Emergency Contraception
U.N. Committee: Russia and Slovakia Must Remove Waiting Periods and Other Barriers to Safe and Legal Abortion
U.N. Committee: Russia and Slovakia Must Remove Waiting Periods and Other Barriers to Safe and Legal Abortion (PRESS RELEASE) The governments of Russia and Slovakia are undermining women’s human rights by introducing retrogressive barriers in access to safe and legal abortion, according to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (U.N. […]
Mandatory Waiting Periods and Biased Counseling Requirements in Central and Eastern Europe: Restricting Access to Abortion, Undermining Human Rights and Reinforcing Harmful Gender Stereotypes
Across Central and Eastern European countries, women’s access to abortion services is increasingly threatened by the introduction of regressive legal and policy measures that impose mandatory waiting periods and biased counseling and information requirements prior to abortion. The introduction of these requirements creates new barriers which women have to surmount in order to access legal […]
Nepalese Migrant Worker Free After Wrongful Imprisonment in Malaysia
Nepalese Migrant Worker Free After Wrongful Imprisonment in Malaysia Nirmala Thape has been set free following a yearlong ordeal during which she was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned after having an abortion in Malaysia. The 24-year-old migrant worker from Nepal had been arrested in the clinic where she had an abortion last October. According to an […]
Accountability for Discrimination Against Women in the Philippines: Key Findings and Recommendations from the CEDAW Committee’s Special Inquiry on Reproductive Rights
A 2007 report by the Center documenting human rights violations associated with Executive Order 003 became the basis for a special inquiry convened by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)—an international human rights treaty body—in 2012 to investigate these concerns. The inquiry is the first of its kind to […]
Submission to CEDAW for the periodic review of Croatia (2015)
Medical Panel in India Grants Legal Abortion to Pregnant 14-Year-Old Rape Survivor
Medical Panel in India Grants Legal Abortion to Pregnant 14-Year-Old Rape Survivor (PRESS RELEASE) Four gynecologists informed the Supreme Court of India today that they determined a 14-year-old rape survivor, known as X, should receive a legal abortion. Dr. Riddhi Shukla who examined the young girl said that continuing with the pregnancy “will pose a […]
Supreme Court of India Allows Medical Panel to Grant Legal Abortion to Pregnant 14-Year-Old Rape Survivor
Supreme Court of India Allows Medical Panel to Grant Legal Abortion to Pregnant 14-Year-Old Rape Survivor (PRESS RELEASE) Four gynecologists will determine whether a pregnant 14-year-old rape survivor can obtain a legal abortion, according to a ruling today by a two-judge panel in the Supreme Court of India. The young girl, known as X, was […]
U.N. Committee Calls on Croatia to Expand Reproductive Health Services and End Discrimination Against Women
U.N. Committee Calls on Croatia to Expand Reproductive Health Services and End Discrimination Against Women (PRESS RELEASE) The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) has called on the Croatian government to take concrete steps to improve the quality of care provided to pregnant women during child birth. It also […]
FIDA-Kenya and others v. Attorney General and others (High Court of Kenya)
Kenyan High Court Rules Victims of Sexual Violence Have a Constitutional Right to Abortion (Updated 3.18.21) Kenya’s High Court ruled that the Ministry of Health’s 2014 withdrawal of the “Standards and Guidelines for Reducing Morbidity and Mortality from Unsafe Abortion in Kenya” and its subsequent ban on abortion trainings for health care professionals were arbitrary and unlawful. The Court emphasized that the […]