Here’s what the late Pope Francis said about LGBTQ+ people, abortion and other key issues

The pontiff, who died Monday at 88, was beloved by many progressive Catholics.

April 21, 2025
The 19^th

Pope Francis, who as head of the Roman Catholic Church advocated for a greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and protection for migrants, died on Monday after a series of respiratory infections, which were particularly dangerous as he was already missing part of one lung due to a serious bout of pneumonia he experienced as a young man. He was 88.

The Vatican announced his death in a brief statement on the social media platform X.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2025/04/pope-francis-dead/

21.04.2025

Commentary

Catholic Church

Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Pope Benedict

Pope Francis

sexual abuse crisis

the Pope and abortion

The Christian right has set the US on the road to Gilead. Without a fight, other nations may follow

Organisations that pumped money into overturning Roe v Wade are making inroads in Europe. Women’s rights are truly at risk

Deborah Frances-White
Sat 5 Apr 2025

With Donald Trump as president, there is now a heavy strain of Christian nationalism driving the US political agenda. From draconian abortion policies to ending birthright citizenship, some of Trump’s first executive orders sound startlingly like something out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel turned TV show set in Gilead, a fundamentalist, fascist version of the US where women have no rights. But it is urgent we understand that what is happening in the US could happen here. This road to Atwood’s Gilead is charting a course straight through the UK and Europe, and we may well be sleepwalking on to it.

In November 2024 I debated with the American conservative lawyer Erin Hawley at the Oxford Union. The motion was “This house regrets the overturning of Roe v Wade”, the US supreme court’s landmark decision that once protected the right to have an abortion at the federal level. Hawley is vice-president of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an “anti-LGBTQ+ hate group”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, founded by the US Christian right. She is also a high profile lawyer and supported the state of Mississippi on the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned Roe.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/05/christian-right-us-gilead-roe-v-wade-europe-women-rights-abortion

Anti-abortion group’s ‘baby box’ stirs Croatia row

Zagreb (AFP) – A "baby box" for abandoned newborns has sparked a row in staunchly Catholic Croatia with women's rights groups calling for its removal, saying it is an illegal "Trojan horse" for anti-abortion campaigners.

25/03/2025

The modern form of the medieval "foundling wheel" -- where unwanted babies were left at churches -- was built into a convent wall in February in a quiet Zagreb neighbourhood.

Motion sensors set off an alarm on the mobile phones of the nuns inside and of a Catholic anti-abortion group when the hatch is opened.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250325-anti-abortion-group-s-baby-box-stirs-croatia-row

In the name of the family: Yes, Europe could be headed for a ‘Project 2025’ too

In almost every election in Europe in recent years, a discreet but increasingly powerful force has been at play to help bolster the far right. Much like the architects behind “Project 2025”, a set of ultra-conservative networks are waging a campaign to dismantle progressive European policies and replace them with traditionalist Christian values – leaving little room for feminists, LGBTQ+ activists and other marginalised groups.

Issued on: 21/03/2025
By: Louise NORDSTROM

In the summer of 2017, a peculiar document was leaked and published on the whistle-blowing platform WikiLeaks. The secret document, labelled “Restoring the Natural Order: an Agenda for Europe”, outlined a detailed strategy on how to roll back progressive legislation including the right to divorce, women’s access to contraception and abortion, and equal rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Behind the manifesto was a vast transatlantic network of more than 100 hard-line Catholic groups in 30 countries from all over the world called “Agenda Europe”.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250321-in-the-name-of-the-family-yes-europe-could-be-headed-project-2025-too-lgbtq-trump-far-right-heritage-foundation

Northern Ireland – Retired pastor denies illegal protest at abortion safe access zone in Coleraine

Clive Johnston disputes the charges on a devolution point and under the European Convention on Human Rights

Paul Higgins
Fri Mar 21 2025

A retired church pastor on Friday denied conducting an illegal protest at an abortion safe access zone in a Coleraine hospital.

Appearing on behalf of Clive Johnston at Coleraine Magistrates Court, defence counsel Aaron Thompson entered pleas of not guilty to the two charges on behalf of the 76-year-old retired pastor, revealing that the defendant disputes the charges on a devolution point and under article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/03/21/retired-pastor-denies-illegal-protest-at-abortion-safe-access-zone-in-coleraine/

How will Canada lead on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the era of Trump?

Barely two months into his Presidency, Donald Trump has devastated global sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

by Jacqueline Potvin
March 21, 2025

On January 24, Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy (the “global gag rule,”) which restricts US global health funding from going to any non-government organization that provides abortion services, advocacy, or information.

This reinstatement will harm women and people who can become pregnant, limiting their access to important healthcare information and services. Its effects will be exacerbated by wide-sweeping cuts to US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding and staff. These moves come at a time when Canada’s own commitments to global sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which have recently been strong, may be at risk.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/human-rights/how-will-canada-lead-on-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights-in-the-era-of-trump/

Russia – Anti-abortion campaign urges women to give birth to more soldiers

A petition initiated by the orthodox church calls on regional deputies to adopt a law to ban “inducement to abortion" in the Arkhangelsk Oblast.

Thomas Nilsen
6 March 2025

The proposed law text is posted on the Vkontakte page of a church in Severodvinsk. Churches in Novodvinsk and Arkhangelsk are also collecting signatures aimed at the regional assembly to take action and adopt a new anti-abortion law.

It should not be allowed to propagate abortion, and it should not be allowed to assist with termination of pregnancy anywhere in the Arkhangelsk region, the proposed law text suggest.

In social media, the church has posted a banner of an unborn baby side-by-side with a young child dressed up in combat uniform: "Protect me today, I can protect you tomorrow. Abortion is murder," the text reads.

Continued: https://www.thebarentsobserver.com/news/antiabortion-campaign-urges-women-to-give-brith-to-more-soldiers/425987

06.03.2025

News

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice repression

Russian Orthodox Church

Abortion rights backlash and globalization

Alison Brysk examines nationalism, democracy and reproductive rights in new book

February 26, 2025

Keith Hamm

For more than three decades, global human rights scholar Alison Brysk has studied the drivers and responses to abuses of power, from domestic violence to dictatorships. Among the many issues on her human rights radar has been rising challenges to reproductive rights.

“Between 2018–2022, we saw dramatic progress in access to safe abortion throughout Europe and the Americas–but also surprising regression in all kinds of rights,” said Brysk, a UC Santa Barbara Distinguished Professor in the Department of Global Studies and in the Department of Political Science, where she also serves as Chair. “And where abortion is illegal, women die. Around the world, tens of thousands of women die every year from unsafe abortions. We are even beginning to see this in the United States.”

Continued: https://news.ucsb.edu/2025/021776/abortion-rights-backlash-and-globalization

26.02.2025

Film, Art, Books

Abortion Rights Backlash: The Struggle for Democracy in Europe and the Americas

‘I’ve seen women suffer’: Malawi’s religious leaders fight for legal abortions

Deaths from backstreet abortions have united pro-choice Christian and Muslim clerics around ending the strict ban

Sarah Johnson
Thu 9 Jan 2025

Throughout his ministry, the Rev Cliff Nyekanyeka has led funeral services for women who died after an illegal abortion in Malawi. He has visited hospitals where doctors have shown him the aftereffects of such procedures, including pictures of what he describes as “rotting uteruses”. And he has seen women struggling with unwanted pregnancies.

It is this lived experience that has led Nyekanyeka to advocate for a woman’s right to choose, and to campaign for change in a country with one of the world’s strictest abortion laws. In Malawi, women seeking an abortion can be imprisoned for up to seven years and anyone administering an abortion to a woman could face 14 years in prison; it is permitted only to save a woman’s life. The law was introduced by the British under colonial rule.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/09/women-malawi-religious-leaders-legal-abortion-ban-maternal-mortality-christian-muslim

More Iranian women forced into illegal abortions

Hundreds of thousands of women seek illegal abortions every year in Iran, defying strict family planning laws enforced by the Islamist regime.

Elina Farhadi
Jan 6, 2025

Although Iranian authorities have widely restricted access to abortion in an attempt to reverse demographic decline, more women are going outside the law to end unwanted pregnancies.

According to figures from the Iranian Ministry of Health reported by the Khabaronline news website in June 2024, over 600,000 illegal abortions are performed annually in Iran.

Experts say poverty, joblessness, and lack of social security are contributing factors forcing women to undergo an abortion despite serious risks.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/more-iranian-women-forced-into-illegal-abortions/a-71229081