Two Neighbours, Two Courts, One Paradox: Abortion Rights in the US and Mexico

By Devashri Awasthi, McGill International Review
Mar 21, 2026

In September 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) unanimously declared criminalizing abortion unconstitutional. Nine months later, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973). The irony is striking: Mexico—commonly perceived as conservative and overwhelmingly Catholic—expanded abortion rights through judicial reasoning, while the United States—long self-identified as a global rights leader—restricted access through partisan judicial maneuvering. Two neighbouring Christian-majority countries with politically compromised judiciaries reached diametrically opposite conclusions on closely related constitutional questions.

Taken together, these rulings pose a clear comparative puzzle. Holding religion constant and treating politics as the product rather than the cause, analyzing this outcome centres on judicial interpretation, social movements, and international human rights uptake as the channels through which the bounds of the decision were set.

Continued: https://www.mironline.ca/two-neighbours-two-courts-one-paradox-abortion-rights-in-the-us-and-mexico/

‘Lone Star Three’: How Three UT Austin Students Paved the Way for Birth Control Access in 1960s Texas

In the years before Roe v. Wade, three UT Austin students built a quiet network helping women access birth control and abortion care in Texas.

March 5, 2026
by Livia Follet and Ava Slocum

In 1969, Victoria Foe, Judy Smith and Barbara Hines were students at the University of Texas in Austin, when Smith invited Foe and Hines to attend women’s liberation meetings at her house. What began as late-night conversations quickly grew into a campus Birth Control Information Center … and eventually an underground network helping women access abortion at a time when the procedure was illegal in Texas.

Their activism would eventually extend far beyond their university campus, planting the seeds for Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that would legalize abortion in the U.S. Not until 1965 did the Supreme Court recognize a constitutional right for married couples to use birth control; in 1972, it extended that right to unmarried people as well.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/lone-star-three-documentary-roe-v-wade-texas-abortion-birth-control-victoria-foe-judy-smith-barbara-hines/

Trump administration to block foreign aid from those promoting abortion, DEI and gender identity

By MATTHEW LEE and ALI SWENSON
January 22, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is expanding its ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

An administration official said Thursday that the State Department would release final rules that expand the scope of the “Mexico City” policy that has already severely reduced assistance to international organizations that provide abortion-related care. The policy was first established under President Ronald Reagan, rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and reinstated in Trump’s first term.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-aid-dei-gender-ideology-afbc10132dae462c368bab91671747eb

Abortion Access Can’t Depend on Rage Donations

Post-Dobbs abortion access has been propped up by donor outrage and heroic work—but that fragile system is already leaving people behind.

1/21/2026
by David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe

Now, almost three and a half years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the numbers are clear that abortion in the United States has, to the shock of most, continued to rise. But we also have data showing that a small but not trivial number of people are continuing their pregnancies to birth due to abortion bans. To us, what this shows is clear: that overturning Roe has prompted ingenuity, persistence and resistance among providers and patients, but is also leaving many people behind. Ultimately, this is no way to deliver healthcare.

As long-time students of the abortion issue in America, we were not surprised when the Supreme Court, in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in 2022, overturned Roe, putting the legality of abortion in the hands of individual states.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/21/abortion-roe-v-wade-dobbs-donations-clinic/

Anti-life: How U.S. abortion bans actually affect mothers and babies

Svetlana Bozrova
18 January 2026

In early December 2025, a law came into force in Texas banning the sale of medication abortion drugs to residents. Since the summer of 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to set their own reproductive legislation, Texas has become one of the country’s leaders when it comes to restrictions on abortion rights. As of today, the procedure is partially or fully banned in 14 states, leading to a rise in maternal and infant mortality. Experience from elsewhere in the world shows that criminalizing abortion does not increase birth rates, but it does create risks to women’s health and lives, making it harder for them to obtain legal medical care and forcing them to terminate pregnancies underground.

CONTENT:

A fundamental shift

Maternal mortality after abortion restrictions

Social inequality: who suffers most

Ideology versus statistics

Experience from elsewhere

Continued: https://theins.ru/en/society/288559

It Is Sacred Work’: Abortion Clinics Are Stepping Up After the Fall of Roe

Organizations across the country are ensuring people continue to have access to reproductive care.

by Eleanor J. Bader
November 25, 2025

In the first 100 days after the June 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, sixty-six health clinics in fifteen states stopped providing surgical abortions, and fourteen states enacted near-total bans on the procedure.

But then something unexpected happened. By 2024, twenty-one new facilities had opened in states where abortion was not completely banned, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Moreover, KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) reports that by 2023, 226 virtual providers—including online pharmacies, feminist health centers, and help lines—had set up shop to counsel people seeking abortion services and provide abortion medication through the mail.

Continued: https://progressive.org/latest/it-is-sacred-work-abortion-clinics-are-stepping-up-after-the-fall-of-roe-bader-20251125/

The worrying rise of US anti-abortion rhetoric is in full force – how deep is Reform UK’s involvement?

Money is pouring into anti-abortion campaigns in Britain, and it seems Nigel Farage’s party isn’t pushing back…

By Jennifer Savin
20 November 2025

There’s been a lot of talk recently suggesting that we need to keep a close eye on abortion rights here in the UK. With whisperings that what happened in America – the toppling of Roe v Wade, which left a 10-year-old denied an abortion – could happen here, especially if Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party makes it into power at the next election.

While nothing is guaranteed, it’s a scary thought – particularly as we made great strides with abortion care this year.

Continued: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a69468983/reform-uk-nigel-farage-abortion/

‘Mife No Matter What’: Community Abortion Providers Pledge to Continue Sharing Free Abortion Pills, Even if FDA Imposes Restrictions

Despite growing legal threats to the accessibility of abortion pills, national networks of volunteers are working to distribute the medication, discretely and without cost to patients.

Nov 4, 2025
by Carrie N. Baker

Since Roe fell, a community-led network of care has grown into a nationwide system with the promise of “mife no matter what.”

In June 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and over half of states banned or restricted abortion, grassroots activists across the country organized mutual aid groups to share free abortion pills with people living in restrictive states. Today, community providers distributing free abortion pills operate in every U.S. state and territory that bans or restricts abortion.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/11/04/free-abortion-pills-mifepristone-ban-states/

USA – After “Abortion”: A 1966 Book and the World That It Made

“We were all considered slightly cracked, if not outright fanatics, that first year.” —Larry Lader, Abortion II

Nov 4, 2025
By Karen Weingarten

“Abortion is the dread secret of our society.”1 So began journalist Larry Lader’s controversial book, Abortion, published in 1966 after years of rejection from publishers. If you had told Lader or the mere handful of activists then dedicated to legalizing abortion that a Supreme Court case would overturn anti-abortion laws across the US seven years later—in a January 1973 case named Roe v. Wade—they probably would have laughed. In fact, in the early 1960s when Lader began researching, it was harder to get an abortion in the US than it had been in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1966, American doctors—who were overwhelmingly white men—tightly controlled women’s reproductive options. And women of color, primarily Black and Latina women, had even fewer choices if they found themselves accidentally pregnant. Nearly 80 percent of all illegal abortion fatalities were women of color—primarily Black and Puerto Rican.2 And, worst of all, as Lader documented, deaths from illegal abortions had doubled in the preceding decade.

Continued: https://www.publicbooks.org/after-abortion-a-1966-book-and-the-world-that-it-made/

USA – Whose Abortion Is It?

The Harms of State-Mandated Parental Notification for Abortion and Judicial Bypass in the United States

Oct 29, 2025
Human Rights Watch

Years ago, Angela, now a staff member at an abortion clinic in the United States, became pregnant unexpectedly at age 16. She accessed abortion care with support from the person she trusted most: her mother. “I had an extremely supportive mother who helped me through that process,” she said. Angela’s experience shaped her commitment to defend everyone’s right to confidential reproductive health care with support from those they trust: “This is no one else’s choice and no one else’s business.” She began working for an abortion clinic a decade ago. “This was always what I wanted to do.” In July 2022, just after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, Angela and her family moved from a state that banned abortion to a state that protected access so that she could continue working in abortion care. Now she supports young people under 18 who need abortion care.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/10/29/whose-abortion-is-it/the-harms-of-state-mandated-parental-notification-for