Amnesty International on abortion rights in the world: “There has been a positive trend”

In the past 30 years, more than 60 countries have taken steps to liberalize their abortion laws, says Katarina Bergenheide, a women’s rights expert at Amnesty Sweden. In Morgunstudio.

But 40 percent of the world’s women of reproductive age still live in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws, she adds.

The abortion issue continues to divide countries and continents.

New report Amnesty International also claims that healthcare workers, activists and others around the world who advocate for the right to abortion and provide essential care are being stigmatized, threatened, attacked and unfairly prosecuted.

After Argentina’s presidential election, the winner, controversial ultra-liberal Javier Miley, promised to hold a referendum on abortion – which had been legalized in the country less than three years earlier. Meanwhile, other countries in Latin America, such as Mexico and Colombia, have decriminalized abortion.

“A big problem”

Katarina Bergenhead stated that it is a “very divided picture” globally.

– It is a forward movement and at the same time a backward movement. Overall, it can be said that unsafe abortions are still a major problem.

Each year, more than 30 million unsafe abortions are performed, and every six minutes a woman dies from an unsafe abortion, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, several states have severely restricted women’s decision-making rights and imposed bans on abortion. The New York Times Reports suggest that up to a quarter of women who had previously had an abortion appear to have carried the pregnancy to term instead. But many of them also traveled to other states or bought abortion pills online.

In Poland, the left, part of the group that holds a majority in the new parliament, has successfully put forward two proposals to liberalize the country’s strict abortion laws since the election. Even in Denmark, this right may be about to expand.