Abortion Access in Europe Is Fragile. We Can Learn From the U.S.: Opinion

Feminists and organizers across Europe must start building the kinds of grassroots networks that have helped pregnant Americans get abortion care even in states with bans.

By Marin Scarlett, Rewire News
Aug 19, 2026

As abortion bans rise across the United States, European countries are pushing to enshrine reproductive rights in their national constitutions.

In March 2026, Luxembourg amended its constitution to protect reproductive rights, in direct response to the U.S. overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. In June 2026, Finland’s leading political parties voted that abortion rights must be secured in its constitution. In April, Spain advanced a draft constitutional reform to “guarantee the exercise of women’s right to voluntary termination of pregnancy.”

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/08/19/abortion-access-europe-and-america/

Abortion is becoming a new front in Reform UK’s culture war

Following abortion decriminalisation, analysis from openDemocracy and the Fuller Project reveals the UK far right is pushing anti-abortion talking points into mainstream political debate.

By Sian Norris
May 20, 2026

Data analysed by The Fuller Project and openDemocracy reveal that British far-right political parties and influencers – including Reform UK – are taking inspiration from the United States and seeking to turn abortion into a new front in the culture wars.

At a time when Nigel Farage’s party has made sweeping gains in the local elections, our analysis of almost 80 Reform, Reform-supporting, and far-right X accounts found that between April 2024 and April 2026, mentions of abortion increased by 40% compared to the previous two years. This is despite a new law coming into force at the end of April 2026 which prevents women in England and Wales from facing a criminal investigation for having an abortion, and despite high public support for abortion across the UK.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/aabortion-reform-uk-politics-birth-decriminalization-farage/

Listen: How religious power is still shaping abortion laws in some European countries

by Evi Kiorri, Brussels
December 22, 2025
Podcast – 20:30 minutes

Abortion remains illegal in Malta and highly restricted in Poland, despite ongoing pressure from European institutions to uphold reproductive rights.

In this episode of Europe Talks Back, we examine the historical and current influence of religious institutions on abortion policy across Europe, and the political forces maintaining these restrictions.

We are joined by Neil Datta, executive director and founder of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and Magdalena Chrzczonowicz, editor-in-chief of OKO.press and contributor to the cross-border investigation Exporting Abortion, who share insights on how restrictive laws impact women and how cross-border initiatives are working to protect access to safe abortion care.

Continued; https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/ar23b6aa4a

22.12.2025

Interviews/Podcasts

Europe Talks Back

European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Exporting Abortion

Magdalena Chrzczonowicz

‘Trojan horse moment’: anti-rights groups seize chance to fill void left by US aid cuts

Ultra-conservative Christian organisations look to reshape global health landscape as new aid agreements open door to demands restricting family planning services

Isabel Choat
Wed 17 Dec 2025

The sudden stop work order on USAID in January 2025 sent shock waves around the world. Many health clinics were immediately shut down, leaving millions without access to vital medicines and facilities, with potentially deadly consequences, especially for HIV patients, children, and women and adolescent girls.

To many, the subsequent axing of 83% of USAID programmes seemed like pure nihilism, engineered by ideologues who wanted to kill off the agency. But there was a long-term vision behind the destruction. The gutting of USAID has cleared a path for the next phase of a plan to reshape the global health landscape, say reproductive justice campaigners.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/17/trojan-horse-moment-anti-rights-groups-fill-void-us-aid-cuts

Inside Europe’s billion-dollar anti-gender movement

A new report reveals how groups critical of so-called gender ideology across the EU raised $1.18 billion to target abortion, sex education and LGBTQ+ rights.

By Federica Di Sario, Parliament Magazine
26 Jun 2025

For progressives in Europe, 2013 was a year of hope. France adopted historic legislation legalising same-sex marriage. Only a few months later, the UK extended similar rights through the Marriage Act. Portugal implemented a new law to protect transgender rights. And even Ireland — long a Catholic stronghold — introduced new measures to shield queer youth from bullying.

But 2013 also marked a turning point for a group of religious conservatives. Alarmed by what they saw as an erosion of traditional values, they began to mobilise. A decade later, activism once confined to the political fringe has evolved into a billion-euro operation seeking to defeat “gender ideology.”

Continued: https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/inside-europes-billioneuro-antigender-movement

26.06.2025

Commentary

Aleksandar Vučić

American Center for Law & Justice

Bert-Jan Ruissen

European branch of the Center for Reproductive Rights

European Center for Law and Justice

European Conservatives and Reformists

European Court of Human Rights

European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

French Fonds de dotation GT Editions

gender identity rights

The Christian right has set the US on the road to Gilead. Without a fight, other nations may follow

Organisations that pumped money into overturning Roe v Wade are making inroads in Europe. Women’s rights are truly at risk

Deborah Frances-White
Sat 5 Apr 2025

With Donald Trump as president, there is now a heavy strain of Christian nationalism driving the US political agenda. From draconian abortion policies to ending birthright citizenship, some of Trump’s first executive orders sound startlingly like something out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel turned TV show set in Gilead, a fundamentalist, fascist version of the US where women have no rights. But it is urgent we understand that what is happening in the US could happen here. This road to Atwood’s Gilead is charting a course straight through the UK and Europe, and we may well be sleepwalking on to it.

In November 2024 I debated with the American conservative lawyer Erin Hawley at the Oxford Union. The motion was “This house regrets the overturning of Roe v Wade”, the US supreme court’s landmark decision that once protected the right to have an abortion at the federal level. Hawley is vice-president of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an “anti-LGBTQ+ hate group”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, founded by the US Christian right. She is also a high profile lawyer and supported the state of Mississippi on the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned Roe.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/05/christian-right-us-gilead-roe-v-wade-europe-women-rights-abortion

European Union funds charity that compares abortion to Holocaust

EU hands €1.2m to charity that spreads disinformation about sexual and reproductive rights to teens and women globally

Sian Norris, Soita Khatondi Wepukhulu
3 October 2024

The European Union has given more than a million euros to a charity that peddles anti-abortion misinformation and whose founder compared reproductive rights to the Holocaust, an investigation by openDemocracy can reveal.

The US-based World Youth Alliance (WYA) – which has a European office in Brussels – is officially a “non-religious” non-governmental organisation, yet its values and teachings often echo religious conservative talking points on gender rights.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/eu-funding-anti-abortion-charity/

How do we free abortion?

Bethany Rielly learns how feminist movements are organizing to put abortion back in the hands of the people – and keep it there.

17 June 2024
Bethany Rielly

In a narrow street deep in Barcelona’s Raval district is a building with an inconspicuous oval hole in its facade. Above the wooden door is the faint lettering ‘Casa d’Infants Orfes’ (House of Orphaned Infants). From the Middle Ages up to the 19th century, women would place their newborn babies in the wooden hatch and rotate it, allowing the anonymous and safe delivery of the child to the orphanage. This small window into the past is emblematic of a time when the social stigma of having an illegitimate child and extreme poverty forced many women to abandon their child in the dead of night. Today in the US, conservatives are promoting a modern-day equivalent: the ‘baby box’.

An insulated pull-out drawer installed at police and fire stations, these boxes allow desperate women to give up their babies anonymously without fear of prosecution. Introduced in the 1990s to prevent the most extreme cases of child abandonment, the religious Right are now pushing to expand these ‘safe haven’ laws as an alternative to abortion.

Continued: https://newint.org/health/2024/how-do-we-free-abortion

Access to Abortion Is Shrinking in Romania

In a country that famously banned terminations, with devastating consequences, new medical rules are once again costing women’s lives

Lili Rutai
June 14, 2024

Alina Usurelu sensed she was pregnant. An independent artist, she often works with her body, which is how she quickly noticed it change. “Very rationally, I knew I couldn’t deal with having a kid,” the 33-year-old told me in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, citing her financial insecurity. A pregnancy test last September confirmed her suspicion.

But in the city of 1.8 million, Usurelu could not find an affordable, state-run hospital online. “I was struggling. My anxiety grew,” she told New Lines a few months later. We met near her apartment in one of Bucharest’s central neighborhoods, where buildings with high ceilings are sandwiched between crumbling Soviet-era blocks. Her black hair is peppered with gray, cut short for a recent performance.

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/access-to-abortion-is-shrinking-in-romania/

How the US Christian Right Funds Anti-Abortion Activities Abroad

Right-wing US groups have spotted an opportunity to ramp up their activities since Roe v. Wade’s repeal.

by KATY FALLON, pictures by JNO.SKINNER
MARCH 13, 2024

In April 2023, Janet K. Museveni, Uganda’s first lady, published a photo on social media that rang serious alarm bells for advocates of reproductive and LGBTQ rights. The photo sparked concern because of a specific person in it: Sharon Slater, who heads the US nonprofit Family Watch International. The organization describes its work as “strengthening the family,” but the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has designated it as a hate group for its efforts to “further anti-LBGT and anti-choice stances.”

The SPLC is one of several rights groups and monitors that have called attention to the work of Slater and Family Watch International. More worrisome still, the photo of Museveni and Slater came shortly after Uganda’s parliament passed harsh anti-gay legislation that allows for a life-sentence for adults convicted of engaging in consensual, same-sex intercourse. Family Watch International did not reply to a request for comment, but the group has previously denied claims it had lobbied or advocated for the bill.

Continued: https://inkstickmedia.com/how-the-us-christian-right-funds-anti-abortion-activities-abroad/