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

Latest items for ABO-PRACTICE-1

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
Feb. 5, 2025, 7:18 p.m.
Countries: Italy
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Although abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978, accessing the procedure is extremely difficult owing to the high number of gynaecologists who are moral objectors. Italy’s far-right government, which came to power last October, is against abortion, although the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said the law would not be changed" (para 15).
Feb. 5, 2025, 7:13 p.m.
Countries: France
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Emmanuel Macron has promised to enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the French constitution by next year, after restrictions in other countries propelled France on a path towards unconditionally guaranteeing abortion rights. The French president said on Sunday that his government would submit a draft text to France’s highest administrative court over the coming week, with the aim of making abortion rights constitutional by the end of the year. 'In 2024, the right of women to choose abortion will become irreversible,' he wrote on social media. The announcement follows a promise made by Macron on 8 March, International Women’s Day, when he tweeted in response to the overturning...more
Feb. 5, 2025, 6:51 p.m.
Countries: Poland
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"In Poland, where there has been a near-total ban on legal abortion since 2020, there were concerns raised earlier this year in response to a state-funded study which reported forensic tests could be used to detect abortion pills in foetal and maternal samples. A recent Human Rights Watch report found there were 'sweeping and speculative' investigations of women in Poland – including those who had a legal medical abortion. The practice, it said, 'can only be described as a witch hunt'. Last month, the New York Times claimed tests to detect abortion drugs were being used in Poland 'in rare cases' to investigate the outcomes of pregnancies, but that 'these...more
Feb. 5, 2025, 6:51 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Last month, the New York Times claimed tests to detect abortion drugs were being used in Poland 'in rare cases' to investigate the outcomes of pregnancies, but that 'these tests are not yet known to be in use anywhere else in the world', including the US. A spokesperson for AidAccess, which provides abortion pills by post to all 50 US states, said they were 'not aware of toxicological tests for mifepristone and misoprostol being used in the US by police in any way yet' but they had heard of similar tests being used in Poland" (para 14-15). "After Roe v Wade was overturned in the US last summer, removing the...more
Feb. 5, 2025, 6:50 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"British police are testing women for abortion drugs and requesting data from menstrual tracking apps after unexplained pregnancy losses. Tortoise has seen forensic reports in which police have requested a mass spectrometry test, which can detect the presence of the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol in the urine, blood and placenta of women under investigation. Other reports include requests for 'data related to menstruation tracking applications' as part of the police’s investigations. It’s understood these requests have been taking place for at least the past three years. Dr Jonathan Lord, co-chair of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers and an NHS consultant gynaecologist, called searching women’s phones for menstrual...more
Feb. 3, 2025, 5:31 p.m.
Countries: Hungary
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Other barriers such as waiting periods and mandatory 'counseling' appointments prevent effective access and continue to stigmatize abortion. In October 2020, Hungary co-sponsored the anti-abortion Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family with the United States and 33 other countries. Although abortion remains legal at the time of writing, the 2011 constitutional changes as well as the government’s decision to co-sponsor the Geneva Consensus Declaration—a document with no legal weight but which is focused on states committing to promote an anti-abortion approach to reproductive health—raises concerns among activists that more barriers are forthcoming" (6).
Feb. 3, 2025, 5:15 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Since at least 2013, the Nigerian military has conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, a Reuters investigation has found. Many had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants. Resisters were beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance, witnesses say" (Para 1). "Bintu Ibrahim, now in her late 20s, recounted how soldiers gave her two injections without her consent after picking her up with a group of other women who fled the insurgents about three years ago. When the blood came, and the terrifying pain, she knew she and the others had been given abortions....more
Feb. 3, 2025, 2:10 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Since at least 2013, the Nigerian military has conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, a Reuters investigation has found. Many had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants. Resisters were beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance, witnesses say" (Para 1). "Bintu Ibrahim, now in her late 20s, recounted how soldiers gave her two injections without her consent after picking her up with a group of other women who fled the insurgents about three years ago. When the blood came, and the terrifying pain, she knew she and the others had been given abortions....more
Jan. 29, 2025, 8:02 p.m.
Countries: Argentina
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"Argentina has a recent history of strong feminist mobilisation. In 2015, a wave of marches against femicide sparked similar protests in Peru, Uruguay, Italy and Germany, while the country’s Green Wave movement was instrumental in securing safe abortion rights in 2020" (10). "[Milei] has cut back programmes providing support for victims of gender violence, and at Davos attacked the 'bloody and murderous abortion agenda'" (para 12).
Jan. 29, 2025, 7:35 p.m.
Countries: Costa Rica
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"[I]t remains deeply concerned at... (b) Threats to repeal the technical guidelines for the therapeutic termination of pregnancy and the lack of training of medical personnel on the guidelines" (9).
Jan. 28, 2025, 8:59 p.m.
Countries: Serbia
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1, NGOFW-DATA-1

“Tanja Ignjatovic from the Belgrade-based Autonomous Women’s Center in Serbia, another country that was once part of Yugoslavia, noted that women felt abortion rights ‘belonged to us and could not be brought into question.’ But, she added, ‘we have seen that regression is possible, too’” (para 6).
Jan. 28, 2025, 8:49 p.m.
Countries: Croatia
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"With vigils outside clinics, marches drawing thousands and groups of men kneeling to pray in public squares, religious and neo-conservative groups have been ramping up pressure to ban abortions in staunchly Catholic Croatia. The fierce debate has fueled divisions in the European Union nation of about 3.9 million people where abortion remains legal but access to the procedure is often denied, sending many women to neighboring Slovenia to end a pregnancy" (para 1-2). "'I find it incredible that we are even discussing this in the year 2024,' said Ana Sunic, a mother of two from Zagreb, Croatia's capital. 'It is every person’s basic right to decide what they will do...more
Jan. 28, 2025, 7:59 p.m.
Countries: Costa Rica
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"It should be noted that communication strategies have been developed that focus on the need for therapeutic abortion to save women’s health or lives, and on raising awareness to avoid stigmatizing those who undergo the procedure" (18).
Jan. 18, 2025, 1:37 p.m.
Countries: Mexico
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1

"'No woman or pregnant person, nor any health worker, will be able to be punished for abortion,' the Information Group for Chosen Reproduction, known by its Spanish initials GIRE, said in a statement" (par. 3). "Celebration of the ruling soon spilled out onto social media. 'Today is a day of victory and justice for Mexican women!' Mexico’s National Institute for Women wrote in a message on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The government organization called the decision a 'big step' toward gender equality. Sen. Olga Sánchez Cordero, a former Supreme Court justice, applauded the ruling, saying on X that it represented an advance toward 'a more...more
Jan. 18, 2025, 1:37 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: ABO-PRACTICE-1, ABO-LAW-1

"The U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that provided a right to abortion nationwide. Since then, most states led by conservative lawmakers and governors have adopted bans or tighter restrictions" (par. 24). "Currently, abortion is banned throughout pregnancy — with limited exceptions — in 15 American states. Bans in two more states forbid abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, generally around six weeks into pregnancy and often before women know they are pregnant. Judges have put enforcement of restrictions on hold in at least four additional states" (par. 26).