The Weekly Spotlight: They’re Organising Across Borders. So Are We.

This week, people took to the streets across Latin America for International Safe Abortion Day.

In Chile and Colombia, protesters were demanding what should be obvious: abortion rights have to mean more than words on paper. They have to mean being able to get an abortion when you need one.

In Chile, abortion is still only legal in limited circumstances. Colombia made huge progress when abortion was decriminalised up to 24 weeks in 2022, but campaigners there know better than most that rights can be won and still come under attack.

A big change here in Britain

We have seen that here too. Earlier this year legislation was passed that meant that women in England and Wales can no longer be prosecuted under Victorian abortion law for ending their own pregnancies.

That was a massive change. For years, women faced police investigations, court cases and the threat of prison under laws written in the 1800s. Campaigners, doctors, lawyers and MPs fought to change that, and they won.

It does not mean abortion has been fully decriminalised. The Abortion Act still regulates abortion provision and parts of the 1861 law still underpin that. We still have the two-doctor rule. We still have a 24-week time limit in most circumstances. There is still a long way to go.

But women being taken out of the criminal law matters. And it is worth remembering that this did not happen because politicians suddenly woke up and decided the law was ridiculous. It happened because people organised for it.

Legal does not always mean accessible

That was one of the clearest messages from International Safe Abortion Day this year.

A right means very little if you cannot actually use it.

Across Europe, abortion can be legal and still very difficult to access because there are too few providers, long journeys, delays, stigma, restrictive rules or doctors refusing care.

Poland is an obvious example. The country still has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, and campaigners continue to push for change despite years of promises and political arguments.

It is a reminder that winning the law is one battle. Making sure people can actually get healthcare is another.

And meanwhile, the anti-abortion movement keeps organising

It is not just standing outside clinics with placards. The movement works through lobbying, court cases, political parties, think tanks, religious organisations, funding networks and culture-war campaigns.

And we are seeing more and more of those links between the US and Britain.

Next month, journalist Katherine Stewart will be speaking in London about the influence of the US religious right in Britain.

That conversation feels very overdue.

We have already seen US-style politics around abortion, gender and LGBTQ+ rights being imported into Britain. We have seen British politicians appearing alongside organisations and figures linked to those networks. And we have seen abortion increasingly dragged into a wider right-wing culture war.

None of this exists in a vacuum.