuring her own abortion. This landmark decision corrects a grave miscarriage of justice and marks a significant step forward in the fight for women’s and girls’ rights to access reproductive health services in Zambia.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, together with Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) Zambia, and the law firm of Musa Dudhia and Company Advocates (ALN Zambia), remained relentless in fighting for Violet’s release. In its judgment, the Court found that the decision of the lower court was unlawful and unjust, and that Violet’s rights were violated. The Court accordingly ordered her immediate release.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/news/court-overturns-conviction-affirms-reproductive-justice-access-abortion-zambia/

16.01.2026

News

Center for Reproductive Rights

High Court of Zambia

Rosemary Kirui

Sharon Williams

Termination of Pregnancy Act

Violet in Zambia

Women and Law in Southern Africa

Brussels, the quiet front line of Europe’s abortion wars

Conservative religious groups, US-linked think tanks and faith-based organisations are increasingly using the EU capital to push hardline anti-abortion views – blurring the line between belief, lobbying and politics

Emma Pirnay / Thomas Mangin – Euractiv
Jan 7, 2025

Brussels has become an unlikely hub for a well-funded conservative push against abortion rights, as religious organisations, lobby groups and foreign think tanks quietly expand their footprint near the EU’s centres of power.

In late September, American preacher Franklin Graham came to Brussels’ ING Arena to take centre stage at his Festival of Hope. A multimillionaire who inherited his father Billy’s evangelism empire, Graham is known for comparing abortion to “murder” and for his close ties to Donald Trump.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/news/ripe-for-harvest-brussels-growing-web-of-anti-abortion-religious-influence/

07.01.2026

Commentary

Camille Gervais

Center for Reproductive Rights

European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Franklin Graham

Heritage Foundation

My Voice My Choice campaign

USA – Ten Good Things that Happened in 2025

December 22, 2025
Center for Reproductive Rights

Good news might not have dominated the headlines this year, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any. Around the world, activists and advocates are pressing forward despite the obstruction of anti-rights actors—and their hard work is paying off.

As we wrap up up 2025 and start looking ahead to 2026, this list of global wins on reproductive rights is a reminder that there’s lots to celebrate. So, our holiday gift to you: ten good things that happened in 2025.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/news/ten-good-things-2025/

22.12.2025

News

Center for Reproductive Rights

Holding the Trump Administration Accountable for Wasting Millions of Dollars of Birth Control

December 15, 2025
Center for Reproductive Rights

The Trump administration will let tens of millions of dollars’ worth of contraception paid for by taxpayers expire rather than distribute it as foreign aid. The contraception, representing a value of at least $10 million and possibly as much as $40 million, was earmarked for women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa—where its loss could result in more than a million unintended pregnancies and thousands of maternal deaths. Multiple humanitarian organizations have offered to buy the birth control, but the administration has refused.

On August 29, 2025, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about the administration’s decision to let the contraception—and millions in taxpayer money—go to waste. The administration has not responded to the request. The Center is now suing.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/cases/holding-trump-accountable-wasting-millions-birth-control/

15.12.2025