Philippines’ abortion ban drives women to risky, underground services

Filipinos wanting to end unwanted pregnancies have resorted to black-market alternatives that can result in life-threatening consequences

2 Jul 2026

The arrest of a 65-year-old woman accused of selling abortion pills in Manila has offered a glimpse into the shadow economy growing around ending unwanted pregnancies in the Philippines, one of the few countries in the world where the procedure remains criminalised in almost all circumstances.

For women and girls trying to end unwanted pregnancies, access often depends on online sellers, market vendors, whispered referrals and the uncertain quality of pills bought far from formal medical care, where complications can quickly become life-threatening.

Continued: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3359074/philippines-abortion-ban-drives-women-risky-underground-services

Two Neighbours, Two Courts, One Paradox: Abortion Rights in the US and Mexico

By Devashri Awasthi, McGill International Review
Mar 21, 2026

In September 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) unanimously declared criminalizing abortion unconstitutional. Nine months later, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973). The irony is striking: Mexico—commonly perceived as conservative and overwhelmingly Catholic—expanded abortion rights through judicial reasoning, while the United States—long self-identified as a global rights leader—restricted access through partisan judicial maneuvering. Two neighbouring Christian-majority countries with politically compromised judiciaries reached diametrically opposite conclusions on closely related constitutional questions.

Taken together, these rulings pose a clear comparative puzzle. Holding religion constant and treating politics as the product rather than the cause, analyzing this outcome centres on judicial interpretation, social movements, and international human rights uptake as the channels through which the bounds of the decision were set.

Continued: https://www.mironline.ca/two-neighbours-two-courts-one-paradox-abortion-rights-in-the-us-and-mexico/

Nepal – Legal safeguards fail to curb abortion prosecution

Nepal’s abortion law protects rights on paper but women still risk arrest and harassment.

Aarya Chand
February 8, 2026

Kalpana, a resident of Siraha, was not seeking to abort the child. She was seeking medical care.

After a miscarriage, Kalpana, who the Post is identifying with a pseudonym to protect her privacy, was taken to a hospital for treatment. Instead, she was accused of having undergone an illegal abortion. The police were informed and she was arrested.

Months later, Siraha District Court cleared her of the charges by declaring that what had actually occurred was a natural miscarriage.

Continued: https://kathmandupost.com/national/2026/02/08/legal-safeguards-fail-to-curb-abortion-prosecution

Taiwan’s Enduring Controversies Over Abortion Laws

June 4, 2025
Hope Ngo

We have quantum theory to thank for “Schröedinger’s Cat,” a thought experiment involving a box that is said to contain a radioactive atom, a container of poison, and a cat. In the experiment, the animal is said to be both alive and dead until the box is opened and the cat’s condition is confirmed one way or the other. Unfortunately, the same can be said of the status of abortion rights in Taiwan—that it is both legal and illegal because the procedure is governed by two very different, contradicting laws. So, while Taiwan has staked out a progressive position regarding LGBTQ+ rights, it cannot say the same about its more complex social attitudes and laws regarding women’s reproductive rights.

In Taiwan, abortion is allowed under specific conditions specified by the Genetic Health Act (優生保健法), but it is penalized under Articles 288, 290, and 292 of the Criminal Code (中華民國刑法). Under the Genetic Health Act, legal abortions can be performed under six conditions. These conditions include:

Continued: https://globaltaiwan.org/2025/06/taiwans-enduring-controversies-over-abortion-laws/

Human rights organizations call for better protection of sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America

Helena Tian | UCL Faculty of Laws, GB/CN
January 20, 2025

Human rights organizations in Latin America issued a joint statement on Friday, expressing deep concerns about the systematic non-compliance of several Latin American states with international human rights, sexual rights, and reproductive rights (SRHR) obligations.

SRHR are fundamental rights protected by a range of international and regional human rights treaties and in national laws and constitutions … [but] legal and socioeconomic barriers in Latin America are currently undermining the ability to exercise self-determination and bodily autonomy free from discrimination, coercion and violence. The statement underlined several overriding issues, including the criminalization of abortion, the lack of access to comprehensive and quality sexual and reproductive health services, institutional gynaecological and obstetric violence, the misuse of conscientious objection, and a lack of implementation of decisions from international and regional human rights institutions.

Continued: https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/01/human-rights-organizations-call-for-better-sexual-and-reproductive-rights-in-latin-america/

New UN Guidance Calling for Restraints on Conscientious Objection to Abortion Care

by Cynthia Soohoo and Jaime M. Gher
November 26, 2024

The United Nations Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls (WGDAWG) this summer issued important new guidance on how governments can comply with their obligations to ensure that individual refusals to provide health care services based on religion or conscience do not create a barrier to reproductive health services, including abortion services. The guidance responds to reports of widespread abuse of “conscience claims” that have undermined abortion access in many regions. As States now turn to the process of implementing the guidance, we offer an explainer on what it requires and why implementation is necessary for States to comply with their international legal obligations.

Given the grave impact that delays or denial of care have on the health and lives of pregnant people, the WGDAWG’s guidance emphasizes that States should only allow conscience claims to refuse abortion services if they can ensure that pregnant people can promptly access these services from another provider.

Continued: https://www.justsecurity.org/105169/un-conscientious-objection-abortion-care/

26.11.2024

News

belief-based care denial

CEDAW Committee

conscience clause

conscientious objection

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women

Human Rights Committee

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

United Nations Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls

Expanding abortion access strengthens democracy, while abortion bans signal broader repression − worldwide study

October 24, 2024
Alison Brysk, Professor of Political Science and Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Abortion is on the agenda not just in the United States but worldwide.

A majority of people in developed democracies increasingly favor abortion rights and self-determination. And, in most places, laws are shifting to reflect public opinion. Since 2020, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, among others, have legalized abortion. In 2024, France adopted the right to an abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” in its constitution.

At the same time, on every continent, some modern democracies are rolling back reproductive rights, among them Poland, Brazil and the U.S.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/expanding-abortion-access-strengthens-democracy-while-abortion-bans-signal-broader-repression-worldwide-study-240278

24.10.2024

Commentary

Abortion Rights Backlash

Alberto Fernandez

Alisan Brysk

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women

enshrining abortion rights in constitution

Law and Justice party

The overturning of Roe v Wade could harm women across the world

The US policies on abortion, whether we like it or not, significantly influence how seriously governments around the world take the issue of unsafe abortions.

Stephanie Musho
19 May 2022

A leaked draft of a United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade, a landmark 1973 decision that gave women the constitutional right to abortion, recently put abortion rights once again on the global agenda.

As a human rights lawyer in Kenya, I too am watching the developments in Washington, DC with worry. This is not only because I feel for American women being forced to fight for their right to bodily autonomy, but also because case law in commonwealth jurisdictions such as Kenya is sometimes influenced by decisions taken in US courtrooms.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/19/the-overturning-of-roe-v-wade-could-harm-women-across-the-world

Momentous revolution of women’s rights in Ecuador: An unceasing strive for liberation of abortion laws

Varshunn Bhan Miskeen & Aditya Pandey
August 7, 2021

With the Constitutional Court of Ecuador passing the verdict of decriminalizing abortion in all instances of rape, Ecuador has joined the group of countries who have decriminalized abortion in selective cases. The passing of this verdict has allowed the Ecuadorian women who had been raped and wanted abortion, to no longer be penalised for their actions. The judges of the Ecuador Constitutional Court had decriminalized the two articles with the ratio of 7 against 2 in favour of the verdict. Before, the law only allowed for this procedure only in the instance of critical risk to woman’s health or if a raped woman had a mental disability. Abortion under the two selective conditions has been legal since 1938.

Continued: https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/legally-speaking/momentous-revolution-womens-rights-ecuador-unceasing-strive-liberation-abortion-laws

07.08.2021

Comprehensive Penal Code

Constitutional Court of Ecuador

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women

decriminalization of abortion

Rethinking Abortion In India: A Human Rights Conversation

Niharika Kaul
16 May 2021

The issue of abortion has gained particular momentum in the past few months with two interesting developments in very different parts of the world- the passage of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) (Amendment) Bill 2020 in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) in India and the recent passage of the Argentinian abortion bill, that legalises abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy. While the MTP (Amendment) Bill 2020 extends the existing time period within which abortion can be conducted in India to 24 weeks in some cases, the Argentinian bill replaces the prior abortion law based on the 'exception model', where three exceptions were allowed to an otherwise blanket criminal prohibition- when a pregnancy endangers the life or health of a woman, girl, or pregnant person, or when it results from rape. After the Argentinian Senate narrowly rejected a bill to decriminalize abortion in 2018, the lower house of Congress finally passed the bill this January.

Continued: https://www.livelaw.in/columns/medical-termination-of-pregnancy-mtp-amendment-bill-2020-world-health-organisation-who-174212