The past has been marked by periods of acceptance and intolerance of women’s bodily autonomy. Can it offer lessons for today?

By Sophie McBain
March 24, 2025

The medical historian Mary Fissell begins her history of abortion with an account of her visit to a cemetery in south London to see the grave of Eliza Wilson, a 32-year-old dressmaker from Keswick who died in 1848 after an abortion went wrong. Historians have estimated that by the early 19th century, half of births in London were conceived out of wedlock, and that by 1850 rates of illegitimacy were the highest they had ever been. In a big city, filled with young migrant workers, there was clearly a lot of bed-hopping, and plenty of cads who could disappear and evade community pressure to arrange a shotgun wedding. A single woman who found herself pregnant and abandoned, however, had few good options. If she kept the baby, she would likely lose her job and be refused medical care. Places such as London’s Foundling Hospital would not care for babies left anonymously or born out of wedlock, because they did not want to be seen to encourage extramarital relations. Abortion was one solution, and pills were widely available in Victorian Britain and marketed using coded terms such as “female obstruction pills”, the obstruction referring to a delayed period. What made Wilson’s story unusual, then, was not that she had an abortion but that she died from one, after contracting an infection.

Continued: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/03/cyclical-history-of-abortion-rights


Sierra Leone debates decriminalizing abortion as women and girls endanger their lives

By  CAITLIN KELLY
March 24, 2025

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — When she got pregnant at 16, Fatou Esther Jusu was terrified that it would derail her future.

Abortion is illegal in Sierra Leone. Fearing judgment from her family, she took friends’ advice and bought misoprostol, a drug whose uses include abortion, from a local pharmacy. It didn’t work. Desperate, she tried again and miscarried.

“I went to the toilet… and the baby came out,” she said. She fainted and was taken to a hospital, where she pleaded with doctors not to tell her parents.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/sierra-leone-abortion-legalize-health-77dd89c92bfea5ed84db2d42acbebc5d


Foreign Aid Cuts Will Lead to 34,000 More Pregnancy-Related Deaths in Just One Year

The Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts have decimated global reproductive health programs, leaving millions without contraception and putting tens of thousands of lives at risk.

March 19, 2025
by Elizabeth Sully and Amy Friedrich-Karnik, Ms. Magazine

For nearly 60 years, the United States has been a leading force in global health, investing in international family planning and maternal, newborn and child health efforts. Yet, within the first two months in office, the new Trump administration has eviscerated nearly all foreign assistance, including critical global health programs. 

The move marked an aggressive attack on women’s health by dismantling U.S. investments in family planning assistance and putting essential reproductive care at risk—even though foreign assistance for global health represents just 0.1 percent of the U.S. federal budget … a negligible saving for the United States, yet a devastating loss for the world.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/03/19/trump-foreign-aid-cuts-reproductive-health-crisis/


Accelerate action: Reproductive rights and abortion access in Lagos State

—WEWIN
March 11, 2025

Every year on International Women’s Day (IWD), we reflect on progress, celebrate achievements, and reignite our commitment to gender equality. IWD 2025’s theme, “Accelerate Action,” underscores the urgent need for swift and tangible progress in achieving gender equality and reproductive justice.

Nowhere is this acceleration more critical than in the fight for reproductive rights, particularly the right to safe and legal abortion in Lagos State, Nigeria.

Continued; https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/accelerate-action-reproductive-rights-and-abortion-access-in-lagos-state/


Nigeria – Maternal Mortality: Experts call for effective abortion laws

By Olayinka Ajayi
March 8, 2025

The founding Director, Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi has said there’s urgent need to bring the issue of maternal mortality to the front burner of government.

Fielding questions from Newsmen during a two days workshop on ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Nigeria’ Akiyode-Afolabi noted that Nigeria is second to India in high maternal mortality globally.

Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/maternal-mortality-experts-call-for-effective-abortion-laws/


Talking About Maternal Health in Nigeria — How many lives are at stake?

Wed, 5 Mar 2025
By Kelsey Kalu

Nigeria stands at a critical crossroads in its fight to safeguard the lives and futures of its women. Despite recent strides made by government initiatives and international partnerships, like the World Bank’s $570 million primary healthcare project aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality, the country remains haunted by a hidden crisis: unsafe abortion. In Nigeria, where one in every 13 women is at risk of dying from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth (World Bank, 2024), unsafe abortion practices are not only a deeply personal tragedy but also a public health emergency that exposes systemic failures.

Continued: https://dailytrust.com/talking-about-maternal-health-in-nigeria-how-many-lives-are-at-stake/


Togo: Limited abortion access forces women into dangerous procedures

March 4, 2025
Video – 2:19 minutes

The limited access to abortion in Togo means that thousands of women undergo underground procedures every year. This physically and legally risky choice, some women's rights campaigners say, makes the lives of vulnerable women even more difficult.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250304-togo-limited-abortion-access-forces-women-into-dangerous-procedures


Nigeria – Worrisome increasing rate of maternal-child mortality traceable to unsafe abortion

by Soji Ajibola 
February 28, 2025

An increasing wave of maternal-child mortality traceable to an unsafe abortion is becoming a serious concern to the stakeholders especially in health sector, especially in view of the numbers of lives the nation is losing to the unwholesome actions of quack medical practitioners and the influence of certain religious leaders.

Also, the position of the laws of both the Federal Government and the respective states in the country on abortion could be another reason why some women and teenagers seek the services of unqualified medical practitioners which often results in complications and subsequently death.

Continued: https://tribuneonlineng.com/worrisome-increasing-rate-of-maternal-child-mortality-traceable-to-unsafe-abortion/


Betrayed by the System in Brazil

Friday 28 February 2025
by L.M. Bonato

While various human rights reports show that annually between one and four million Brazilian women have abortions, the right to women’s bodily autonomy remains a major battle. Currently the law allows abortion only in the case of rape or to save the woman’s life. This means millons of women are forced to seek underground abortions.

Given the rise of conservative parties following Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, far-right politicians are seeking to roll back legal abortion even in the case of rape. Congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante has introduced Bill PL 190424, which would criminalize abortion under all circumstances after 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article8874


Unsafe abortions: Silent threat fueling maternal death crisis

By Ayoki Onyango
Feb 17, 2025

One of the major problems associated with reproductive health is unsafe abortions. This issue has been a dominant topic in reproductive and sexual rights workshops across Africa and globally, with the latest workshop on the subject taking place in Maputo, Mozambique.

It was also a central topic at a seminar in Kenya. Unsafe abortion has been identified as a leading cause of death for many young and middle-aged women in Kenya and other African countries. Medical experts argue that urgent measures must be put in place to prevent unnecessary deaths, particularly among single women. Discussions at these workshops have also focused on economic empowerment for women and the role of the media in highlighting reproductive health and sexual rights issues.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/health-science/article/2001511912/unsafe-abortions-silent-threat-fueling-maternal-death-crisis