South Korea – Court Upholds Block on Abortion Pill Website Access

Ruling cites Pharmaceutical Affairs Act violation; lawsuit dismissed for lack of authority

By Kim Eun-gyeong
Aug 1, 2026

A court has ruled that blocking domestic access to the overseas website "Women on Web," which sells abortion pills by mail, is justified.

Seoul Administrative Court’s Administrative Division 4 (Presiding Judge Kim Young-min) recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Canadian nonprofit Women on Web International Foundation against the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission (KMCSC) seeking to cancel the access-blocking order, the court announced on August 1. Dismissal occurs when a lawsuit fails to meet legal requirements and is concluded without review. The court stated, “Providing unapproved abortion medication violates the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act,” while deeming the lawsuit improper.

Continued: https://www.chosun.com/english/national-en/2026/08/01/OIP76EPVC5F3VAQ4EHYRFKJUC4/

01.08.2026

News

Kim Young-min

Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission

Pharmaceutical Affairs Act

Women on Web

Women on Web International Foundation

Italy Is Blocking Access to Abortion Information

July 28, 2026
Women on Web

Several major Italian internet providers are blocking Women on Web and Women Help Women, two trusted websites offering abortion information and support.

A new joint study by OONI, the global internet censorship watchdog, and Women on Web exposes the blocks that began in February 2026, and the techniques behind them.: Italy Blocks Reproductive Rights Websites Women on Web (WoW) and Women Help Women (WHW).

The impact is real. In 2025 alone, Women on Web responded to over 1,500 messages from people in Italy and received over 700 requests for support. Women Help Women supported roughly 1,000 more.

Continued: https://www.womenonweb.org/en/news/italy-is-blocking-access-to-abortion-information/

28.07.2026

Commentary

Research

censorship of abortion information

Spain – Six years of censorship. One more avenue for justice.

June 23, 2026
Womens Link Worldwide

On June 12th, 2026, six years after Women on Web’s website was blocked by Spanish authorities, the abortion information organization filed a case before the European Court of Human Rights, accompanied by Women’s Link as its legal representative. This petition asked Europe’s highest human rights tribunal to enforce and protect the rights that were violated, something that Spain’s courts have not done to this day.

In September 2020, Spanish health authorities ordered the complete blocking of Women on Web’s (WOW) website. For over two decades, WOW has connected people facing barriers to abortion with evidence-based information and medical support. WOW has no physical headquarters in Spain, so its only means of action is through its online platform, http://www.womenonweb.org. This ban was not authorized by any court, and there was no assessment to determine if this drastic measure was actually justified. This led to one of the most trusted sources of sexual and reproductive health information online simply disappearing for people that needed it most.

Continued: https://womenslinkworldwide.org/en/six-years-of-censorship-one-more-avenue-for-justice/

23.06.2026

Commentary

abortion censorship

Clara Serra Baiget

European Court of Human Rights

Venny Ala-Siurua

Women on Web

Women's Link Worldwide

AI & Abortion Care: How people are using AI to find abortion care, and how this might be dangerous

22 June 2026
Chloe Hanse, Amnesty Feminist Network Committee Member

Abortion is a common healthcare procedure in the UK: 1 in 3 women will have one in their lifetime.[1] Despite this prevalence, it remains a heavily stigmatised and taboo topic. That gap, between how routine it is and how shameful it's made to feel, might explain why so many people now turn to Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots when they need information.

AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Meta AI, and Grok have become a new way that people find information about abortion care.[2] These tools are fast, available at any hour, and they feel private [3]. You don't have to sift through pages of search results. For many people, asking a chatbot about abortion probably feels emotionally easier than calling a clinic. There is no receptionist, no unknown of how whoever picks up a helpline will react, no worry about ‘burdening’ a healthcare provider with questions. You just ask a question, and something answers, and it does so in a confident, authoritative tone that can make it easy to take the information at face value.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/get-involved/join-the-movement/join-a-group-or-network/amnesty-feminists/blog/ai-abortion-care-how-people-are-using-ai-to-find-abortion-care-and-how-this-might-be-dangerous/

Abortion Rates Continue to Climb as Telehealth Reshapes Post-Dobbs America

Abortion bans have not reduced demand for abortion, according to new #WeCount data, while telehealth has transformed how many patients obtain care.

6/17/2026
by Carrie N. Baker

Four years after the Supreme Court handed states the power to ban abortion, a striking paradox has emerged: Abortion rates are rising.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, the number of abortions in the U.S. has increased over 20 percent, according to the Society of Family Planning’s latest #WeCount report, released June 10.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/06/17/abortion-number-rates-increase-dobbs-pills-telehealth-mifepristone-misoprostol/

New OONI Report Documents Global Censorship of Women on Web Across Multiple Countries

June 11, 2026

A new report released today by Women on Web (WoW) and Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) documents evidence of the blocking of Women on Web domains across at least seven countries, which is an increase from three countries where blockages were documented in 2019. The findings of the report show that internet censorship is increasingly being used to restrict access to abortion information and care online.

Abortion Access Denied: Investigating the Global Censorship of Women on Web analyzes OONI network measurement data collected between November 2025 and April 2026. OONI documented evidence of blockages in Iran, Türkiye, the Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Kuwait and Argentina. The report also documents corporate firewall blocking affecting access to Women on Web domains in Poland, Kenya, Pakistan, and Georgia. Researchers observed a range of censorship techniques, including DNS tampering, TLS interference, injected block pages, connection resets, and IP blocking to impede internet users from accessing Women on Web’s sites.

Continued: https://www.womenonweb.org/en/news/new-ooni-report-documents-global-censorship-of-women-on-web-across-multiple-countries/

11.06.2026

Commentary

Research

Abortion Access Denied: Investigating the Global Censorship of Women on Web

censorship of abortion information

European Court of Human Rights

Maria Xynou

OONI

Open Observatory of Network Interference

Republicans Are Trying to Kill the Abortion Pill. They Don’t Stand a Chance

They can bring all the lawsuits they want, but abortion providers have them beat.

By Christina Cauterucci
May 18, 2026

In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the right to legal abortion. Since then, one counterintuitive trend has emerged: Even as 19 states have enacted total or near-total abortion bans, the number of abortions provided in the U.S. each year has risen.

The reason is a confluence of advances in medical, logistical, and communication technology. During the first trimester, a pregnancy can be terminated with a series of pills. Those pills can be sent through the mail, and doctors can easily prescribe them on a video call, over the phone, or through digital forms. The expansion of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic offered a way for clinicians to get abortion medication to patients in every state once Roe v. Wade fell, even in places that outlawed abortion.

Continued; https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/05/pill-supreme-court-republican-abortion-ruling-legal-mifepristone.html

USA – How to Get Abortion Pills, Regardless of What the Courts Say

Even as courts and politicians attempt to restrict abortion access, medication abortion remains widely available through international telehealth providers, community networks and vetted online sources.

May 11, 2026
by Carrie N. Baker, Ms. Magazine

As legal battles over abortion pills continue to play out in the courts, many people across the United States are asking the same urgent question: If the Supreme Court or lower courts restrict access to mifepristone by mail, how can American women still get abortion pills?

The short answer: There are still multiple ways to safely and affordably access abortion medication.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/05/11/how-to-get-abortion-pills/

U.S. Teens Avoid Coercive Parental Involvement Laws by Using Telehealth Abortion Services

A new study shows teens in states with parental involvement laws are increasingly seeking abortion pills online to avoid judges, delays and unsafe alternatives.

March 10, 2026
by Carrie N. Baker and Shelby Hastings

The majority of U.S. teenagers live in states that require parental involvement in abortion healthcare decision-making. If parents are unavailable, or teens under 18 do not want to involve their parents, they must go to court and convince a judge that they are mature enough to decide on their own or that the abortion is in their best interest. To avoid this invasive and burdensome process, resourceful teens are now turning to abortion care from telehealth providers located outside their restrictive states, as documented by new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/10/teens-abortion-pills-ban-states/

As Trump and RFK Jr. Consider Mifepristone Limits, Women on Web Vows to Keep Abortion Pills Flowing in the U.S.

“Women on Web stays open no matter what,” says Women on Web, a feminist nonprofit that connect abortion seekers with abortion pills. “Abortion is part of our lives and should be freely available to all.”

11/17/2025
by Carrie N. Baker, Ms. Magazine

As Republicans push the FDA to restrict mifepristone, the international online abortion service Women on Web is reassuring Americans that they will continue to support access to abortion pills in all 50 states, no matter what. Women on Web has served over 130,000 people worldwide since 2005 and began serving the U.S. in July 2024.

Based in Canada, Women on Web is a nonprofit organization that has team members located across 20 different countries who connect abortion seekers with prescriptions for abortion pills and to pharmacies that will mail mifepristone and misoprostol to people up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/11/17/abortion-pills-usa-women-on-web-fda-trump-rfk/

17.11.2025