The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for ABO-PRACTICE-1

July 22, 2025, 12:39 p.m.
Countries: Israel
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"'Abortion is something that is relatively easy to get in Israel but not easy to talk about,' explains a hospital insider who asked to remain anonymous" (Para 5). "It is reforms to these committees that are the focus of activists, even as they acknowledge the pitfalls in attempting to change, or even draw attention to, a fairly permissive and liberal system in a country that is becoming increasingly traditional and socially conservative. 'It really bothered me that I had to go through a committee, that other people had to give their approval,' says Bailey. While the committee discussed her abortion case, she and her boyfriend sat in the adjacent hallway,...more
July 11, 2025, 1:50 p.m.
Countries: Bulgaria
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Overall, the attitude of medical students towards abortion was fairly positive. 60.8% of participants reported that abortion should be allowed if there is a threat to maternal physical and/or mental health; 59.2% if the pregnancy is due to rape and/or incest; 46.6% if the woman is a minor; 46.6% if the fetus has malformations; 5% of medical students reported that abortion should not be allowed under any circumstances (p < 0.001). The majority of the participants agreed that the mother (95.8%) should have the authority to decide whether or not to have an abortion, but a significant number of students believed that the father (39.2%) and the healthcare provider (31.7%)...more
July 10, 2025, 3:52 p.m.
Countries: Brunei
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"The strict abortion laws in Brunei have led to discussions and varying opinions among its citizens. Some support the legality of abortion, especially in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother's life is at risk. Others oppose abortion, citing religious and moral grounds. There are also concerns about the lack of access to safe abortion procedures, with some resorting to illegal methods that can cause harm to their health. While abortion is illegal in Brunei, there have been reports of people travelling to neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam, to undergo the procedure" (Para 6-7).
July 10, 2025, 3:32 p.m.
Countries: Brazil
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"In June, thousands of people protested a bill that would make abortions after 22 weeks equivalent to homicide, even after rape" (Para 38).
July 9, 2025, 2:18 p.m.
Countries: Brazil
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"We get daily reports of girls and women who go to seek legal abortions here in the city and they hear nonsense from the hospital staff that appear to act like the police" (Para 9).
July 9, 2025, 1:25 p.m.
Countries: Botswana
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"The drivers of unsafe abortion in Botswana are multifactorial, and there is significant overlap with the drivers of unintended pregnancy. The 2020 Strategic Assessment (MoHW Botswana and Phologolo T. 2020) highlighted several key drivers of unsafe abortion in Botswana, including: Poverty and financial constraints leading to concerns about ability to provide for the child. Gender inequality and gendered power imbalances leading to coercion into unsafe sex and/or unsafe abortion. Sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, incest or defilement. Lack of access to and knowledge about contraception services, including emergency contraception. Limited knowledge of the existing law surrounding safe, legal abortion. Multiple barriers to obtaining a safe, legal abortion" (Page 2)....more
July 8, 2025, 3:34 p.m.
Countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Because of the country’s heavy decentralization, activists report that access to abortion is uneven for women across the two entities (Krupalija, 2020). It is not uncommon for some hospitals to refuse to perform the procedure for elective reasons and for others to not have the proper equipment or expertise to be able to perform it at all (Krupalija, 2020). The human rights organization Sarajevo Open Center also reports concern over the rising cost of legal abortions and an increase in underground clinics in small towns and villages which may drive poor and rural women to use these resources" (Para 12). "Abortion rates in Bosnia are high due to the lack...more
July 2, 2025, 10:33 p.m.
Countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"So, in 2023, my team and I interviewed and surveyed staff at health institutions and health care facilities, as well as 163 people who have had abortions. This research reveals a number of problems with access. For example: Abortion for non-medical reasons is not covered by health insurance and prices vary wildly in different areas; Misoprostol is not registered, so medication abortion is rare; Some clinics have a lack of resources/staff and very few people are offered counselling support (only 3% of those surveyed); Doctors can (and do) refuse to provide abortions, and the rules on ‘conscientious objection’ are not consistent across the different areas of the country. Doctors are...more
June 29, 2025, 2:26 p.m.
Countries: Benin
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"However, it is important to note that the ruling of the law on its own is not enough for women to access the medical abortion services. There is a lot to do including developing policies for the implementation of the law, working with health professionals to reduce the number of those who are likely to refuse to offer such services using conscientious objection" (Para 25).
June 29, 2025, 1:58 p.m.
Countries: Benin
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Still, in Benin, many women now feel more at liberty to inquire about the procedure, health workers said, although the authorities have yet to provide official statistics on abortion rates. 'Women bluntly tell us, ‘I want to abort,’' said Serge Kitihoun, the director of medical services at the Beninese branch of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. 'That would have been unthinkable years ago'" (Para 15-16). "In interviews with four women who recently had abortions, only one said she had felt comfortable telling a friend or a relative about it. 'Aborting is like being different. It’s like you’re not a saint anymore,' said Précieuse, 24, a student who received an abortion...more
June 23, 2025, 7:11 p.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"In the Taliban’s Afghanistan, Rodabeh’s horror story is all too common. The New Arab found many women with similarly torturous experiences with dangerous, criminal abortions" (Para 8). "For a sizable fee, aka a bribe, health centres and midwives will attempt to perform an abortion, either surgically or medically via pill" (Para 10). "Black-market demand for Misoprostol tablets has increased exponentially in the past year, according to a Kabul-based nurse The New Arab spoke to on condition of anonymity. For women without a prescription, which is nearly all of them, the price of pills has skyrocketed to 100 times the 2021 price. Only the wealthy can afford a medical abortion. Meanwhile,...more
April 30, 2025, 11:30 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Iran's Health Ministry has suspended the issuance of licenses for the production and import of first trimester prenatal screening kits, in what critics in the medical community called a thinly veiled attempt to help boost flagging population growth and a risk to expecting mothers. Hadi Yazdani, a doctor and member of the Nation's Union Party, called out the government on social media, saying the step appears to be yet another move to restrict women's rights and their access to abortions" (par. 1-2). "'First, they said screenings should not be done for everyone and would be possible only with the request of the family and the opinion of a specialist doctor....more
April 30, 2025, 11:20 a.m.
Countries: Kenya
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Edith is lying on a bed covered in old newspaper in a backstreet clinic in Nairobi. Her legs are held high by stirrups while a man in a white medical coat explains he is about to put some medicine inside her uterus. A red bucket of bleach containing medical instruments sits on the floor. The mum-of-three, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, is four months pregnant and is about to have an abortion. 'I had to terminate because I had to go back to work, and I have another small baby,' she later tells BBC Africa Eye. . .A lawyer told the BBC that having a child...more
April 29, 2025, 4:20 p.m.
Countries: Rwanda
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"She [Florentine] subsequently ended the pregnancy — and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating Rwanda's anti-abortion laws" (par. 9). "Even without a conviction for abortion, life is difficult for many unmarried girls and young women who become pregnant, says Florentine's interpreter, Uwayezu Brenda Kalungi. She's a human rights and litigation officer with HDI Rwanda, a nonprofit in Kigali focused on health access. Kalungi says many unmarried women with children face stigma and shame from their communities — including those whose pregnancies have resulted from rape" (par. 15). "Some women resort to inducing their own abortions without proper medical support, using concoctions of herbs or pills they're advised...more
April 11, 2025, 3:49 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"[U]nwanted pregnancy services were not covered and moreover every health provider are prohibited to refer an unwanted case to any specific Service Delivery Point while actually the health law no 9-2009 said that abortion under special condition (such as rape and serious fetal problem) are allowed" (12). "Women are often denied access to service which led to rampant use of life-threatening unsafe practices that contribute to 4.1% MMR and criminalization, and after 4 years the Ministry of Health still not conducted training to those health providers who are allowed to perform abortion and it has not been assigned the places yet" (14-15). "W/HRDs who assert rights concerning land and natural...more
April 2, 2025, 5:23 p.m.
Countries: Dominican Republic
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Feminist and women's organizations have promoted an arduous struggle for the decriminalization of abortion in three specific cases, when the woman's life is in danger, when it is a question of sexual violation or when there are fatal malformations for the survival of the fetus, applying criminal sanctions both to health personnel who intervene and to women who voluntarily seek or attempt an abortion. This forces those women who want to save their lives to perform abortions in unhealthy, unsafe and clandestine conditions" (14). "For more than 20 years, there have been attempts to reform the Penal Code and to include the decriminalization of abortion in three grounds, at the...more
March 27, 2025, 7:22 p.m.
Countries: Cambodia
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"There are two main obstacles to women’s ability to obtain safe abortion: the high social stigma attached to abortion, and the lack of understanding of the law legalizing abortion. According to a baseline survey by Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia (RHAC) in 2019 , only 2.7% of women in Kampot and Siem Reap provinces correctly understood all aspects of the legality of abortion. There is insufficient effort by RGC to create and implement SRHR policy and guidelines to protect women, particularly those with disabilities, rape victims, and those who live in remote areas" (8).
March 27, 2025, 10:21 a.m.
Countries: Denmark
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Fathers do not always want abortion but have no choice. Fathers do not always want the child to be born but has no choice" (6).
March 19, 2025, 11:07 p.m.
Countries: Uganda
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"[I]ncidents of unsafe abortions remain high in Uganda as many people remain unaware that abortions can be legally obtained under these circumstances. The situation is also sustained by the failure of the government to raise awareness about the relevant laws and ensure adequate access to safe and legal abortion services" (4).
March 14, 2025, 7:59 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"The impact of drug use on a fetus during pregnancy or among newborns is often overstated by the media and medical personnel. WUD [women who use drugs] may be coerced to have an abortion as a result of misinformation from health workers or media sensationalism" (10).
March 11, 2025, 5:27 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"The report states that the reversal of Roe v Wade by the US supreme court in 2022, as well as low health insurance reimbursement rates and payment structures have contributed to hospital closures and the decline in the OB-GYN workforce. The report mentions that the reversal of Roe continues to impact how and where OB-GYNs train and deliver care. In states with severe abortion restrictions, some doctors have left due to the threat of severe consequences and punishment for providing abortions. These states have also experienced notable decreases in applications for obstetric residencies, partly because of the inability to provide training in abortion care, the report added" (par. 10-12).more
March 11, 2025, 5:05 p.m.
Countries: Belgium
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"The new law recognises different dimensions of femicides. According to UN data, these crimes are overwhelmingly the result of intimate violence, meaning that the victims are killed by current or past romantic partners, fathers or other relatives. The law adopted by the Chamber recognises intimate femicide, as well as non-intimate (murder perpetrated by a third party, such as a sex worker being killed by a client) and indirect crimes (death as the result of a forced abortion or genital mutilation, for example)" (par. 10-11). This quote suggest that abortion is practiced in Belgium (IME - CODER COMMENT).
March 5, 2025, 8:35 p.m.
Countries: Ecuador
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"In 2019, 80 health-care professionals received training on the Clinical Practice Guide for Therapeutic Abortion and on professional confidentiality. The Ministry of Public Health provides effective care, including an appropriate referral process from lower levels for treatment for complications arising from abortion, in compliance with current regulations and with the human rights framework. In 2018, 800 professionals received awareness-raising training and in 2019, 21,285 health-care professionals were trained on human rights" (30). "In 2019, the Justice Commission of the National Assembly issued a report that took a favourable view of decriminalizing abortion in four circumstances, namely, when the pregnancy is the result of rape, incestuous rape or non-consensual insemination or...more
Feb. 28, 2025, 6:44 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Medical leaders are calling for reform of abortion laws in England and Wales after an 'unprecedented' rise in women and girls being prosecuted for ending their own pregnancies. More than 30 groups – including the British Medical Association, the Faculty of Public Health, the British Society of Abortion Care Providers and the royal colleges of GPs, nurses, psychiatrists, midwives and anaesthetists – issued a joint statement warning that the current legislation is causing 'trauma and cruelty' and demanding 'immediate action' to safeguard reproductive rights. The intervention, led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), comes after cases where women were prosecuted for illegal abortions under a Victorian-era law...more
Feb. 26, 2025, 8:40 p.m.
Countries: North Korea
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"The 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report on the human rights situation in North Korea found that North Korean escapees who are forcibly repatriated face systematic torture, arbitrary detention, and sexual violence, including invasive body searches and forced abortions, that amount to crimes against humanity" (par. 8).
Feb. 21, 2025, 6:35 p.m.
Countries: Poland
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Donald Tusk’s centrist governing party has so far not garnered enough support in parliament to push through its pre-election pledge to ease these laws" (para 3). "A handful of anti-abortion activists were also present outside the building, reciting Catholic prayers" (para 6). "In August, the prime minister conceded there was 'simply no majority' to deliver on his party’s pledge to allow abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy in the current parliamentary term. One of his senior lawmakers announced last month that work on relaxing the rules, some of Europe’s strictest, would resume only after the presidential election scheduled for May. Four bills to loosen the abortion law had been...more
Feb. 20, 2025, 3:56 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Olayemi is one of about 20 women in the Ota community – chemists, nurses and tailors – who distribute pills for pregnancy termination in this rural part of the southwestern state. They share personal experiences of unsafe, painful or life-threatening abortions and a willingness to help other women. 'The pain I went through, I don’t wish on my worst enemy,' recalls Alike*, 43, one of the network leaders, who, after 22 years of working as a teacher, resigned last year to concentrate on community organising and advocacy around safe abortion. 'When I heard that there are drugs to induce abortion, that women can take in their own houses with the...more
Feb. 13, 2025, 10:47 p.m.
Countries: Italy
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Abortion is legal in Italy during the first 90 days of pregnancy for health, economic, social, or personal reasons. However, burdensome requirements as well as extensive use of 'conscientious objection' by medical personnel function to deny care to women and girls, and leave them scrambling to find services within the legal time frame" (1). "Activists and doctors in Italy told Human Rights Watch that delays in testing and diagnosis during pregnancy mean women are not always aware of fetal anomalies during the first trimester, and some anomalies cannot be identified until later in pregnancy. In addition, few doctors in Italy are willing to perform abortions after the 90-day limit. Most...more
Feb. 12, 2025, 7:23 p.m.
Countries: Russia
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"She [Lada Shamardina, a Russian journalist for the independent medical publication Medivestnik] continues to cover Russia's attempts to prompt a baby boom, which in addition to incentives includes curbing access to abortions" (par. 12).
Feb. 6, 2025, 9:50 p.m.
Countries: Russia
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Despite its last-minute scheduling, the meeting at a bookstore in Russia’s westernmost city of Kaliningrad still drew about 60 people, with many outraged by a lawmaker’s efforts to ban abortions in local private clinics. The weeknight turnout surprised and heartened Dasha Yakovleva, one of the organizers, amid recent crackdowns on political activism under President Vladimir Putin. 'Right now, there is no room for political action in Russia. The only place left is our kitchens,' Yakovleva, co-founder of the Feminitive Community women’s group, told The Associated Press. 'And here, it was a public place, well-known in Kaliningrad, and everyone spoke out openly about how they see this measure, why they think...more