‘Reclaiming our bodies,’ a revolution towards sexual reproductive justice for Women in Africa

Some Women make decisions with fear while others live with stigma because the laws have stippled them their sexual reproductive health rights.

By ROSEMARY ONCHARI
April 22, 2025

KISII, Kenya – For decades ,Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) narratives of African women are narrowly told in a dehumanizing lens, reducing them into numbers and problems which can be solved without giving these women a right over their bodies ,choices and their future.

In the 21st century, women in Africa have no freedom as many access health care with shame, some make decisions with fear while others live with stigma because the laws have stippled them their sexual reproductive health rights.

Continued: https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2025/04/reclaiming-our-bodies-a-revolution-towards-sexual-reproductive-justice-for-women-in-africa/


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/


These 7 changemakers are advancing reproductive justice despite tremendous challenges

March 7, 2025
Ipas

The fight for reproductive justice is facing especially hard times, and the path ahead will not be easy. But the truth is that we’ve already made incredible progress, and we know how to keep moving forward.

In the past 30 years, 60 countries have changed their abortion laws—and only four decreased access. We at Ipas worked in many of those countries that expanded abortion rights. We saw firsthand that the fight is never easy—and never over. Behind historic gains like abortion law change, health centers that offer high-quality abortion care, and communities that support every person’s bodily autonomy are years of hard work, resistance, persistence and advocates who continue, step by step, toward their goal—no matter what.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/7-changemakers-advancing-reproductive-justice/


Above and Beyond Restoring Roe

Abortion rights aren’t enough. The best reproductive care outcomes result from meeting basic needs.

By Jade Prévost-Manuel
Mar 5, 2025

Taylor Young has never wanted to be a mom. From the time the now 27-year-old began dating, she experienced persistent anxiety around the thought of getting pregnant in Ohio, a Republican-controlled state where Young felt her right to abortion was tenuous.

In 2018, she discovered the childfree subreddit, an online forum on Reddit for people who do not have children and do not want them. In that forum, she learned about bilateral salpingectomy, a procedure that removes both fallopian tubes and permanently prevents pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.yesmagazine.org/body-politics/2025/03/05/progress-2025-beyond-roe


Family Planning And The Politics Of Reproduction In India 

Family planning practices have both implicitly and explicitly played a role in defining the construct of the 'modern woman,' and how women are represented, regulated, and monitored through their reproductive and sexual capacities.

by Abirami M   
Feb 14, 2025 

In India, a woman’s body is not entirely her own—it is a site of social politics, of state intervention, and of deeply entrenched class and gender hierarchies. Family planning practices have both implicitly and explicitly played a role in defining the construct of the ‘modern woman,’ and how women are represented, regulated, and monitored through their reproductive and sexual capacities. From colonial-era anxieties about Indian fertility to post-independence sterilisation campaigns disproportionately targeting Dalit and Adivasi women, reproductive policies have long been a means of controlling marginalised communities rather than empowering them. 

Colonial legacies of family planning 
To truly grasp the complexities of reproductive rights and sexualities in India, mapping its history is a good place to start. Taking its roots in the colonial era, British administrators argued that Indian marital, sexual, and familial practices were responsible for Indian impoverishment. Among some Indian intellectuals and reformers, anxieties about overpopulation and focus on numbers as a mode of governance produced a new reproductive politics that linked reproductive rights to the economy.

Continued: https://feminisminindia.com/2025/02/14/family-planning-and-the-politics-of-reproduction-in-india/


Muslim Advocates Ramp Up the Fight for Reproductive Justice

Muslim Americans are creating a movement around accessible and resonant information on sexual and reproductive health.

By Wendy Wei , Truthout
January 5, 2025

On a family visit to Pakistan in 2000, Bursha Munifasa, then 23, discovered she was pregnant. She sat with her husband in their parked car after an ultrasound, staring at her medical report, unable to decipher what “pregnancy positive” meant. No one had said a word about pregnancy during her appointment.

“I was so naive,” she recalls, sitting in her home in the Chicago suburbs where she’s lived for over 20 years now. In retrospect, there were allusions. “When the ultrasound technician asked if I had any other children, I didn’t even understand why he was asking.”

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/muslim-advocates-ramp-up-the-fight-for-reproductive-justice/


Self-managed abortion: A global human rights imperative

To safeguard individuals’ control over their reproductive health and protect human rights, governments must remove legal barriers that hinder access to self-managed abortion.

November 26, 2024
By Andrés Constantin & Katherine Mayall, Open Global Rights

In the ongoing struggle for reproductive justice, self-managed abortion has emerged as a vital tool for ensuring reproductive autonomy, privacy, and health. Self-managed abortion is the process of ending a pregnancy without direct clinical supervision, often by using medications such as mifepristone and misoprostol. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that people can safely self-manage abortion using medication abortion pills during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, making this an essential aspect of advancing reproductive rights globally.

Yet, although this practice offers a critical pathway for individuals to exercise control over their reproductive health, legal and policy barriers remain entrenched worldwide, obstructing access to self-managed abortion. This is not simply a health issue—it is a profound human rights violation that demands urgent attention.

Continued: https://www.openglobalrights.org/self-managed-abortion-a-global-human-rights-imperative/


There’s a Growing Movement to Recognize Abortion as a Human Right. A Recent Supreme Court Case Shows How Necessary This Is.

Beyond the fact that the U.S. is legally bound by human rights treaties it has ratified, the devastation unleashed by the reversal of Roe should compel us to look for stronger foundations for abortion rights.

11/18/2024
by Jaime M. Gher, Ms. Magazine

The election of Donald Trump to a second term has abortion rights advocates across the country worried about a renewed assault on abortion access. These fears are well-founded—but they must also account for successful ballot measures and other victories that demonstrate sustainable, popular support for abortion rights expansion. This enthusiasm for progress is perhaps best encapsulated by the movement to recognize abortion as a human right.

In October, members of Congress introduced a resolution that commended state and local governments for “championing reproductive rights as human rights.” These efforts represent a growing movement that rejects past compromises on abortion rights and sees human rights recognition as the only path forward for safe and accessible abortion care in the United States. Given the Supreme Court’s recent failure to rule definitively on the right to abortion during life-threatening health emergencies, this movement couldn’t come at a more critical moment.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2024/11/18/abortion-usa-human-right-supreme-court-roe/


USA – ‘Everything we fear is even worse’

In the Biddle Lecture, civil rights scholar Dorothy Roberts draws a throughline from the horrors of slavery to the Supreme Court’s recent abortion ruling

Nov 14, 2024
By Colleen Walsh

Dorothy E. Roberts was shopping with her engaged daughter for her wedding dress, accompanied by two young friends, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the historic 2022 ruling that ended a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. It was a day she’ll never forget.

“Being with these three young women who should have had a future that was far more free than mine, it was just an indelible moment in my mind,” said Roberts, a renowned professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, addressing a standing-room-only crowd at Harvard Law School last week. “And of course we’re learning that everything we fear is even worse. Every day there’s a new someone who dies as a result of a miscarriage.”

Continued: https://hls.harvard.edu/today/dorothy-roberts-on-the-intersecting-politics-of-abortion-pregnancy-and-family-policing/


What it truly means to be an abortion counselor: the voices behind safe2choose

By  Vianey Estrada
September 25, 2024

It’s difficult to pin a singular face or voice to the pro-choice movement. When we begin to question ourselves on why that is, we realize that it’s because this is a global movement, created thanks to the efforts of people who have advocated for the right to choose throughout many years.

However, it’s important we remind ourselves that behind a collective effort is an individual effort, with people who dedicate their time and knowledge to advancing the right to safe abortions. In this movement, abortion providers are an essential piece of the puzzle, guiding abortion seekers through their journey. But, how does one become an abortion provider? In this blog we’re going to chat with abortion counselors to learn their story and what it means to be pro-choice.

Continued: https://www.missingperspectives.com/posts/what-it-truly-means-to-be-an-abortion-counselor-the-voices-behind-safe2choose/