USA — The war against women’s rights

Documentary film: 1 hour 16 minutes
Deutsche Welle
April 28, 2026

The situation of women’s rights in the USA is increasingly dramatic. Radical abortion bans and unequal treatment in the justice system are leading to significant restrictions on fundamental rights.

The documentary reports from the USA, a country where women go to prison for the crimes of their husbands, and a man is allowed to marry a ten-year-old girl. Abortions are illegal even in cases of rape and incest. The documentary sheds light on the mechanisms behind Trump's freedom-restricting policies. The rise of the conservative-puritanical ideology of Christian nationalism has led to a massive restriction of the fundamental rights of US citizens in the USA. In many places, women are dying because of a lack of gynecological care. In states with radical abortion bans, more than 100,000 women have already been forced to give birth to a child after being raped. Since Donald Trump's return as US president, the future for women in the US looks bleak. The documentary looks at the machinations of anti-abortion centers. Through interviews, it reveals how these freedom-restricting and backward-looking policies work. But the film also shows resistance, led by those who refuse to accept these developments.

Continued: https://amp.dw.com/en/usa-the-war-against-womens-rights/video-76966507

Malta – ‘Scapegoated’ doctors demand clarity on whether to report abortions

A police report made by the consultant led to a woman being charged, convicted and given an 18-month jail term suspended for three years

15 March 2026
Claudia Calleja

Doctors are calling for clear, written guidance on their legal obligations when a woman is admitted to hospital with a suspected abortion.

The demand comes after a consultant was reportedly “scapegoated” for acting on what appears to have been incorrect legal advice that he was required to report the patient to the police.

The police report made by the consultant, who has since been named as obstetrician and gynaecologist Max Dingli, led to the woman being charged, convicted and given an 18-month jail term suspended for three years.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/article/scapegoated-doctors-demand-clarity-report-abortions.1125494

Why women have an especially tough time in Senegal’s prisons

Ricci Shryock
March 14, 2026

The first time she entered the prison, she felt as if she were going to faint. The year was 2021. Maïmouna Diouf had been found guilty of infanticide — a charge she denies, claiming she gave birth to a stillborn child that she buried without notifying the authorities.

Diouf looked around her shared room in the Thies detention center in Thies, Senegal. She was one of 10 prisoners assigned to sleep in the small space. There were dirty, old mattresses on the floor, she says. There was a smell coming from them that she could not exactly place. “This is my life now? How am I supposed to sleep here?” she thought to herself.

Continued: https://wbhm.org/npr-story/why-women-have-an-especially-tough-time-in-senegals-prisons/

14.03.2026

Commentary

Fatou Faye

jailing women for abortion

Maïmouna Diouf

Prison Project at Tostan

Justice Denied: How Poverty Led Zambian Mother to Jail for Procuring an Abortion

December 11, 2025
Center for Reproductive Rights

LUSAKA — Justice is often described as blind, but for Violet Zulu, a 24-year-old domestic worker from Lusaka, it was also prohibitively expensive.

In January 2024, Violet was sentenced to seven years in prison. Her crime? Terminating a pregnancy she could not afford to carry, in a health care system she could not afford to access. Now, human rights organizations led by the Center for Reproductive Rights and WLSA Zambia are challenging that conviction in the High Court of Zambia.

Continued; https://reproductiverights.org/news/justice-denied-poverty-zambian-mother-jail-abortion/

11.12.2025

Commentary

Center for Reproductive Rights

jailing women for abortion

muleza

Termination of Pregnancy Act

Will El Salvador’s Total Abortion Ban Be a Model for the U.S.? Maria Hinojosa Investigates

October 02, 2025
Video: 59 minutes

A new investigation by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Maria Hinojosa looks at reproductive rights in El Salvador, which has one of the world’s most restrictive anti-abortion laws and has imprisoned women who suffered obstetric emergencies like miscarriages or stillbirths.

While exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, one woman who spent time in prison in El Salvador for a miscarriage estimated “that 90% of the women who are in prison in El Salvador are in prison for this,” says Hinojosa.

Hinojosa also cautions that a version of El Salvador’s law could make its way to the United States as states pass more abortion bans following the end of Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/2/maria_hinojosa

02.10.2025

Film, Art, Books

Videos/Images

anti-choice misogyny

jailing women for abortion

jailing women for miscarriage

El Salvador – From Pregnancy to Murder Charge: Living Under a Total Abortion Ban

By Monica Morales-Garcia and Maria Hinojosa
Sep 26, 2025

On a hot San Salvador day, Teodora Vázquez called 911 for an ambulance. She was nine months pregnant, alone at work, and in labor. After multiple phone calls for help, no one arrived. With no medical care, she gave birth, fell unconscious, and began hemorrhaging in a bathroom stall. Shortly after, the police came. To her surprise, they weren’t there to help her, but placed her under arrest for what they decided was the abortion and murder of her newborn. Teodora would then be convicted of homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Since 1997, El Salvador has had a no-exceptions ban on abortion. This means that there are no exceptions for women seeking an abortion after rape, incest, or when their life is in danger. Termination of pregnancy is never allowed; instead, it’s criminalized. Medical professionals can be incarcerated for up to 12 years for assisting or performing an abortion, and pregnant women have been sentenced to up to 50 years in prison for what the government has defined as an abortion and homicide.

Continued: https://www.latinousa.org/2025/09/26/pregnancymurdercharge/

26.09.2025

Interviews/Podcasts

30-year jail sentence for stillbirth

jailing women for abortion

Maria Hinojosa

Monica Morales-Garcia

prosecuting women for abortion

Malaysia Punishing Women For Abortion Is Not The Answer

The Galen Centre calls for law reform, after a Melaka court sentenced a 21-year-old woman to jail for self-managed abortion. Abortion has been lawful in Malaysia since 1989 when Section 312 of the Penal Code was amended to allow termination of pregnancy.

By Azrul Mohd Khalib
23 May 2025

The recent nine-month custodial sentence imposed by the Ayer Keroh Magistrate’s Court on a young woman who ended a five-month pregnancy with medication obtained online, highlights the urgent need to modernise laws that continue to criminalise women while failing to address the root causes of unplanned pregnancies.

No woman or girl should face prison for exercising autonomy over her body. Malaysia’s Penal Code still contains provisions dating back from and written in the 19th century. They do not reflect current medical practice, World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, human-rights standards, or the realities faced by women, especially young women, the poor and the unmarried.

Continued: https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2025/05/punishing-women-for-abortion-is-not-the-answer-azrul-mohd-khalib/

The Dark State Of Abortion Rights In El Salvador, And First Signs Of Light

Although the last Salvadorian woman imprisoned on charges linked to abortion was released in December, 11 similar cases are currently pending in the country. Human rights activists acknowledge the progress made, and the work that remains to be done to overturn strict anti-abortion laws.

Mariana Escobar Bernoske
March 09, 2024

BOGOTÁ — In December 2023, Lilian was the last Salvadoran woman to regain her freedom after spending seven years in prison for an obstetric emergency. In 2015, the courts found her guilty of "murdering" her unborn baby by planning an abortion, when in fact, a tear in her uterus had caused the death. Medics had to give her three blood transfusions to stabilize her.

El Salvador is one of Latin America's most restrictive states in terms of women's sexual and reproductive rights. Abortion is banned as the state considers persons to exist from the moment of conception, contrary to the advice of international human rights groups. Under this strict ban, women who have had pregnancy complications, miscarriages or prenatal deaths to be charged with premeditating abortion.

Continued: https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/abortion-righs-el-salvador

Welcome to El Salvador where a miscarriage sends you to jail

Tuesday, January 23, 2024
By Moraa Obiria, The Nation

What you need to know:
The country in Central America has laws tormenting women and girls with the harshest abortion laws under the sun.
Should a woman abort, regardless of circumstances, the law sends them to jail for between two to eight years.
A 19-year-old woman who miscarried after a rape ordeal was charged with aggravated homicide-intentional and premeditated killing of another person - and jailed for 30 years.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/welcome-to-el-salvador-where-a-miscarriage-sends-you-to-jail-4499792

23.01.2024

Commentary

1956 Penal Code

jailing women for abortion

Mario Soriano

Moraa Obiria

total abortion ban

United Nations Population Fund

UK – Telling health staff not to report women for suspected illegal abortions has firm legal basis

There is no general obligation to contact police about a crime and the royal college is within its rights to tell its members not to do so

Haroon Siddique, Legal affairs correspondent
Mon 22 Jan 2024

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ call for abortion to be decriminalised – and announcement that it will tell its members not to report women to police if they believe they may have illegally ended their pregnancies – is a significant intervention in the debate.

Concerns about the existing laws in England and Wales came to the fore last year when a woman was sentenced to more than two years in prison for procuring drugs to induce an abortion after the legal limit, which is generally 24 weeks.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/22/proposed-guidance-to-health-staff-not-to-report-suspected-pregnancy-termination-to-police-may-be-lawful