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

America’s new top health diplomat has strong opinions on abortion and gender

December 19, 2025
By Jonathan Lambert

America's new top health diplomat is Bethany Kozma. The job she took on this week — leading the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Global Affairs — does not have a high profile. And Kozma herself is not a familiar name in the world of public health.

But it is a position with power — and Kozma has a record of public statements and activism on health issues, equating abortion with "murder" and campaigning against gender-affirming care.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/12/19/g-s1-102765/americas-new-top-health-diplomat-has-strong-opinions-on-abortion-and-gender

The Heritage Foundation goes from MAGA to MEGA — Make Europe Great Again

On the agenda: pro-natalism, freedom of expression, opposing trans rights and fighting Chinese influence.

November 10, 2025
By Hannah Roberts

ROME — The conservative think tank behind Donald Trump’s Project 2025 roadmap is looking for new friends across the Atlantic.

The Heritage Foundation, the intellectual engine behind the 922-page blueprint that has become the key policy manual for Trump’s second term, is partnering with a constellation of European nationalist far-right movements to export its playbook for countering progressive policies.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/the-heritage-foundation-goes-from-maga-to-mega-make-europe-great-again-donald-trump-us-influence/

USA – Abortion providers challenge FDA’s remaining mifepristone restrictions in federal court

“It’s really important that we protect … safe access to medication abortion no matter where people live — Virginia is playing a key role in the South right now,” Whole Woman’s Health Alliance founder and president Amy Hagstrom Miller said Monday.

By: Sofia Resnick and Charlotte Rene Woods
May 19, 2025

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Abortion pills — and questions over their inherent safety — were back in federal court Monday. Unlike a lawsuit rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, plaintiffs this time are not anti-abortion activists arguing medication abortion should be banned, but abortion providers arguing the remaining restrictions should be lifted to match the drug’s 25-year record of safety and efficacy.

The suit seeks to make abortion pills more accessible by removing several existing restrictions on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s mifepristone-misoprostol regimen first approved in 2000. The drug was approved under the FDA’s drug safety program called Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), provisions of which have been steadily eliminated over time but not fully.

Continued: https://virginiamercury.com/2025/05/19/abortion-providers-challenge-fdas-remaining-mifepristone-restrictions-in-federal-court/

USA – RFK Jr. Is Coming for Abortion Pills

And he’s relying on bogus science to make his case.

Julianne McShane, Mother Jones
May 15, 2025

Earlier this month, the Trump administration scored seemingly positive headlines when it asked a federal court to dismiss a case brought by three Republican states seeking to restrict telehealth access to mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in a medication abortion.

Several news outlets claimed in headlines that the administration would “defend” access to the pills, despite the fact that Project 2025 and several of Trump’s top appointees have made it clear that they believe access to mifepristone—which, along with the second drug, misoprostol, now account for more than 60 percent of all abortions that occur nationwide—should be drastically rolled back, as I have previously reported. In reality, the administration merely argued the states do not have standing to sue and did not weigh in on the underlying issue of access to the pills.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/05/rfk-jr-is-coming-for-abortion-pills/

RFK Jr orders mifepristone review as anti-abortion groups push for ban

Health secretary cites ‘new data’ that emerged from flawed study conservatives are using to pressure US government

Susan Rinkunas
Wed 14 May 2025

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said on Wednesday that he had directed the FDA to review the regulations around the abortion pill mifepristone.

The review, he said, was necessary due to “new data” – data that emerged from a flawed analysis that top US anti-abortion groups are now using to pressure the Trump administration to reimpose restrictions on the abortion pill, if not pull it from the market entirely.

“It’s alarming,” Kennedy told the Missouri senator Josh Hawley, a Republican, during a congressional hearing. “Clearly, it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/14/rfk-jr-fda-abortion-pill-mifepristone

A tale of two conferences: women against women as ‘poison of patriarchy’ returns and abortion fight intensifies

Last week, anti-choice campaigners emboldened by current US politics met in New York at the same time as UN delegates gathered to address the widespread inequalities women face. The battle to protect rights has never felt more urgent

Isabel Choat in New York, The Guardian
Sat 22 Mar 2025

In a meeting room on the 27th floor of a swish Manhattan hotel, Denise Mountenay is telling the audience that the right to abortion is “Nazi thinking.” Mountenay regrets her own abortions, and says she has been called by God to spread the word that she and other women “were lied to, deceived, pressured into making the most horrible choice: to choose death instead of life”.

She goes on to list reasons why abortion is “not a safe procedure. [That’s what] they want woman to think – that is a lie.” Many of her claims, including that abortion leads to breast cancer, have been thoroughly disproved by scientific studies.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/22/women-rights-un-anti-abortion-choice-poison-of-patriarchy-returns

22.03.2025

Commentary

69th Commission on the Status of Women

anti-choice bullshit

anti-choice cruelty

anti-choice deception

Campaign Life Coalition

International Planned Parenthood Federation

MSI Reproductive Choices

Nelly Munyasia

Oxfam

Pan-African Conference on Family Values

Project 2025

Richard and Helen DeVos Centre for Life

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Sima Bahous

Southern Poverty Law Center

In the name of the family: Yes, Europe could be headed for a ‘Project 2025’ too

In almost every election in Europe in recent years, a discreet but increasingly powerful force has been at play to help bolster the far right. Much like the architects behind “Project 2025”, a set of ultra-conservative networks are waging a campaign to dismantle progressive European policies and replace them with traditionalist Christian values – leaving little room for feminists, LGBTQ+ activists and other marginalised groups.

Issued on: 21/03/2025
By: Louise NORDSTROM

In the summer of 2017, a peculiar document was leaked and published on the whistle-blowing platform WikiLeaks. The secret document, labelled “Restoring the Natural Order: an Agenda for Europe”, outlined a detailed strategy on how to roll back progressive legislation including the right to divorce, women’s access to contraception and abortion, and equal rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Behind the manifesto was a vast transatlantic network of more than 100 hard-line Catholic groups in 30 countries from all over the world called “Agenda Europe”.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250321-in-the-name-of-the-family-yes-europe-could-be-headed-project-2025-too-lgbtq-trump-far-right-heritage-foundation

Trump 2.0 instills fear in African abortion activists

Nita Bhalla
Jan 27, 2025

NAIROBI - African health activists fear a new crackdown on abortion across Africa after President Donald Trump reinstated an anti-abortion pact that cuts off U.S. funds to foreign charities that provide or promote abortions.

When Trump signed the Mexico City Policy, or "global gag rule", during his first term some African charities were forced to close, denying women safe abortions. It also emboldened local opposition to women's reproductive choice.

Continued: https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/trump-20-instills-fear-in-african-abortion-activists

Trump signs anti-abortion policies after speaking to March for Life

Those impacted include overseas health organizations that distribute contraception and help combat HIV.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein and Carmen Paun
01/24/2025

President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail promise to leave abortion regulation to the states lasted just a few days into his presidency.

He issued executive orders on Friday that revive some anti-abortion policies from his first administration — including restrictions on federal funding for family planning and other health programs abroad that discuss abortion as an option or provide referrals for the procedure.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/trump-issues-executive-orders-reviving-anti-abortion-policies-00200212