When choice meets fear: The women navigating Kenya’s abortion maze

Nearly 800,000 abortions occur each year, many unsafe. As one counsellor asks: if we deny a woman safe care and she dies from bleeding while the foetus dies, “who have you saved?”

Friday, July 10, 2026
By Moraa Obiria

The sunshine may soften Nairobi’s chilly, unpredictable weather or brighten the city centre’s newly laid cabro pavements.

But in the heart of one woman, Neema*, nothing can ease the weight she continues to carry, four years on. In 2022, the now 30-year-old woman from Ruaraka Sub-County last her three-year old son. “He had pneumonia,” says a tearful Neema. Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/when-choice-meets-fear-the-women-navigating-kenya-s-abortion-maze--5521556

Australia – Real question on SA abortion care is who decides?

As a controversial anti-abortion lobbyist announces she is taking SA police to court, academic Dr Judith Dwyer AM says the real question about abortion care is “who gets to decide”?

Dr Judith Dwyer
Jul 09, 2026

Anti-abortion lobbyist Joanna Howe has filed a $5000 claim against SA Police in Adelaide Magistrates Court over being told to leave a voting booth during the state election. Following a recent, controversial third attempt to pass legislation to restrict later-term abortions in this state, Dr Judith Dwyer recognises the issue won’t go away but says the real question at the heart of this debate is not ‘should there be more restrictions on abortion care?’

Last month, when members of the House of Assembly voted overwhelmingly (36 to 9) to defeat the most recent bill seeking to restrict abortions later in pregnancy, it wasn’t mostly about conscience.

Almost everyone in the chamber knew that the vote was about preserving the 2021 abortion law. The Bill was a rearguard action against that law, arising as part of a collection of right-wing populist campaigns that make up the current ‘culture wars’.

Continued: https://www.indailysa.com.au/news/opinion/2026/07/10/real-question-on-sa-abortion-care-is-who-decides

09.07.2026

Commentary

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice restrictions

Nigeria – Health advocates seek reinstatement of suspended Lagos pregnancy guidelines

At the programme, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, a professor, stated that the state still records about 400 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, describing the figure as unacceptable for a megacity.

by Emmanuel Agbo
July 8, 2026

Health advocates have renewed calls on the Lagos State government to reinstate the suspended Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications (STOP Guidelines), saying the policy could provide doctors with clearer clinical guidance and help reduce preventable maternal deaths.

The call was made by the Project Manager for Pamoja, Rumunse Obi, in an article titled “Dr Majek and the Ghost: Why Lagos Must Revisit the STOP Guidelines”, shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/health/health-news/893830-health-advocates-seek-reinstatement-of-suspended-lagos-pregnancy-guidelines.html

Malaysia – Deputy Minister sets record straight following misunderstanding over abortion remarks

By YASMIN ABDUL LATIF
Wednesday, 08 Jul 2026

PETALING JAYA: Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Lim Hui Ying has clarified that her recent remarks in the Dewan Rakyat on abortion referred specifically to illegal abortion services, not procedures permitted under Malaysian law.

She said abortion is generally a criminal offence under Sections 312 to 316 of the Penal Code, but Malaysian law provides a clear exception under Section 312.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2026/07/08/deputy-minister-sets-record-straight-following-misunderstanding-over-abortion-remarks#goog_rewarded

08.07.2026

Women Family and Community Development Ministry

Asia

Malaysia

Politics

Malaysia – NGOs urge deputy minister to clarify remarks on abortion

July 7, 2026

PETALING JAYA: Two NGOs have urged deputy women, family and community development minister Lim Hui Ying to issue a public clarification on the legal position of abortion in Malaysia.

In a joint statement, the Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia and Women’s Aid Organisation said Lim’s remarks in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that abortion and clinics providing the service were prohibited in Malaysia were “factually and legally incorrect”.

“Statements made in Parliament carry weight,” they said in a statement endorsed by nine other organisations including SIS Forum (Malaysia) and Family Frontiers.

Continued: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2026/07/07/ngos-urge-deputy-minister-to-clarify-remarks-on-abortion

07.07.2026

Azrul Mohd Khalib

Family Frontiers

Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy

Lim Hui Ying

Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia

SIS Forum

Women’s Aid Organisation

Calls for investigation into anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe’s campaign spending

By national regional health reporter Lucy Barbour and ABC Regional Investigations' Andy Burns

July 2, 2026

It is two days before the South Australian election, and Labor MP Nat Cook is being chased around her pre-poll booth by someone you may have never heard of.

The woman is a fast-rising figure in the anti-abortion movement, and her platform has the backing of some of Australia's most powerful right-wing political figures.

Joanna Howe is determined to see abortion banned across the country, and is leveraging MAGA-style campaigning tactics to try to influence political outcomes. This pre-poll booth during the SA election is ground zero for her street-brawler approach.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-03/anti-abortion-activist-joanna-howe-political-ads/106835816

Eight Years After Repeal, Irish Women Are Still Waiting for Change

Lily van den Bergh
June 29, 2026

The recent passage of Sinn Féin’s bill abolishing Ireland’s mandatory three-day abortion waiting period has been celebrated as a significant step forward for reproductive rights. However, its success also brings to light the uncomfortable truth that while Ireland may present itself as a modern nation, its treatment of women’s reproductive rights remains rooted in its legacy of conservatism. Only weeks earlier, the Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill, championed by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, was defeated in the Dáil despite proposing far broader reforms to Ireland’s abortion legislation. While Sinn Féin’s bill addresses the patronising three-day waiting period, the Social Democrats’ proposal sought to build upon legislation introduced during the Repeal The Eighth movement in 2018 by also addressing the criminalisation of healthcare professionals and other barriers to abortion access. Though the removal of the waiting period should be welcomed, we must ask ourselves why, eight years after one of the largest feminist movements in Irish history, women’s political priorities are still struggling to translate into legislative change.

Continued: https://universitytimes.ie/2026/06/eight-years-after-repeal-irish-women-are-still-waiting-for-change/

Ireland – Dail abortion vote that caused controversy is still not a law

June 27, 2026
By Sean Murphy

A CONTROVERSIAL abortion vote was passed in the Dail – but this does not mean that it has become law.

An amendment was proposed by Sinn Fein to the abortion legislation that was agreed by the country in a referendum eight years ago.

It passed a vote in Dail Eireann on June 17, prompting discussion about when it could become law, but it still has several stages to go, Oireachtas procedures have clarified.

Continued: https://donegalnews.com/dail-abortion-vote-that-caused-controversy-is-still-not-a-law/

27.06.2026

News

3-day waiting requirement

Mary Lou McDonald

Mary T Sweeny

Sinn Fein

three-day waiting period

Go-slow or proper scrutiny? The divide over Bill scrapping three-day wait for abortion

Lack of a whip on the issue means an exercise in vote-hunting the Oireachtas rarely sees

Jack Horgan-Jones
Sat Jun 27 2026

There is, in the words of one TD on the Oireachtas health committee, a “clear division” among members about whether to subject Sinn Féin’s Bill scrapping the three-day waiting period for abortion services to further scrutiny.

Oireachtas committees scrutinise Bills all the time – although the process is, on occasion, waived when there’s a push on to get a new law on to the statute books.

Continued: https://archive.is/on309
(https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2026/06/27/go-slow-or-proper-scrutiny-the-divide-over-bill-scrapping-three-day-wait-for-abortion/)

27.06.2026

Commentary

3-day waiting requirement

Marie O’Shea

Sinn Féin

three-day waiting period

The USSR banned abortions, and women began to die.

June 27, 2026

In 1920, Soviet Russia became the first country in the world to legalize abortion. But on June 27, 1936, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the Prohibition of Abortion"—and within sixteen years, the country had undergone a complete about-face: from revolutionary freedom to criminal prosecution.

What was banned and what was punished?
The decree banned abortions—both in hospitals and at home. Doctors faced one to two years in prison; if the abortion was performed in unsanitary conditions or by someone without medical training, the penalty was at least three years. Forcing a woman to have an abortion was up to two years in prison. The woman herself faced public censure, and a fine of up to 300 rubles for repeat offenses.

Continued: https://nemoskva.net/en/2026/06/27/zapret-abortov-v-sssr-postanovlenie-ot-27-iyunya-1936-goda/

27.06.2026