Global Trends in Opposition to Women’s Reproductive Autonomy

10 September 2025
International Confederation of Midwives

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are increasingly under threat. The Trump Administration in the United States has restricted dialogue about and access to contraception and safe abortion causing a global ripple effect. A troubling trend is emerging: other governments and international organisations are following suit by limiting funding and avoiding the language of reproductive rights.

Defunding SRHR – Global Impact and Consequences
The Trump Administration has overseen the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), withdrawn 500 million USD in global health funding, and terminated all US contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health. The result is the destabilisation of global sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) initiatives, undermining progress toward gender equality, jeopardising the 2030 Agenda for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Continued: https://internationalmidwives.org/global-trends-in-opposition-to-womens-reproductive-autonomy/

‘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/

22.04.2025

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Resist and Persist: How Ipas will meet the changing global health landscape

April 2025

For 52 years, Ipas has supported communities around the world to ensure access to abortion and contraception for all. We have a deep history and experience working on abortion in places in the world with very restrictive laws, and with health systems that face critical challenges. Ipas has survived extraordinary challenges in the past, and our mission, persistence, and expertise are more critical than ever in the current moment.

The United States’ drastic dismantling of its $79.5 billion foreign aid program has significantly impacted development and humanitarian sectors and created chaos around the globe. Health systems have been crippled, and countless lives and livelihoods have been disrupted. This is a moment of inflection in the global health and development community.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/our-work/resist-and-persist-how-ipas-will-meet-the-changing-global-health-landscape/

A tale of two conferences: women against women as ‘poison of patriarchy’ returns and abortion fight intensifies

Last week, anti-choice campaigners emboldened by current US politics met in New York at the same time as UN delegates gathered to address the widespread inequalities women face. The battle to protect rights has never felt more urgent

Isabel Choat in New York, The Guardian
Sat 22 Mar 2025

In a meeting room on the 27th floor of a swish Manhattan hotel, Denise Mountenay is telling the audience that the right to abortion is “Nazi thinking.” Mountenay regrets her own abortions, and says she has been called by God to spread the word that she and other women “were lied to, deceived, pressured into making the most horrible choice: to choose death instead of life”.

She goes on to list reasons why abortion is “not a safe procedure. [That’s what] they want woman to think – that is a lie.” Many of her claims, including that abortion leads to breast cancer, have been thoroughly disproved by scientific studies.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/22/women-rights-un-anti-abortion-choice-poison-of-patriarchy-returns

22.03.2025

Commentary

69th Commission on the Status of Women

anti-choice bullshit

anti-choice cruelty

anti-choice deception

Campaign Life Coalition

International Planned Parenthood Federation

MSI Reproductive Choices

Nelly Munyasia

Oxfam

Pan-African Conference on Family Values

Project 2025

Richard and Helen DeVos Centre for Life

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Sima Bahous

Southern Poverty Law Center

Malawi – Youths urged to sensitise people on SRHR, unsafe abortion

Oct 18, 2024
Raphael Likaka

Her Liberty and Girls Activist Youth Organisation (GAYO) have equipped youths from various youth clubs at Senior Chief Malemia’s area in Zomba with information to sensitise fellow youths on issues to do with Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and unsafe abortion.

The two organisations are currently implementing a project whose objective is to promote SRHR and discourage unsafe abortion in the area of Senior Chief Malemia in Zomba with financial assistance from Amplify Change, an organisation from the United Kingdom.

Continued: https://malawi24.com/2024/10/18/youths-urged-to-sensitise-people-on-srhr-unsafe-abortion/

Ghana – Basic schools educated on Sexual and Reproductive Health Right to reduce teenage pregnancy in Atiwa East

September 26, 2024
By: Michael Kofi Kenetey

The Atiwa East District Education Directorate in collaboration with the Family Strengthening Programme, FSP of SOS Children’s Villages, Asiakwa has schooled pupils on Sexual and Reproductive Health Right, SRHR education in seven Basic Schools in Adasawase and New Jejeti in the Atiwa East District of the Eastern Region.

The education on SRHR is to help minimize the rise of teenage pregnancy and its related issues such as unsafe abortion and teenage pregnancy complications in the district. It is also to educate the pupils on dangers and negative effects of sexual activities on adolescents and young people, and the consequences it pose to their education and future career.

Continued: https://www.gbcghanaonline.com/news/basic-schools-educated-on-sexual-and-reproductive-health-right-to-reduce-teenage-pregnancy-in-atiwa-east/2024/#google_vignette

26.09.2024

News

Asiwome Funn

Family Strengthening Programme

Innocent Asiwome Funn

Namibians Support Women’s Autonomy, Sex Education, and Access to Contraception, but Are Divided On Termination of Pregnancies

27 August 2024
By Christiaan Keulder and Lizl Stoman

Most citizens say girls who get pregnant should be allowed to continue their education.

Key findings
Namibians strongly support women's and girls' autonomy in making decisions about whether and when they should marry (80%) and about the timing and number of children to have (81%). Support for women's autonomy is particularly strong among women, young citizens, and more educated respondents.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202408280011.html

27.08.2024

News

Abortion and Sterilization Act 2 of 1975

Child Care and Protection Act of 2019

comprehensive sexuality education

Convention on the Rights of the Child

public support for abortion

sexual and reproductive health and rights

SRHR

support for women's autonomy

Uganda – Why gynaecologists and obstetricians became SRHR advocates

By Dr. Simon Peter Kayondo
July 27, 2023

KAMPALA – Under normal circumstances, gynecologists (doctors who specialize in female reproductive health) should be attending to mothers and prospective mothers with pregnancy or child birth complications in maternity wards; but as fate would have it, members of the Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in Uganda (AOGU) have also joined the Sexual, Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) advocacy movement for obvious reasons.

As a member of AOGU, I think this move was long overdue given the not so impressive maternal and child health statistics in our country. For a long time for instance, the teenage pregnancy rate has stagnated at a high of 25% with some regions and districts way above this national average. The situation became worse at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continued: https://www.pmldaily.com/oped/2023/07/dr-simon-peter-kayondo-why-gynaecologists-and-obstetricians-became-srhr-advocates.html

27.07.2023

Opinion

Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in Uganda

Dr. Simon Peter Kayondo

International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

maternal mortality

sexual and reproductive health and rights

Bangladesh – SRHR information still lacking in rural areas

A shortage of health workers to disseminate SRHR information is the root cause of the lack of awareness among adolescents

Nawaz Farhin Antara
September 26, 2022

Adolescents in rural areas of Bangladesh are still resorting to unsafe means to terminate unwanted pregnancies as they do not have sufficient access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) information, according to a recent report.

A shortage of health workers to disseminate SRHR information is the root cause of the lack of awareness among adolescents. Adolescent boys are particularly unaware as they find it difficult to speak to SRHR workers, who are predominantly women, it added.

Continued: https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2022/09/26/report-srhr-information-still-lacking-in-rural-areas

India – Why abortion should be a part of Universal Health Coverage

Debanjana Choudhuri, Vithika Yadav
May 25, 2022
By Hindustan Times

Access to abortion is an unconditional human right and should be entitled as a basic health care service delivered as a part of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). UHC is a commitment to equity and focuses on ensuring a level of quality care that helps people achieve their desired health outcomes.

While on the surface it looks easy,
pro-choice, abortion, and autonomy over women’s body face barriers in the
generational prejudice against women, existing taboos, and pedagogical approach
towards a division of labour. These various components of disparities have led
to the gross neglect of women’s health, and the most overlooked is the Sexual
and Reproductive Health Right (SRHR), which is essential to the fulfillment of
universal health coverage and is included in the Sustainable Development Goals,
which commit countries to providing universal access to sexual and reproductive
health services by 2030.

Continued: https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-insight/gender-equality/why-abortion-should-be-a-part-of-universal-health-coverage-101653469989475.html

25.05.2022