Through the looking glass: how pro-family discourse weaponises anti-colonialism to restrict women’s rights

27 May 2026
Ayesha Khan, Claire Carson

This year the United Nations (UN) hosted the 70th Commission on the Status of Women conference, a gathering of dignitaries, diplomats and civil society leaders who annually take stock of progress towards gender equality.

Its successes have been praised by women leaders, notably the vote for the agreed conclusions despite opposition from the United States (US), and the fact that thousands of civil society representatives from all over the world overcame visa, travel and funding restrictions to participate in person. Traditionally, the civil society organisations that participate are progressive, setting a feminist agenda that expands gender equality.

But now, an alternative civil society gathering is attempting something altogether different.

Continued: https://odi.org/en/insights/through-the-looking-glass-how-pro-family-discourse-weaponises-anti-colonialism-to-restrict-womens-rights/

Special edition: A tale of two movements — all at the same time

At the Commission on the Status of Women, the tangle over money, policy, and influence is shaping the future of women’s rights.

By Elissa Miolene
13 March 2026

The 70th Commission on the Status of Women has hit its halfway mark, with a historic vote on Monday foreshadowing a division that only grew throughout the week.

On one side, there’s the United Nations, large international aid agencies, and a collection of countries — from Sweden to Spain — that are pushing for more progressive women’s rights. On the other hand, there’s a constellation of nations, faith-based groups, and anti-abortion activists that are advocating for family values, while accusing the U.N. of indoctrinating developing nations when it comes to sex, abortion, and gender identity.

Continued: https://www.devex.com/news/special-edition-a-tale-of-two-movements-all-at-the-same-time-112072

As the US exports ideological harm in health aid, here’s how to resist it

Opinion: As the Mexico City Policy expands, U.S. aid now polices values as well as services. Silence may feel strategic — but it’s already causing harm. Here’s a global health resistance agenda.

By Kent Buse, Sonja Tanaka, Lynsey Robinson, Sharmila L. Mhatre
11 February 2026

The recent expansion of the United States’ Mexico City Policy marks a turning point for global health and development assistance. What was once a contested restriction on abortion-related services has been transformed into a sweeping ideological test, applied across nonmilitary foreign aid.

The damage to health systems from last year’s Presidential Memorandum reinstating the Mexico City Policy is already evident, reflecting patterns well documented during previous enforcement periods. But the more fundamental question now is whether global health groups will accept this shift — or organize to resist it.

Continued: https://www.devex.com/news/as-the-us-exports-ideological-harm-in-health-aid-here-s-how-to-resist-it-111849

11.02.2026

Opinion

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Global Gag Rule

Mexico City policy

PHFFA

Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance

The Struggle to Decriminalize Abortion in Latin America

September 28, 2025
HAVANA TIMES

The idea that women were born to be mothers is still generally accepted in Latin American and Caribbean countries. This concept underpins the laws dictating partial or total bans on abortion, thus violating a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy and pursue her life goals.

That’s how Cristina Rosero, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean, summed up the current state of abortion rights for IPS. The organization is part of Causa Justa, a broad movement created in Colombia in 2017 to promote women’s reproductive autonomy.

Continued: https://havanatimes.org/chile/the-struggle-to-decriminalize-abortion-in-latin-america/

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

Bolivia: Protests erupt and church criticised for interfering with 11-year-old girl’s abortion

Church authorities reportedly promised to help the family, who then decided not to allow the abortion to go ahead.

Saturday 30 October 2021

The Bolivian government has criticised the Catholic Church for interfering in an 11-year-old girl's abortion.

The girl became pregnant after allegedly being raped by her step-grandfather and, after her pregnancy was discovered at 21 weeks, her family requested permission for her to have an abortion.

Continued: https://news.sky.com/story/bolivia-protests-erupt-and-church-criticised-for-interfering-with-11-year-old-girls-abortion-12454863

30.10.2021

Featured

News

Bolivian Episcopal Conference

Argentina’s Abortion Legislation Sparks Hope in Caribbean

February 14, 2021
By Kate Chappell (IPS)

HAVANA TIMES – It was a joyful, tearful celebration in the early morning hours of Dec. 30, 2020 for countless Argentinians when they heard the news: the senate had legalized terminations up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Prior to this, activists have said that more than 3,000 women died of botched, illegal abortions since 1983. And across the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, this renewed sense of optimism was compounded after President Joe Biden rescinded what is known as the “global gag rule,” which essentially denied funding to international non-profit organizations that provided abortion counseling or referrals.

Now, women and campaigners across LAC are hopeful that these developments will spur lawmakers to consider decriminalizing abortion in their countries, sparing women their lives, economic well-being, dignity and access to a range of options to make the best choice for their reproductive and overall health.

Continued: https://havanatimes.org/features/argentinas-abortion-legislation-sparks-hope-in-caribbean/

Behind Vancouver’s massive and mysterious Women Deliver conference

Behind Vancouver's massive and mysterious Women Deliver conference

Penney Kome
June 18, 2019

Hardly anyone local was prepared when a New York-based organization named Women Deliver swept into Vancouver in early June to discuss gender equality with 8,000 political leaders, advocates, academics and journalists from 165 countries -- and another 100,000 people globally participating online -- and then swept out again. Wait! Who was that masked stranger?

What made the conference (and the organization) really daring though, was the subject: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). If a Women Deliver conference was held in an anti-abortion jurisdiction -- say, the state of Alabama -- the whole state might implode in frustration.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/other-hand/2019/06/behind-vancouvers-massive-and-mysterious-women-deliver-conference

UN waters down rape resolution to appease US’s hardline abortion stance

UN waters down rape resolution to appease US's hardline abortion stance
Measure on sexual violence in conflict passes after Trump administration threatened to veto document over references to reproductive health

Liz Ford
Tue 23 Apr 2019

The UN has backed a resolution on combatting rape in conflict but excluded references in the text to sexual and reproductive health, after vehement opposition from the US.

The resolution passed by the security council on Tuesday after a three-hour debate and a weekend of fierce negotiations on the language among member states that threatened to derail the process.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/23/un-resolution-passes-trump-us-veto-threat-abortion-language-removed

Pakistan – Bill prohibiting gender disclosure during pregnancies to be tabled to end abortio

Bill prohibiting gender disclosure during pregnancies to be tabled to end abortion

December 9, 2018

LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has announced that a bill prohibiting the disclosure of gender during the pregnancy would be tabled soon to end the trend of sex-selective abortion.

She revealed this while addressing a seminar on “Ending Gender-Based Violence” held under the ambit of the Punjab Government in collaboration with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWOMEN).

continued: https://dailytimes.com.pk/331409/bill-prohibiting-gender-disclosure-during-pregnancies-to-be-tabled-to-end-abortion/