UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.’s premiere global body fighting for gender equality should be tackling the yawning gap between men and women when it comes to political leadership and ensuring women have a strong voice in rebuilding economies after the COVID-19 pandemic -- not arguing about preserving sexual and reproductive rights for women as it is doing now, the head of UN Women says.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russian supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova became a United Nations goodwill ambassador on Wednesday, pledging to promote the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls and tackle stigmas surrounding their bodies.
She will be a campaigner for the U.N. Population Fund, which now calls itself the U.N.’s sexual and reproductive health agency, known as UNFPA.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Most European Parliament lawmakers on Tuesday lashed out at Poland's near-total abortion ban Tuesday, with several lawmakers arguing it was a fundamental violation of women's rights.
Even though some praised authorities in Warsaw for what they called a defense of Christian values and human life, many in the major political groups were critical of the measure in the staunchly Roman Catholic nation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's largest doctors' group on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to strike down a Trump administration rule that's had a far-reaching impact on family planning by prohibiting taxpayer-funded clinics from referring women for abortions.
The American Medical Association acted after two U.S. appeals courts issued conflicting rulings on the legality of the Trump administration restrictions, which apply to clinics that mainly serve low-income women.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Amid nationwide unrest and a global pandemic that wrecked the state budget, Tennessee lawmakers advanced one of the strictest abortion bans in the country as most Tennesseans were asleep Friday and largely unaware the GOP-dominant General Assembly had taken up the controversial proposal.
The bill's passage shocked Democratic lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates who had been assured for weeks that the anti-abortion measure would not be considered in the Senate.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Margaret Sparrow was 21 years old when she drank a concoction to induce an abortion, at a time when the procedure was both illegal and socially unacceptable in New Zealand.
Now age 84, Sparrow was delighted Wednesday when lawmakers passed a landmark bill that treats the procedure as a health issue rather than a crime.
“It's been a long time coming,” said Sparrow, a doctor who has spent her life advocating for the reproductive rights of women.
ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked Georgia's restrictive new abortion law from taking effect, following the lead of other judges who have blocked similar measures in other states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand is planning to hold a reproductive rights town hall in St. Louis, home of Missouri's last remaining abortion clinic.
A new state law bans most abortions at the eighth week of pregnancy. But the restrictions have yet to take effect and have been challenged in federal court.
ATLANTA (AP) — Opponents of a Georgia law that bans most abortions on Tuesday asked a judge to keep it from taking effect while their legal challenge plays out.
The law is set to become enforceable Jan. 1. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights sued on behalf of Georgia advocacy groups and abortion providers last month to challenge the measure.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma judge on Friday upheld a ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure in what abortion rights proponents decried as a "rogue" decision that will threaten the reproductive rights of women throughout the state.
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's sole abortion clinic filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday over two state laws it believes forces doctors to lie, including one measure passed this year requiring physicians to tell women that they may reverse a so-called medication abortion if they have second thoughts.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine activists launched a renewed effort Tuesday seeking to legalize elective abortions in the homeland of Pope Francis after narrowly falling short last year.
Lawmakers said they would introduce a bill that would legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks. A similar measure last year passed the lower house of Congress but was defeated in the Senate under heavy opposition by religious groups.