The myth of European abortion access: Why funders must take action this International Safe Abortion Day

Mara Clarke
26 September 2025

Every year, tens of thousands of people in Europe are forced to cross borders, borrow money, or risk unsafe methods just to end a pregnancy. On 28 September, 2025, International Safe Abortion Day is a stark reminder that Europe is far from a haven for abortion access – and that urgent action is needed to counter the rise of right-wing extremism.

‘I am 10 weeks pregnant and have four children. I can’t get to a clinic as I have no one who can watch them. Please can you send me abortion pills?’ – France
‘I have a severely disabled child and the second pregnancy has the same issues – but the doctors here say it should be no problem for me to have a second child with this condition. How can they claim to know my life?’ – Italy

Continued; https://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/the-myth-of-european-abortion-access-why-funders-must-take-action-this-international-safe-abortion-day/

26.09.2025

Commentary

Abortion Without Borders

International Safe Abortion Day

Mara Clarke

Supporting Abortions for Everyone

European abortion fund director discusses state of affairs

Mara Clarke is a longtime abortion activist who cut her teeth in American abortion rights movement. She's helping to lead a new continent that has seen massive changes in recent years.

Cody McDevitt
Nov 23, 2024

Europe has seen challenges to abortion rights as the medical landscape has shifted, and antiabortion reactionism has limited access to the procedure or medication.

Mara Clarke, co-founder of Supporting Abortions for Everyone, an abortion fund known as SAFE for short, spoke with me about the things they’ve sought to do to address the problems brought on by bans and restrictions in different countries. She does a presentation where she dispels the notion that Europe is an “abortion utopia.” “The law is one thing, and access is another,” Clarke said.

Continued: https://reprorights.substack.com/p/european-abortion-fund-director-discusses

23.11.2024

Offences Against the Person Act

prosecuting women for abortion

SAFE

Stray Bodies documentary

Supporting Abortions for Everyone

Abortion activists deliver invoice to Polish government: you owe us €11.5m

Saturday, April 13, 2024
Women Help Women

Abortion Without Borders has spent more than €11.5m (PLN 49,104,011) in time and money to provide abortion access for Polish residents, without help from the government.

Activists from Abortion Without Borders brought the ‘Polish abortion debt’ to the Sejm (Polish parliament) on Thursday (11 April), presenting an invoice to the government for the costs of time and financial assistance to provide abortion access for Polish residents.

Continued: https://womenhelp.org/en/page/1584/abortion-activists-deliver-invoice-to-polish-government-you-owe-us

As France makes abortion a constitutional right, UK women see sharp rise in abortion convictions

A law dating from 1861 is being used to prosecute women in England and Wales, in at least one case leading to incarceration.

March 4, 2024
By: Lara BULLENS

France has become the only country in the world to protect the right to terminate a pregnancy in its constitution after abortion access was officially added to the freedoms guaranteed in the French constitution on Monday. The move was a direct reaction to the rollback of abortion rights in the United States and elsewhere.

But across the English Channel, women are still at risk of prosecution for having the procedure because abortion in the UK has not been decriminalised. Britain is facing a sharp rise in abortion convictions, with a law dating from 1861 being used to prosecute women and in at least one case leading to incarceration.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240304-france-abortion-constitution-right-uk-woman-sharp-rise-abortion-convictions-england

In the three years since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling, Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 125,000 people in Poland to access safe abortion

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

In the three years since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling, Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 125,000 people in Poland to access safe abortion with more than PLN 3,675,000 (€823,290) in funding.

During the last year (from 22.10.2022 to 22.10.2023), Abortion Without Borders groups helped 46,773 thousand people from Poland to access abortion with more than PLN 1,675,031 (€375,250). More than 1,235 of these people traveled abroad to access a second or third trimester abortion.

Continued: https://womenhelp.org/en/page/1577/new-data-from-abortion-without-borders-in-the-three-years-since

The Pain and Promise of Europe’s Abortion Laws

The continent’s abortion laws are a patchwork of progress and setbacks. And for many, accessing the right care at the right time is still a lottery.

BY GRACE BROWNE
JUN 22, 2023

ON MAY 26, 2018, Irish women spilled onto the streets to celebrate a historic win for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. The staunchly Catholic country had overwhelmingly voted to scrap the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, under which abortion was essentially illegal—one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world.

Five years on, the mood has sobered. Under the new laws, those seeking an abortion have to undergo a mandatory waiting period, adhere to strict time limits, and contend with a lack of providers. From 2019 to 2021, 775 people made use of their right to travel freely between the United Kingdom and Ireland to head to Britain to access abortion services. In 2020, despite the pandemic, nearly 200 people still traveled across the Irish Sea to get abortion care in the UK. The Abortion Support Network (ASN), a charity that helps people in Europe access abortion through telemedicine or by supporting travel, says every three days they hear from someone in Ireland looking for help.

Continued: https://www.wired.com/story/europe-abortion-laws/