The anti-abortion movement does not always start by announcing a ban. Sometimes it starts with a new definition. A benefits rule. A court case. A “religious freedom” argument. A Victorian law dragged back into use because apparently the 1800s did not do enough damage the first time around. That is the pattern running through this... Read More

There is a pattern here, and we are calling it out. This week, reproductive rights news has been full of the same old anti-abortion playbook: spread stigma, muddy the facts, pretend healthcare is dangerous, and then act shocked when people demand easier access to basic reproductive care. The latest target? The morning-after pill. Emergency contraception... Read More

Last week, we looked at the international networks linking anti-abortion campaigners, far-right politicians and conservative organisations. This week, we’re looking at something different: the rebrand. Rather than talking only about abortion, anti-abortion campaigners are increasingly framing their arguments around “religious freedom”, environmental protection and opposition to so-called “woke” institutions. It’s a strategy designed to broaden... Read More

Welcome to this week’s Weekly Spotlight, our round-up of the key developments shaping the anti-abortion movement in Britain, the US  and internationally. This week, we examine the growing influence of US organisations on abortion politics in Britain, new evidence of transatlantic conservative networks, and continued efforts by the Trump administration and anti-abortion campaigners to restrict... Read More

If Reform UK wanted a quiet week, somebody forgot to tell Reform UK. In the space of a few days, the party managed to produce a candidate under fire for comments about abortion and rape, and a policy proposal on “motherhood” that prompted warnings from women’s rights campaigners. And that’s before we get to the... Read More

If there was a theme this week, it was this: abortion rights don’t mean much if hospitals won’t treat you, politicians won’t fund you and anti-abortion activists won’t leave you alone. Take Illinois. A woman has sued a Catholic hospital system after she says delays in treating her ectopic pregnancy cost her a fallopian tube... Read More

Another week, another reminder that the end of Roe was never just about abortion. This week, new research showed abortion bans are making miscarriage care worse. Patients in ban states are more likely to face delayed, “wait and see” responses, and less likely to receive evidence-based medical treatment. That is what happens when politicians criminalise... Read More

The post-Roe chaos is now constant Four years after Roe v Wade was overturned, the US still does not have anything resembling a settled abortion landscape. Instead, abortion rights are being reshaped in real time and the past seven days were a perfect example. The Supreme Court steps back into the abortion pill fight Last... Read More

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is rapidly becoming a political refuge for anti-abortion extremists, culture-war ideologues and figures promoting deeply misogynistic views about women, rape and reproductive freedom. Behind Reform’s carefully crafted “common sense” branding lies a growing network of candidates, advisers and activists aligned with the same authoritarian politics that have devastated abortion rights in... Read More

Abortion Rights condemns the deeply misogynistic and extremist comments made by Reform UK’s Makerfield by-election candidate Robert Kenyon, in which he described abortion as a “cowardly act of murdering a defenceless baby” and suggested women falsely claim rape in order to access abortion care. These remarks are not only false, offensive and stigmatising, they are... Read More