UK – Labour plans will encourage ‘lunch-hour’ abortions, critics claim

Campaigners argue Streeting’s strategy to incentivise clinics for ‘same day’ treatments will leave women with less time to reconsider

Gabriella Swerling
17 April 2026

Labour would encourage “lunch-hour” abortions under new plans, critics have claimed. A change to the payment structure for abortion clinics would provide a “financial incentive” to rush women through treatment, claimed anti-abortion campaigners.

The new payment process was launched as part of Wes Streeting’s renewed women’s health strategy for England, in which he promised to tackle medical misogyny and improve women’s care.

Continued: https://archive.is/zXYiH
(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/04/17/labour-plans-lunch-hour-abortions-critics/)

17.04.2026

News

Andrea Williams

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

How U.S.A.I.D. Birth Control Meant for Africa Was Ruined

The Trump administration had options for offloading contraceptives once destined for Africa, a newly obtained memo shows. Instead, it has let them collect dust and go bad.

By Jeanna Smialek and Stephanie Nolen, New York Times
March 26, 2026

Millions of dollars’ worth of contraceptives that have been stranded in Belgium since the Trump administration dismantled American foreign aid are no longer usable, according to a newly obtained memo written for a Trump administration official.

About $9.7 million of contraceptives purchased by the United States Agency for International Development and originally destined for low-income nations in Africa got stuck in Belgium after the Trump administration shut down the agency last year.

Continued: https://archive.is/b9eUZ

(https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/world/europe/usaid-contraception-birth-control-belgium-africa.html)

Filipinas seek abortions online in largely Catholic nation

16 Mar 2026
AFP

MANILA - Jane had been bleeding heavily for days before finally seeking help, not from a hospital but from the man who sold her the pills meant to end her six-week pregnancy.

Abortions are strictly outlawed in the mainly Catholic Philippines, forcing women to turn to a patchwork of providers operating in the online shadows.

Continued; https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/3217783/filipinas-seek-abortions-online-in-largely-catholic-nation

How US groups are driving a new generation of anti-abortion activism in the UK

March 15, 2026

For 21-year-old John Alexander, being against abortion came before finding faith. As a teenager at school in Buckinghamshire, he was confused as to why most of his peers supported access to abortion. On social media he argued vocally against it.

Then, shortly after the pandemic, he became more interested in Christianity. He was raised in the Church of England (CofE), but thought the denomination was "dry" and involved "people sitting in pews not doing much". He was inspired by the young pastor at a Pentecostal Church which discussed social issues like abortion more than CofE churches, he says. He also watched social media videos of street preachers.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2dl5j0w23o

Rebel Queensland LNP MP urges colleagues to ‘put on the full armour of God’ and speak against abortion

Nigel Dalton says he sought to redeem himself ‘in the eyes of God’ by crossing the floor in an attempt to overturn the LNP’s abortion debate gag order

Andrew Messenger
Thu 12 Feb 2026

The rebel Liberal National party Queensland MP Nigel Dalton, who earlier this week defied the state’s premier, David Crisafulli, over the abortion law debate, has encouraged others “to put on the full armour of God” and speak out on the issue.

In an interview posted on YouTube, Dalton told the anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe his “history with anti-abortion has been probably 30-odd years in the making”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/12/nigel-dalton-mp-queensland-lnp-abortion-ntwnfb

12.02.2026

GUAM – AG: court decisions on abortion won’t change ‘religious and moral dilemmas’ for lawmakers

John O'Connor | The Guam Daily Post
Feb 9, 2026

Attorney General Douglas Moylan has commented on his recent loss at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in his case to dissolve the injunction on Guam's old abortion ban.

"This issue remains divisive in every community throughout our nation," Moylan said. He added that in the end, the choice on abortion, which he called "the choice to kill the unborn," will continue to affect every person and family "in ways unrelated to court decisions about what is 'legal' or what is 'not legal.'"

… Jayne Flores, the recently retired director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs and an advocate for the reproductive rights group Guam People for Choice, said a more productive use of public funds would be to start a campaign convincing "men of all races on Guam not to rape women and girls."

Continued: https://www.postguam.com/news/local/ag-court-decisions-on-abortion-wont-change-religious-and-moral-dilemmas-for-lawmakers/article_24cfa945-3fd5-493f-a256-7172e9d6cedc.html

09.02.2026

News

Center for Reproductive Rights

Douglas Moylan

Guam People for Choice

Nigeria – Interfaith Leaders Back Safe, Legal Maternal Care In Oyo, Ogun

February 7, 2026

Leaders of Islamic, Christian and traditional faith communities in Oyo and Ogun states have jointly declared unsafe abortion a “grave moral and public health crisis,” pledging to support access to lawful, safe and confidential maternal healthcare to curb preventable deaths and injuries.

In a communiqué issued under the Interfaith Action for Health Care initiative of the REACH-OUT with Health Awareness Programme, the clerics said the rising toll of maternal mortality linked to unsafe procedures demands compassionate, evidence-based responses that prioritise women’s dignity, health and survival.

Continued: https://platformtimes.com.ng/interfaith-leaders-back-safe-legal-maternal-care-in-oyo-ogun/

07.02.2026

News

Interfaith Action for Health Care initiative

maternal mortality

REACH-OUT with Health Awareness Programme

The Abortion Ban That Didn’t End Abortion in Poland

Five years after Poland's top court gutted abortion rights, access to legal procedures has quietly expanded – but only for women who learned to work within a system designed to say ‘no’.

Ada Petriczko
February 4, 2026

Edyta was 29 weeks pregnant when the MRI results came back. She opened the report in a hospital corridor in Warsaw. Missing temporal bone. Disrupted neuronal migration. Abnormalities in the corpus callosum.

“I just stood there. I couldn’t move,” she tells BIRN. “The entire pregnancy everyone kept saying nothing was wrong – and then suddenly my baby's brain wasn’t developing normally.”

Continued: https://balkaninsight.com/2026/02/04/polands-precarious-post-abortion-ban-compromise-leaves-women-at-mercy-of-the-system/

Europe – The Battle over the Sacred and the Profane

The Increased Contestation of Reproductive Rights in Europe

20 December 2025
Paul Blokker

Sexual and reproductive rights in Europe are increasingly part of an intense struggle. This includes legal contestation through litigation and third-party interventions at, in particular, the European Court of Human Rights. It is however important to recognize that contestation also takes place in other, political and public, arenas. Interconnected actions, forming part of a broader European conservative right mission, includes political and legal action in many other arenas, including in the European as well as national parliaments.

This struggle is about a political and religious backlash to a largely secular, progressive cultural and human rights revolution. It confronts opposing sides of (transnational) civil society, who both make moral, “sacred” claims, while profaning the opponent. Here, I will first discuss the European conservative right’s mission, the sacred dimensions to this mission, and its increasingly dense transnational network. I will then exemplify cases of struggle by turning to initiatives both on the European level (the promotion of a right to abortion as part of the European Charter and the ECI campaign My Voice, My Choice) and domestic parliamentary debates (the Netherlands).

Continued; https://verfassungsblog.de/the-battle-over-the-sacred-and-the-profane/

20.12.2025

Commentary

European Charter of Fundamental Rights

European Court of Human Rights

My Voice My Choice campaign

A Royal Veto Keeps Abortion Illegal in Monaco

Prince Albert II's decision to reject a popular bill reveals how Catholicism overrides women's rights and public opinion

Diane de Vignemont
December 12, 2025

The news broke quietly, almost casually, on a November morning in the familiar columns of the daily newspaper Monaco-Matin. Between stories on traffic snarls and the ever-impressive celebrations of Monaco’s annual National Day, Prince Albert II of Monaco announced his decision to keep abortion illegal.

“I feel that the current framework respects who we are with regard to the place that the Catholic religion occupies in our country, while ensuring safe and humane support,” the prince said in a statement. His announcement was something of a surprise. Albert II had spent six months deliberating over the long-debated measure that would have legalized abortion in the principality, draft bill no. 267. He had now asked his government “to inform the National Council that its proposed law would not be acted upon.”

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/essays/a-royal-veto-keeps-abortion-illegal-in-monaco/