Latest News
European Committee of Social Rights Protects Swedish Women’s Rights to Access Reproductive Health Services
European Committee of Social Rights Protects Swedish Women’s Rights to Access Reproductive Health Services (PRESS RELEASE) The European Social Charter does not entitle health professionals in Sweden to invoke personal or moral objections as an excuse [...]
Pursuit of Justice
Pursuit of Justice The story of Polish daughter and mother P and S is deeply complicated. P, a teenager, was raped and became pregnant as a consequence. She wanted to terminate the pregnancy and had [...]
European Court of Human Rights Issues Judgment in Z v. Poland
European Court of Human Rights Issues Judgment in Z v. Poland This week the European Court of Human Rights issued a disappointing judgment in Z v. Poland, a case brought by a mother, known as [...]
The world became a better place
The world became a better place by Johanna Westeson, Regional Director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights In a notorious case a 14-year-old Polish woman was repeatedly denied abortion after having been raped. [...]
Strasbourg Observers: P and S v. Poland – Adolescence, vulnerability, and reproductive autonomy
Strasbourg Observers: P and S v. Poland - Adolescence, vulnerability, and reproductive autonomy By Johanna Westeson, Regional Director for Europe, Center for Reproductive Rights This week, the European Court of Human Rights issued its decision [...]
PUBLIC SERVICE EUROPE: Spain and Romania Backslide on Abortion
Spain and Romania Backslide on Abortion by Nancy Northup, President & CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights In recent decades—as an overwhelming preponderance of evidence has established an inextricable link between the availability of [...]
RH REALITY CHECK: Birth Control Alone Isn’t Enough
Birth Control Alone Isn't Enough by Louise Finer, Director of Global Advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights In 1996, a Peruvian woman named María Mamérita Mestanza Chávez died from complications of a forced sterilization [...]
The Fight for Contraception Rages On
The new federal requirement that private health insurance cover the cost of birth control has generated much heated controversy these last few weeks: Congressional hearings, proposed legislation to unwind it, multiple legal actions. But the [...]
Reproductive rights are human rights.
Help us ensure that every government around the world guarantees them.
Toward Freedom: Eastern Europe’s Conservative Crackdown on Reproductive Freedom
By Jake Blumgart "Across Eastern and Central Europe, as unemployment surges and the European Union dithers, nationalist conservative and far right parties are on the march. Emboldened right-wing leaders are resurrecting debates around abortion and [...]
Human Rights Day 2011
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” That’s the first sentence of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations 63 years ago on [...]
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Thirty years ago, women’s rights activists first marked November 25 as the day on which the world would demand an end to all physical and sexual abuse targeted at women. It took another 18 years [...]
World Contraception Day 2011
Around the world, the unmet need for safe and effective contraceptive services is staggering: Roughly 215 million women in developing countries rely on traditional contraceptive methods with high [...]
Poland: A Victory of Firsts
For the first time in its history, the European Court of Human Rights specifically found that an abortion-related violation amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment. The Center and its partners filed the case R.R. v. Poland [...]
Reproductive rights are human rights.
Help us ensure that every government around the world guarantees them.