Abortion

A court order which would have banned access to abortion pills across the United States has been stayed by the country's Supreme Court pending further appeals. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a conservative judge in Texas, had this month ordered the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke its long-

An independent review led by barrister Marie O'Shea BL is expected to recommend significant changes to Ireland's abortion laws. Ms O'Shea was appointed last January to lead the second phase of the review required under section 7 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.

An abortion rights activist in Poland has been sentenced to eight months of community service after being found guilty of facilitating abortion. Justyna Wydrzyńska was convicted by a court in Warsaw of helping a pregnant woman to access abortion pills for an at-home abortion.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to enshrine the right to abortion in the country's constitution. In a speech made in Paris paying tribute Gisèle Halimi, a lawyer and feminist activist who died in 2020, he said he wanted the change implemented “within months”.

Legislation creating protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland has received royal assent and become law. The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act was one of the last pieces of legislation approved by MLAs shortly before the Northern Ireland Assembly dissolved at the

English prosecutors have dropped a case against a 25-year-old woman accused of illegally procuring an abortion. The woman was reported to police after she underwent an emergency caesarean section 31 weeks into her pregnancy and was found to have evidence of abortion pills in her system.

The UK Supreme Court has cleared the way for the enactment of the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill after ruling it does not infringe on the right to freedom of assembly under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court found that placing limitations on wher

Legislation creating protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland is compatible with European human rights laws, the UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled. The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill was referred to the court in May by the Attorney General for Northern I

The UK government has formally commissioned abortion services in Northern Ireland after the continued failure of the devolved Department of Health to do so. Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris wrote to the Department following the UK government's announcement in October that it would step

The UK government has announced it will commission abortion services in Northern Ireland following the failure of the devolved Department of Health to do so. The commissioning of abortion services follows the making of regulations in May 2022 which provided the UK government with the same powers as

The general scheme of legislation which will ban anti-abortion protests from taking place within 100 metres of healthcare providers has been published. Ministers agreed to the drafting of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services (Safe Access Zones)) Bill last week and the general scheme was pub

Anti-abortion protests will be banned from taking place within 100 metres of healthcare providers under new legislation designed to safeguard access to abortion services. The general scheme of the proposed legislation on "safe access zones" will be published by the Department of Health in the coming

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has been granted leave to intervene in the UK Supreme Court case concerning the introduction of safe access zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland. The Attorney General for Northern Ireland has asked the court to look at whether the Abo

Human rights organisation JUSTICE has been granted permission to intervene in a UK Supreme Court case concerning the introduction of safe access zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland. The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill, which was approved by MLAs in March, has been referred t

The UK government has taken further legislative steps to ensure that abortion services are commissioned in Northern Ireland. The Department of Health and the Northern Ireland Executive were last summer given a 31 March 2022 deadline to ensure access to abortion services, which they have missed.