When the Law Limits Choice: Nigeria’s Policies are Undermining Sexual Justice

Nigeria Health Watch, Zubaida Baba Ibrahim
Sep 6, 2025

Every law is meant to protect, but what happens when the same laws deny people the right to have autonomy over their bodies? In Nigeria and across the world, sexual and reproductive health policies must be adapted to the realities that women and girls face today, otherwise, what should serve as a protective shield is turned into a barrier to bodily autonomy.

A clear example of this is Nigeria’s abortion laws, which remain restrictive, permitting termination only to save a woman’s life. Under the Criminal Code, applicable in southern states, and the Penal Code, applicable in northern states, both women and providers face severe penalties with up to 14 years’ imprisonment for providers and seven years for women who undergo the procedure.

Continued: https://nigeriahealthwatch.medium.com/when-the-law-limits-choice-nigerias-policies-are-undermining-sexual-justice-8604f7743ee8

06.09.2025

Commentary

2025 World Sexual Health Day

child marriage

female genital mutilation

gender-based violence

Guttmacher Institute

maternal mortality

United Nations Population Fund

Rising together: How grassroots leaders are lifting the next generation in Nepal

Ipas
Aug 8, 2025

In rural Nepal, women’s lives have often been restricted by silence and unspoken rules. From menstruation taboos to misinformation on family planning and abortion, many young women are taught to accept harmful practices as normal. For years, Himali Khatri did too. “I am almost 40 years old, and until now, I have never received such knowledge about reproductive health,” she says.

Everything shifted for Khatri when she was selected for Natural Leaders training through Ipas Nepal, a five-day program designed for women with the potential to influence change in their communities. The training covers sexual and reproductive health and rights, safe abortion, family planning, gender-based violence, and climate resilience.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/rising-together-how-grassroots-leaders-are-lifting-the-next-generation-in-nepal/

08.08.2025

Commentary

Videos/Images

gender-based violence

Himali Khatri

Ipas Nepal

Natural Leaders training

The Alarming Rise of Gender-Based Violence in Brazil

By Manoela Miklos and Samira Bueno
May 27, 2025

SÃO PAULO—Gender-based violence in Brazil, a longstanding problem in Latin America’s most populous country, has reached alarming levels. In the last 12 months, 37.5% of women aged 16 and over experienced some form of violence. This is the highest rate recorded since the local think tank Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, known as FBSP, started monitoring the issue in 2017.

The data presents a concerning situation for the 21.4 million women involved in these incidents and for our society as a whole: Despite extensive public debate on gender roles and gender-based violence, there has not been a significant reduction in the number of victims, nor have more individuals sought help. It is our responsibility to understand these statistics and advocate for public policies that address this issue.

Continued: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/the-alarming-rise-of-gender-based-violence-in-brazil/

27.05.2025

Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública

gender-based violence

Jair Bolsonaro

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Peru’s gender-based violence crisis requires structural solutions

Ben Radford, Cali
March 22, 2025

Women in Peru face one of the highest levels of gender-based violence in Latin America, along with structural barriers to accessing vital healthcare such as abortion and contraception.

The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) recorded 71,717 cases of psychological violence, 63,692 cases of physical violence and 12,524 cases of sexual assault against women last year — but the actual number is much higher due to underreporting.

Continued: https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/perus-gender-based-violence-crisis-requires-structural-solutions

22.03.2025

Commentary

Ben Radford

femicide

gender-based violence

Latin American Network of Women Defenders of Social and Environmental Rights

Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations

Philippines – WGNRR calls for urgent passage of prevention of adolescent pregnancy bill

January 20, 2025

The Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) and partners stand in strong solidarity with advocates, civil society organizations, stakeholders, and policymakers in the Philippines in supporting the passage of Senate Bill No. 1979, also known as the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Bill (PAP Bill).

We are deeply concerned that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has announced his intention to veto Senate Bill 1979 in ‘its current form,’ just days after emphasizing that ‘the teaching of sex education in our schools is very, very, very important.’ This contradiction to his position is disheartening, especially given the severity of the adolescent pregnancy crisis in the Philippines. Moreover, it is alarming that his decision seems to have been influenced by the spread of misinformation and disinformation about the bill.

Continued: https://wgnrr.org/wgnrr-calls-for-urgent-passage-of-prevention-of-adolescent-pregnancy-bill/

‘I was crying, there was no anaesthesia’: the fight for legal and safe abortion in Nigeria

In a country where thousands die every year from unsafe procedures, and rape is shockingly high, campaigners must overcome strict laws and religious beliefs, as well as misinformation and stigma

By Kasia Strek in Ota and Lagos
Mon 13 Jan 2025

In a modest house on a red dirt road in Ota in Ogun state, Adijat Adejumo, a 39-year-old auxiliary nurse, runs a small chemist shop. She treats common illnesses such as malaria and colds and sells painkillers, antidiarrhoeal medications and vitamins. For the past few years, she has also been selling packs of mifepristone and misoprostol, medicines included in the WHO essential medicines list to induce abortion safely.

Both medicines are legal in Nigeria, a country with one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, but only if used to save women’s lives during obstetric complications. Adejumo does not stock them in her shop; instead when a woman comes asking for help to end an unwanted pregnancy, she has them delivered. On average, she gets three such requests a month.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/13/abortion-rights-nigeria-sexual-violence-women

Namibia – Gender Links and partners join global Sixteen Days of Activism Against GBV campaign

By Thenjiwe Ngcobo
25 November 2024

Gender Links (GL) and partners have joined the global community in saying “no” to gender violence. The organisation has launched a multifaceted campaign for the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) drive.

… Unsafe abortion is a form of GBV. The Safe Abortion Alliance of Southern Africa will meet to devise a regional advocacy strategy from 26 to 28 November, building on the submission made to the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum. A panel of experts will host a webinar on 28 November.

Continued: https://www.namibian.com.na/gender-links-and-partners-join-global-sixteen-days-of-activism-against-gbv-campaign/

25.11.2024

News

Gender Links

gender-based violence

International Human Rights Day

Safe Abortion Alliance of Southern Africa

Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Zimbabwe’s Review of Restrictive Abortion Laws

Activists are calling for a review of a decades-old abortion law to increase protections for women and girls

by Derick Matsengarwodzi
June 20, 2024

The Termination of Pregnancy Act (TOP Act), passed in 1977, has been increasingly attacked by human rights activists, victims, and legislators because it minimizes access to reproductive health for vulnerable women and girls in Zimbabwe.

Activists are calling for a review of the act and amendments to include rape within a marriage, access to safe abortion, and reproductive health.

Continued: https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/zimbabwes-review-restrictive-abortion-laws

From Green to Red Tide: Latin America Is Leading the Way in the Fight Against Obstetric Violence

Since the early 2000s, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Costa Rica have all passed legislation laying out the rights of people at the time of labor and delivery.

June 8, 2024
by CELESTE MARIEL JEREZ and CORA FERNÁNDEZ ANDERSON

Organizations across the world last month celebrated the “Week of Dignity in Childbirth,” originally called for in 2004 by a French NGO to raise awareness of mistreatment of women during labor and birth. Only recently recognized as a prominent issue, mistreatment and abuse in reproductive healthcare was acknowledged as a global problem by the World Health Organization in 2014.

The issue is widely prevalent worldwide, even in the United States where 20 percent of mothers reported mistreatment during pregnancy and delivery, according to 2023 CDC report. Rates are higher among Black (30 percent) and Hispanic (29 percent) women, as well as those with state or federal health insurance (26 percent).

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2024/06/08/latin-america-obstetric-violence-women-health-sexual-childbirth-pregnancy-labor-delivery/

Mexico’s first female president offers little on women’s rights

Diana Baptista
June 3, 2024

MEXICO CITY- Claudia Sheinbaum has made history as the first woman to be elected president of Mexico, but activists fear her win could be largely symbolic after a campaign short on promises to tackle high rates of domestic violence and unequal abortion access.

"Being a woman does not necessarily embody progressiveness in the women's rights' agenda," said Friné Salguero, director at the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute, a feminist civil society group based in Mexico City.

Continued: https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/mexicos-first-female-president-offers-little-on-womens-rights

03.06.2024