Pro-choice protesters halt Prague pro-life march as Europe’s abortion fight heats up

This weekend in Prague saw the March for Life blocked from reaching its destination in Wenceslas Square by women's rights advocates.

Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas
28.04.2025

Tensions over abortion rights flared in Prague this weekend as pro-choice activists blocked the annual March for Life, preventing the pro-life demonstration from reaching its planned destination at Wenceslas Square.

Several hundred people from both camps gathered Saturday, with police arresting about 30 pro-choice demonstrators who sat across Kaprova Street in a nonviolent blockade. No major clashes were reported.

Continued: https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/pro-choice-protesters-block-prague-march-for-life-as-european-abortion-rights-debate-intensifies

28.04.2025

pro-choice counter protest

Why foreigners in Czechia face hidden barriers to abortion

Despite legal abortion access, foreign women—especially non-EU nationals—face bureaucratic, financial, and legal hurdles that can delay or deny care.

Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas
March 7, 2025

Abortion is legal in Czechia, but foreign women, particularly those from outside the EU, face numerous obstacles when seeking safe and timely abortion care.

The latest report from The Abortion Support Alliance Prague (ASAP), found that nearly half of the 70-plus state hospitals surveyed were uncertain about providing abortions to non-citizens, while 43 percent of hospitals refused to provide abortion services to EU citizens, either due to legal uncertainty or restrictive internal policies.

Continued: https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/legal-but-inaccessible-the-hidden-barriers-to-abortion-for-foreigners-in-czechia

Abortion in Europe: a right for some, a fight for millions of others

January 21, 2025
A European Perspective, European Broadcasting Union

Reproductive rights have been at the centre of political debates worldwide in recent months. As US President Donald Trump takes office following a campaign where access to abortion was a central theme, Europe too finds itself at a crossroads between liberal policies and restrictive laws.

As pro-life movements gain traction across the globe, campaigners are seeking an EU-wide guarantee to safe abortion access. From Hungary to Italy, France, Switzerland and beyond, we look at abortion rights from A European Perspective.

Continued: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/life-aging/abortion-in-europe-a-right-for-some-a-fight-for-millions-of-others/88749102

Polish women travel abroad for abortions ahead of law change

Support services in Poland and abroad say numbers increasing even before legislation is tightened

Shaun Walker and Anna Koslerova in Prague
Sun 13 Dec 2020

Polish women are increasingly being forced to travel abroad to seek abortions even though a court ruling to tighten the country’s already strict laws has not yet coming into force, activists have said.

The constitutional court ruled in October
that abortion was illegal even in cases where there were severe foetal
abnormalities. Around 1,000 abortions a year – almost all of the country’s
legal abortion procedures – are carried out for this reason.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/13/polish-women-travel-abroad-for-abortions-ahead-of-new-law

Auntie Czech to help Polish women deprived of abortion rights

Angered and disappointed with the recent anti-abortion court ruling in her home country, a young Polish artist living in the Czech Republic is organising help for her compatriots.

Anja Vladisavljevic, Zagreb
November 9, 2020

“Sadness, big sadness, disappointment… and anger”: that's what a Polish artist residing in the Czech capital, Jolanta Nowaczyk, felt when she learnt last month about the anti-abortion court ruling in her home country.

Soon after the controversial court decision on October 22, which effectively outlaws abortion by banning terminations where the foetus is severely damaged or malformed, Nowaczyk organised a protest in front of the Polish embassy in Prague. But that was not the only action she took: Nowaczyk is now also launching an initiative that aims to help Polish women needing an abortion to come to the Czech Republic for the procedure.

Continued: https://balkaninsight.com/2020/11/09/auntie-czech-to-help-polish-women-deprived-of-abortion-rights/