USA – I Wanted an Abortion. My Friends Had Other Ideas.

“Progressive” anti-abortion activists claim to be a feminist wing of the movement. But when one of their former compatriots tried to end her pregnancy, they went to extreme lengths to stop her.

By Rebecca Grant
Nov 11, 2025

On the morning of June 26, 2024, Charlotte Isenberg woke up worried.

The 20-year-old was pregnant and had an appointment for an ultrasound at a Planned Parenthood in Charlotte, North Carolina. She didn’t dread the scan itself, a state requirement 72 hours before having a medication abortion. Instead, she was afraid of who might be waiting for her at the clinic.

After a 30-mile drive, Isenberg and her boyfriend pulled through the gate that protected the Planned Parenthood from prying eyes. It was as they backed into a parking space that Isenberg spotted her: a woman who’d traveled 400 miles from Washington, D.C. A once-friend whom Isenberg had not told the exact details of her appointment.

Continued: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a69167837/charlotte-isenberg-anti-abortion-activist-story/

Texas’ abortion crisis deserves concern — even as U.S. turns away

By evading its U.N. human rights review, America ignores what the world sees clearly: Texans suffering under abortion bans.

By Irma L. Garcia
Nov 10, 2025

Last week, at the United Nations in Geneva, the United States was scheduled to undergo a human rights review that all U.N. member states participate in every four and a half years. Instead, the U.S. boycotted its mandatory review, a critically important mechanism for holding countries accountable for their human rights records.

If the review happened as it should, the U.S. reproductive rights crisis would be on full display. For almost 25 years, Jane’s Due Process has helped young Texans access reproductive health care, and since the fall of Roe, we’ve helped more than 300 teens travel out of state for abortion care.

Continued: https://archive.is/WXwhX
(https://www.statesman.com/opinion/columns/your-voice/article/opinion-texas-abortion-crisis-deserves-21145919.php)

10.11.2025

Commentary

Irma L. Garcia

Jane’s Due Process

U.N. Human Rights Council

The Heritage Foundation goes from MAGA to MEGA — Make Europe Great Again

On the agenda: pro-natalism, freedom of expression, opposing trans rights and fighting Chinese influence.

November 10, 2025
By Hannah Roberts

ROME — The conservative think tank behind Donald Trump’s Project 2025 roadmap is looking for new friends across the Atlantic.

The Heritage Foundation, the intellectual engine behind the 922-page blueprint that has become the key policy manual for Trump’s second term, is partnering with a constellation of European nationalist far-right movements to export its playbook for countering progressive policies.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/the-heritage-foundation-goes-from-maga-to-mega-make-europe-great-again-donald-trump-us-influence/

USA – Restrictions on fetal tissue research would threaten progress on breakthrough treatments for devastating diseases — and yet not prevent a single abortion

By Lawrence S. B. Goldstein
Nov 8, 2025

Human fetal tissue (HFT) research has been indispensable for understanding and combating diseases that affect millions worldwide. Reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may not renew grants supporting this work are deeply troubling, as such action would jeopardize progress against devastating conditions including cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, eye disorders, and neurological and rare diseases.

For decades, HFT has been funded by the U.S. government. It’s had broad bipartisan support under both Republican and Democratic administrations because this research has saved lives. Yet, there are early signs that the Trump administration may ban ethical and well-established uses of fetal tissue in important medical research based on politics rather than science.

Continued: https://www.livescience.com/health/restrictions-on-fetal-tissue-research-would-threaten-progress-on-breakthrough-treatments-for-devastating-diseases-and-yet-not-prevent-a-single-abortion

08.11.2025

Commentary

Research

human fetal tissue research

Lawrence S.B. Goldstein

National Institutes of Health

Neurodegenerative disease

Parkinson's disease

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

vaccines and fetal tissue

Europe: Existing barriers to abortion access compounded by alarming attempts to roll back reproductive rights

6 November 2025
Amnesty International

European governments must act to ensure equal and universal access to abortion care in the face of ongoing restrictions and intensifying efforts to further limit access to abortion across the region, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

When rights aren’t real for all: The struggle for abortion access in Europe reveals how – despite hard won progress – harmful and dangerous obstacles continue to undermine access to abortion care. This is taking place in the context of increasingly well-resourced anti-rights groups ramping up their efforts to negatively influence policies and laws, often through the spread of fear and disinformation, aimed at further restricting access to abortion.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/11/europe-existing-barriers-to-abortion-access-compounded-by-alarming-attempts-to-roll-back-reproductive-rights/

06.11.2025

Commentary

Amnesty International

belief-based care denial

Monica Costa Riba

When rights aren’t real for all: The struggle for abortion access in Europe

Baby Priya brought compassion to the parliament. Then four men hijacked the debate

Jacqueline Maley
November 2, 2025

Politics can be a cynical and nasty business, but outbreaks of grace and compassion do occur. One happened on Wednesday during a parliamentary debate for the second reading speech of “Baby Priya’s Bill”. MP after MP rose to speak with sensitivity about one of life’s most devastating experiences – the birth of a stillborn baby.

The bill will amend workplace laws to ensure employee entitlements to parental leave extend to parents whose baby has been stillborn, or who has tragically died in infancy. The bill is named after baby Priya, who was born prematurely at 24 weeks in June 2024. For six weeks, she battled for life in the neonatal intensive care unit. Then she died.

Continued: https://archive.is/bgAUt
(https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/baby-priya-brought-compassion-to-the-parliament-then-four-men-hijacked-the-debate-20251031-p5n6s7.html)

Global anti-feminist backlash gains ground after decades of equality gains

Spain and France justify enshrining the right to abortion in their Constitutions as a safeguard against a ‘reactionary’ wave that could roll back achievements

Marc Bassets, Berlin
OCT 31, 2025

History never advances in a straight line. Although, as Martin Luther King said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Progress always moves in fits and starts: two steps forward, one step back. This is also the case with women’s rights and equality.

For a decade or more — in Western countries and in the Global South — there have been numerous cases of rights being stripped away after a long period of progress. This regression — according to progressive and liberal political leaders — is linked to the global rise of new forms of authoritarianism and nationalism.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-11-01/global-anti-feminist-backlash-gains-ground-after-decades-of-equality-gains.html

Russia Expands Bans on ‘Coercing’ Women Into Abortions to 27th Region

Oct 30, 2025
Moscow Times

Two Siberian regions have become the 26th and 27th Russian regions to adopt legislation this week banning the “coercion” of pregnant women into terminating a pregnancy amid efforts by conservative figures to expand state pressure to boost birth rates.

The neighboring Kemerovo region and Altai republic adopted laws Monday and Tuesday banning “persuasion, requests, offers, deception, bribery or other actions” aimed at encouraging a woman to have an abortion.

Exceptions apply to doctors providing medical or social reasons for abortion.

Continued: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/10/30/russia-expands-bans-on-coercing-women-into-abortions-to-27th-region-a90991

30.10.2025

News

abortion coercion

abortion law reform

Russian Orthodox Church

Australia – Barnaby Joyce and Andrew Hastie rebuked for ‘playing politics’ on abortion in debate on stillbirth leave

Experts warn the fearmongering about late-term terminations is straight out of the anti-abortion handbook

Tory Shepherd, Krishani Dhanji and Josh Butler
Thu 30 Oct 2025

A group of Coalition parliamentarians, including Barnaby Joyce and Andrew Hastie, have seized on a proposed new law to give paid parental leave to parents of a child who is stillborn or dies, arguing it should not be available to anyone needing a late-term abortion.

A senior doctor has labelled the comments as “terrible, cynical, awful” things to say about an often heartbreaking decision, as experts point out that the vast majority of later terminations are forced by major health issues and warn fearmongering about the issue is straight out of the anti-abortion handbook.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/30/abortion-stillbirth-leave-barnaby-joyce-andrew-hastie-playing-politics

Mobile Clinics Close in Madagascar as Aid Cuts Reduce Reproductive Health Services

Cuts to mobile clinic funding are leading to more unwanted pregnancies and unsafe births.

By Sarah El Gharib
October 30, 2025

When her mobile clinic shut down, Herisoa Bodo’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. A client due for implant removal reached out again and again. The appointment never happened — and she became pregnant.

Bodo, a midwife with Marie Stopes International (MSI) Madagascar since 2012, kept fielding calls long after outreach teams had been forced to suspend services. “Women kept calling because they couldn’t find care,” she said. Her routes cover Analamanga, the region surrounding the capital Antananarivo, where MSI deploys buses converted into clinics and 4x4 teams into rural communities. For many women, those visits are the only reliable chance to see a midwife.

Continued: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/madagascar-mobile-clinics-close-due-to-aid-cuts/