Philippines – Unintended pregnancies, abortions persist in PH despite total ban

Cristina Eloisa Baclig
April 09, 2026

Abortion is illegal in the Philippines in all circumstances. Yet data and personal accounts suggest the procedure persists, often in secrecy and, in many cases, under unsafe conditions.

A recent analysis by University of the Philippines Diliman associate professor and Inquirer data scientist Dr. Rogelio Alicor Panao, drawing from World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, found that unintended pregnancies and abortion remain closely intertwined even where the procedure is criminalized.

Continued: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2209231/unintended-pregnancies-abortions-persist-in-ph-despite-total-ban-2

‘No Woman Should Lose Her Life, Giving Life’

17/02/2026
Kerry Cullinan

Over 60% of maternal deaths in 2023 took place in countries and territories experiencing conflict or institutional and social fragility, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) technical brief published on Tuesday.

“In 2023, an estimated 260,000 women died from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Around 160,000 of those deaths occurred in settings experiencing conflict or institutional fragility,” Jenny Cresswell, WHO sexual and reproductive health scientist, told a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/no-woman-should-lose-her-life-giving-life/

17.02.2026

News

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Jenny Cresswell

maternal mortality

United Nations Children’s Fund

United Nations Population Fund

World Health Organization

Understanding Abortion Care: WHO Guidelines, Global Health Impact, and Access Challenges

January 3, 2026

Abortion remains one of the most common medical procedures worldwide, yet access to safe, respectful, and evidence-based care varies dramatically across different regions. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides comprehensive guidelines to ensure that abortion services meet international health standards while protecting women’s rights and wellbeing. This article examines the current state of abortion care globally, drawing from WHO’s latest recommendations and research.

The Global Scale of Abortion - The statistics surrounding pregnancy and abortion reveal a significant public health reality. Approximately 121 million pregnancies occur unintentionally each year worldwide. Of these unintended pregnancies, 60 percent end in induced abortion. Overall, three out of every ten pregnancies globally conclude with an induced abortion, making it a routine aspect of reproductive healthcare that affects millions of women annually.

Continued: https://observervoice.com/understanding-abortion-care-who-guidelines-global-health-impact-and-access-challenges-in-2025-170509/

03.01.2026

Commentary

barriers to abortion

BRIDGES initiative

Global Abortion Policies Database

maternal mortality and morbidity

Sustainable Development Goals

World Health Organization

We Care: building evidence for safer abortion services

18 December 2025
World Health Organization

Expanding access to safe, comprehensive abortion care presents a critical opportunity to protect the health and rights of millions of women worldwide. By leveraging data and innovative tools, a silent challenge is transformed into actionable solutions that save lives and promote equity.

Through the work of BRIDGES for comprehensive abortion care, HRP (the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction) is working with ministries of health, country offices and civil society organizations to not only collect, but also use local data to improve access to comprehensive abortion care. Called We Care (Workshops for Evidence for Complications of Abortion Reduction), the project makes use of the World Health Organization (WHO)-supported nationally representative health facility surveys, known as Harmonized Health Facility Assessments (HHFA). Already implemented in more than 20 countries, and growing, these surveys offer countries a powerful tool to strengthen their health systems. While the surveys include quality abortion care questions, most countries were not using the nationally representative abortion data.

Continued: https://www.who.int/news/item/18-12-2025-we-care--building-evidence-for-safer-abortion-services

Uganda – Our Constitution Leaves Girls Unprotected, The Results Are Fatal

Thursday, December 11, 2025
By Moses Paul Odongo

Recently, while perusing the Daily Monitor of November 18, 2025, I came across an article on page 25 written by Olivier Mukaaya, titled “Abortion crisis as girls turn to unsafe practices.”

As I read it carefully, word for word, I found myself tearing up as I reflected on what the 19-year-old girl in the story went through. She had already endured the trauma of sexual assault. When she later discovered she was pregnant, fear, shame and the weight of that experience overwhelmed her.

Continued: https://nilepost.co.ug/opinions/309754/our-constitution-leaves-girls-unprotected-the-results-are-fatal

11.12.2025

Opinion

Moses Paul Odongo

UNFPA

World Health Organization

How dangerous are unsafe abortions? WHO report paints a grim picture

A WHO report reveals that 73 million abortions occur annually, with unsafe procedures causing severe physical complications, mental trauma, and major public health burdens

Tisha Elizabeth Jacob
December 10, 2025

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that around 73 million induced abortions take place across the globe each year. Six out of 10 (61 per cent) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29 per cent) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion.

While one might look at abortion as a matter of individual choice, it is also a public health issue that affects communities and countries.

Lack of access to safe, affordable, timely and respectful abortion care, and the stigma associated with abortion, pose risks to women’s physical and mental well-being throughout their lives. Estimates from 2012 also indicate that in developing countries alone, 7 million women per year were treated in hospital facilities for complications of unsafe abortion, WHO reported.

Continued: https://www.theweek.in/news/health/2025/12/10/how-dangerous-are-unsafe-abortions-who-report-paints-a-grim-picture.html

10.12.2025

News

abortion as public health issue

abortion stigma

maternal mortality

World Health Organization

Global Approaches to Abortion as Health Care

Rebecca Reingold, Associate Director / Sarah Wetter, Senior Associate / Ava Sack, Former Extern
November 20, 2025

By characterizing abortion as health care, international organizations have pushed back against the rise in abortion exceptionalism. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that “[a]bortion is a simple health care intervention.” Human rights bodies similarly stress that realizing the right to health requires treating abortion like other essential reproductive health services. Abortion care should meet the four essential elements of the right to health’s “AAAQ framework” — namely, it should be available, accessible, acceptable, and of quality.

While various jurisdictions (including some states in the United States) continue to criminalize and heavily restrict access to abortion, numerous countries have adopted laws and policies that align with WHO recommendations and human rights frameworks. In the process, they have taken incremental steps towards embracing abortion as health care across areas, including facilities and providers, medication, patient decision-making, financing, and destigmatization.

Continued: https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/global-approaches-to-abortion-as-health-care/

20.11.2025

Commentary

abortion exceptionalism

Ava Sack

Rebecca Reingold

Sarah Wetter

World Health Organization

Nigeria’s Proposed Abortion Law: A Step Backward in a Public Health Crisis

By Shalom Tewobola
Nov 2, 2025

In a country where an estimated 1.25 million unsafe abortions occur annually, Nigeria’s Senate is considering legislation that would make a dire situation catastrophic. The Criminal Code Amendment Bill 2025, which recently came before the Senate for concurrence, proposes a ten-year jail term for anyone supplying drugs or instruments to procure abortions. This represents more than a threefold increase from the current three-year penalty. But as confusion erupted among lawmakers over the bill’s vague language during Tuesday’s plenary session, a more fundamental question emerged: are we criminalizing healthcare itself?

Senate President Godswill Akpabio suspended consideration of the bill and referred it to the Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters after senators couldn’t agree on what constitutes an “unlawful abortion.” When lawmakers themselves cannot determine the boundary between criminal acts and medical care, how can doctors be expected to navigate these waters while a patient hemorrhages before them?

Continued: https://culturecustodian.com/nigerias-proposed-abortion-law-a-step-backward-in-a-public-health-crisis/

The Ripple Effects of the U.S. Retreat from International Reproductive Care

U.S. cuts to global health funding are putting reproductive rights, healthcare access and human rights at risk worldwide. Human rights experts discuss exactly what’s happening—and what would stop the suffering.

10/19/2025
by Jaime M. Gher, Payal Shah and Floriane Borel

The U.S. has long been the largest donor to global health programs, but under the Trump administration, that support is rapidly disappearing. The resulting funding cuts are devastating reproductive health access, disease prevention efforts and human rights around the world.

In this Q&A, global health and human rights experts Jaime M. Gher, Payal Shah and Floriane Borel break down the global ripple effects—and the urgent need for action.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/10/19/usa-trump-international-global-health-aid-cuts/

PORTUGAL – Experts call for a review of abortion law

The Portuguese Contraception Society (SPDC) has warned that Portugal maintains one of the "most restrictive" deadlines in Europe for access to voluntary termination of pregnancy, advocating for the extension of the abortion deadline to at least 12 weeks.

By TPN/Lusa
Sept 27, 2025

"We have a maximum period of 10 weeks, which will place us among the countries with the most restrictive rules, along with Slovenia, for example, while most other European countries set limits of 12, 14, or more [weeks]," SPDC president Amália Pacheco told Lusa on the occasion of World Safe Abortion Day.

For the gynaecologist, this situation reveals "the urgent need" to review Portuguese legislation at this time, aligning it with "all scientific evidence," the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the commitments made at the European level.

Continued: https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2025-09-27/experts-call-for-a-review-of-abortion-law/891181

27.09.2025