Abortion: the possibilities of progress

Editorial, The Lancet
Volume 407, Issue 10538, P1483, April 18, 2026

Women's bodily autonomy and health, particularly with regard to abortion, are under attack. The politicisation of women's bodies and choices is part of a wider attempt to roll back human rights and freedoms of women and marginalised groups. Political parties with regressive ideologies, rising across the world, are finding common cause with anti-gender religious groups. Transnational anti-gender movements have become professionalised and influence national and international agendas. Overseas aid has become a bargaining chip for abortion and gender rights, with dire consequences to sexual and reproductive health. Access to reproductive health information is being restricted by tech corporations, while misinformation is left to proliferate. These trends might prompt despair, but they should not obfuscate the incredible longer-term gains in abortion rights and connected health improvements of the past 60 years, nor the possibility of further ensuring legal, free, and safe abortion for all.

Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00753-1/fulltext

18.04.2026

UK – MPs and peers approve law to pardon women convicted over abortions as far back as 1800s

Law will also expunge police records for women arrested in England and Wales, and stop future prosecutions

Hannah Al-Othman
Fri 17 Apr 2026

Legislation to pardon women who have been convicted of illegal abortions has passed its final parliamentary hurdle, paving the way for a landmark change in the law in England and Wales.

The amendment to the crime and policing bill, which will also expunge the police records of those arrested and investigated over illegal abortions, was considered in the House of Lords during a phase of parliamentary ping-pong, where a bill passes back and forth between the Lords and Commons.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/17/law-pardon-women-convicted-abortions-passes-uk-parliament

17.04.2026

News

1861 Offences against the Person Act

abortion law reform

Crime and Policing bill

La Voisin, the 17th-Century Witch Who Ran a Huge Abortion Network in Paris

La Voisin helped women get abortions, which were illegal in 17th-century France, where the Catholic Church had significant influence over the country’s laws. Sound familiar?

By Danielle Han
April 17, 2026

Catherine Monvoisin (commonly known as La Voisin) was born in 1640—but in many ways, it feels like she belongs to the year 2026. She enjoyed telling fortunes; was anti-king enough to (almost) kill off Louis XIV; and despite living in a time when abortion was illegal, was not afraid to provide women with life-saving care. Per some records, it also seems like she slept with a good fraction of Paris. Good for her! If she were alive today, I’m sure we would have been great friends.

Alas, she died at 40, when she was executed for alleged witchcraft, after failing to murder King Louis. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

Continued: https://www.jezebel.com/la-voisin-the-17th-century-witch-who-ran-a-huge-abortion-network-in-paris

Orbán’s election defeat is a blow to the global anti-gender movement

Europe’s great replacement prime minister lost on Sunday, and so did the global anti-gender movement

Sian Norris
16 April 2026

It’s 2017 in Hungary’s capital city of Budapest, and the World Congress of Families has landed in town. Organised by US anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ personality Brian Brown, the annual gathering of Christian nationalist campaigners, political figures, think tanks and academics pulled off its biggest coup yet: welcoming Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to the stage as a keynote speaker.

Orbán used his speech to describe Europe’s future as “under attack”, with the region “losing out in the population competition between great civilisations”. He claimed that the EU wanted to solve the problems posed by an ageing population and low birth rates with immigration.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/orban-hungary-abortion-lgbtq-great-replacement/

Black Maternal Health Week Isn’t Complete Without Our Abortion Stories

This Black Maternal Health Week, our abortion stories are essential—without them, neither progress nor celebration is complete.

By Ambreia Meadows-Fernandez
April 15, 2026

Long before I understood the systemic consequences of abortion stigma on Black women and girls, I felt its harm. I had an abortion after an unintended pregnancy at 17. The would-be father’s hateful email, the crisis pregnancy center’s insistence that I give birth, and the protestors at the clinic suggested I’d proven that the most dangerous place for a Black child was in the womb. The resulting shame followed me. Even after I’d finished college, gotten married, and given birth to my first child, abortion stigma wasn’t done with me.

After delivery, an emergency room visit revealed retained placenta tissue as the cause of my low milk supply, weakness, and intense bleeding. Nearly six weeks after delivery, I received a positive pregnancy test and needed a Dilation and Curettage (D&C). The medical team said that the procedure helped save my life and avoid infection.

Continued: https://www.essence.com/health-and-wellness/abortion-black-maternal-health/

Australia – SA government apologises to prisoner denied abortion medication

By Stephanie Richards
April 15, 2025

A South Australian prisoner who was denied medication to terminate her pregnancy has received an apology from the state government.

The apology was prompted by a complaint lodged last year to South Australia's ombudsman, who found the SA Prison Health Service made an "administrative error" by not affording the woman the opportunity to have a medical termination of pregnancy, despite informing staff of her wishes to do so.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-16/apology-to-adelaide-prisoner-denied-abortion-medication/106562876

15.04.2026

News

Adelaide Women's Prison

Blair Boyer

Central Adelaide Local Health Network

Emily Strickland

Paul Furst

prisoner denied abortion

SA Prison Health Service

‘The Other Roe’ Film Shines a Light on Forgotten Abortion-Rights Case Doe v. Bolton

Roe v. Wade was only half the story. A new short documentary spotlights the case that made abortion rights real in practice.

4/15/2026
by Ava Slocum

On June 24, 2026, we’ll reach the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. This year, which would have been Roe’s 53rd anniversary, also coincides with the United States’ 250th, reminding us that while the U.S. has been independent since 1776, American women are still far from having full rights and power over our own bodies.

Roe v. Wade, which passed in 1973 and stood for 49 years, gets most of the credit for establishing the national right to abortion. Many people think of Roe as the first big bookend ushering in the right to abortion in the U.S., with Dobbs as the other bookend taking that right away again.

However, Roe wasn’t the only groundbreaking case that paved the way for abortion rights in the U.S.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/04/15/the-other-roe-film-doe-v-bolton-abortion-rights-history-margie-pitts-hames/

LIBERIA – Tightens Controls on Abortion Drug — But Women’s Groups Warn Against Blocking Access to Care

By Joyclyn Wea
April 14, 2026

Liberian women’s health advocates have cautiously welcomed a government announcement that it is going to more closely regulate Misoprostol, a drug widely used to cause a medical abortion or to provide care for women facing life-threatening conditions during and after pregnancy. But they warn that the regulation must not limit access to women trying to access safe health care options.

Last week, the Ministry of Health announced that misoprostol should be sold only with a valid prescription and dispensed under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist or another authorized health worker. The ministry also says it would increase inspections, check supply chains, verify prescribers, and investigate illegal sales.

Continued: https://frontpageafricaonline.com/health/liberia-tightens-controls-on-abortion-drug-but-womens-groups-warn-against-blocking-access-to-care/

14.04.2026

Dr. Su Mon Thaw

Esther Eyeah David Yango

maternal mortality

misoprostol

Women NGOs Secretariat of Liberia

Whistleblower says Trump officials thought USAID did ‘just abortions,’ asked for ‘Barney-style’ slides before gutting agency, per new book

Marisa Kabas
April 13, 2026

One of the first acts by the second Trump administration was the complete gutting of the US Agency for International Development, a workforce of more than 10,000 people that had administered humanitarian aid and public health support to nations around the world since 1961. Thousands of jobs were immediately slashed by Elon Musk’s para-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and political appointees took over posts previously held by career civil servants. An agency once charged with fighting poverty, curbing the spread of infectious diseases, and promoting education and democracy abroad had been effectively thrown in the woodchipper.

Continued: https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/trump-usaid-abortions-barney-nicholas-enrich-into-the-wood-chipper-book-exclusive

Anti-rights groups: why we need a smarter politics of naming

April 13, 2026
By Nicolas Agostini

As movements working to undermine universal human rights protections become more influential, the language used to call out these “anti-rights” groups also needs closer scrutiny, or else risks being self-defeating, writes Nicolas Agostini, human rights advocate and researcher.

Some expressions capture the anxieties of an era. In the human rights field today, everybody wants to say something about “gender apartheid” or “transnational repression”. Few expressions, however, have spread as quickly as “anti-rights”, a label used to describe movements that work to undermine universal human rights protections, usually in the name of culture, religion, or tradition.

Continued: https://genevasolutions.news/human-rights/anti-rights-groups-why-we-need-a-smarter-politics-of-naming

13.04.2026