Three abortion rights defenders share their stories of hope

Amnesty International
By Cécile Yougbare, SRHR activist with Médecins du Monde, Kinga Jelińska, activist from Poland and Erin Grant, Abortion Care Network Co-Executive Director 
10 March 2026

Across the world, governments and other actors are rolling back on decades of progress on gender equality, including access to abortion. But people are fighting back, determined to protect the rights so many have fought so hard to achieve.   

As the Commission on the Status of Women holds its 70th session, three courageous human rights defenders from Burkina Faso, Poland and the United States share their strategies to protect access to abortion, their hopes for the future and the reasons why they believe that, despite the many increasing challenges, humanity must always win.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/03/three-abortion-rights-defenders-share-their-stories-of-hope

USA – When abortion havens restrict access, where can people get care?

Florida, an abortion haven for people from Alabama and Texas, has proposed a six-week abortion ban

by Sakshi Udavant
March 23rd, 2023

Republican leaders across the U.S. have been on a successful mission to roll back abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of last year. Abortion is now completely illegal in 12 states, making exceptions only in rare cases, such as the pregnant person’s life being threatened.

People living in areas where abortion is banned have been forced to travel to “abortion-haven” states where access is legal and safely available. But now, states that had once been havens for abortion care are cracking down on access, putting those who had been traveling from neighboring states in a more challenging position.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2023/03/23/where-can-people-get-abortion-care/

‘We need to dream bigger’: As Roe v Wade marks 50th anniversary, advocates push further

Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
Jan 19, 2023

Each year since 1973, abortion rights activists have gathered on Jan. 22 for “Roe v. Wade Day” to celebrate the Supreme Court decision that granted a constitutional right to abortion.

But now, 50 years after the decision, Roe v. Wade Day will be different: Sunday will also mark the first anniversary of Roe since the ruling was overturned.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/01/19/roe-v-wade-50th-anniversary-abortion-access-womens-march/11030965002/

USA – Liberal Cities Are Not Immune to Mounting Attacks on Abortion Rights

BY Emily Janakiram & Katie Finnigan, Truthout
April 16, 2022

An anti-abortion group that masquerades as progressive in an attempt to gain a following in liberal cities suddenly surged into mainstream news headlines this spring after the Washington Metro Police Department recovered five fetuses from the apartment of anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy.

Handy is a member of the group “Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising” (PAAU), which announced its formation in September 2021. The group claims to be “pro-BIPOC” and “pro-LGBTQ,” but in practice, the group’s actions align with a violent, right-wing anti-abortion tradition.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/liberal-cities-are-not-immune-to-mounting-attacks-on-abortion-rights/

Exclusive: First Large-Scale Telemedicine Abortion Service Launches in U.S.

On the heels of a Biden administration announcement that temporarily allows telehealth abortion, a new, first-of-its-kind telehealth service, Abortion on Demand, opens to help women get care.

By Susan Rinkunas
Apr 13, 2021

A new telemedicine site is changing the future of abortion access, hopefully, permanently: Launching today, Abortion on Demand (AOD), the first large-scale telehealth abortion (a.k.a. teleabortion) service run by a U.S.-based provider, will help people who want to end their pregnancies with pills. The launch comes immediately after the Biden administration announced it would temporarily allow telemedicine abortions during the pandemic; it's a change long-awaited by reproductive rights advocates and AOD's founder, Dr. Jamie Phifer, who has been building the service for the last year and a half—keeping it under wraps until such a policy change enabled her to legally get it off the ground.

Continued: https://www.marieclaire.com/health-fitness/a36028641/abortion-on-demand-telemedicine-service-launch/

The Future of Abortion Care Depends on Independent Providers

Today, there are 34 percent fewer independent clinics across the country than there were in 2012. The threats independent clinics face are harsh—which is why now more than ever, they need our support to continue meeting this moment.

12/11/2020
by NIKKI MADSEN

The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for families and communities across the country, including my own. But when I reflect back on 2020, amid all of the heartache, a moment of absolute joy stands out.

In early March, just days before the nationwide cascade of shutdowns and uncertainty, I stood arm-in-arm outside the Supreme Court with reproductive health, rights and justice advocates as we cheered on the fierce clinic staff at Hope Medical Group for Women, the Louisiana-based independent abortion care provider at the center of this year’s Supreme Court abortion case. Like other independent clinics (indies) before them, Hope was fighting for all of us that day.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/12/11/independent-abortion-clinics-covid-19-abortion-care-network/

Abortion Clinics Are Rapidly Closing. Many Won’t Come Back

BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS
DECEMBER 2, 2020

Dr. Yashica Robinson is an optimist—and that, she says, is fortuitous. As one of the last abortion providers in Alabama, a willingness to see the bright side is practically a job requirement.

For much of the past year, Robinson, who is the medical director at the Huntsville-based Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives, and her staff have fought to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19, while simultaneously battling a state effort to suspend all abortion services during the pandemic. “We will continue to be innovative and be creative and find ways that we will make this work,” she says, with characteristic resolve.

Continued: https://time.com/5916746/abortion-clinics-covid-19/

Many Abortion Clinics May Not Survive COVID-19 Unless Progressives Take Bolder Action

Many Abortion Clinics May Not Survive COVID-19 Unless Progressives Take Bolder Action

04 Jun 2020
Halley Bondy

The fury of the anti-choice movement is always in Kwajelyn Jackson’s face.

Protesters stand outside of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where she works. They harass her doctors. They destroy clinic property. They break COVID-19 social distancing rules. They hound her patients, who are mostly poor and black or Hispanic.

Continued: https://shadowproof.com/2020/06/04/many-abortion-clinics-may-not-survive-covid-19-unless-progressives-take-bolder-action/

Anti-Abortion Activists Are Winning the Coronavirus Pandemic

Anti-Abortion Activists Are Winning the Coronavirus Pandemic
The pandemic has achieved what years of Supreme Court battles and hundreds of restrictions could not: it has choked off access to legal abortion.

by Carter Sherman
Mar 28 2020

Over the past few weeks, as vast swathes of U.S. society have shut down in an effort to curb the coronavirus, the pandemic has achieved what years of Supreme Court battles and hundreds of restrictions could not: It has choked off access to legal abortion.

The global disruption caused by coronavirus has become yet another battle in the American abortion wars, and it’s one that anti-abortion activists are winning.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/xgq3y3/anti-abortion-activists-are-winning-the-coronavirus-pandemic

USA – ‘I Feel Very Powerless’: How Abortion Providers Are Dealing With COVID-19

‘I Feel Very Powerless’: How Abortion Providers Are Dealing With COVID-19
Abortion providers face a complex interplay of questions about how to balance their own health, the need to physically distance, and the potential of COVID-19 to limit patients’ ability to travel for abortion services.

Mar 23, 2020
Lauren Young

When Dr. Sheila Ramgopal woke up on March 15, the COVID-19 warning signs were there. A dry cough. A sore throat. Some tightness in their chest, and a temperature slightly over 100 degrees.

“Not even a fever in my mind,” Ramgopal, medical director of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Reproductive Health Center, told Rewire.News. But the symptoms met the criteria to be tested for COVID-19. All that was missing was a known exposure to someone who had tested positive for COVID-19.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2020/03/23/i-feel-very-powerless-how-abortion-providers-are-dealing-with-covid-19/