Reproductive rights

The UK’s fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has found that IVF outcomes have varied widely for Black, Asian and minority ethnic background patients compared to white patients. The report, issued December 2023, gives data up to 2021. The average IVF birth rate per embryo transferred has increased across all ethnic groups. However, Black and Asian patients aged 18-37 had lower birth rates at 23% and 24% respectively in 2020-1. White patients had 32%. Single Black and Asian patients are also accessing fertility treatment far later than their white...

The Guardian has reported that the UK branch of the US-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has more than doubled its spending since 2020 and been appointed a stakeholder in a parliamentary group on religious freedoms, in a role that grants it direct access to MPs. Ahead of several amendments on abortion coming soon to the Criminal Justice Bill, several anti-abortion campaign groups have increased propaganda campaigns and coordinated mass letter-writing campaigns targeting MPs. The ADF is a major player on the US Christian right which drove the repeal of Roe v Wade and funds attacks on LGBT+...

Hundreds of students have joined protests against the establishment of a “pro-life” (anti-abortion-rights) society at Manchester University. The society was established in January, to “create a pro-life culture on campus, engage students on life issues and promote respect for the dignity of human life from conception.” A petition aimed at removing the society has over 18,000 signatures, with concerns raised about the original all-male committee making decisions regarding female bodies and medical rights. Students are right to protest anti-choice groups on campuses and student unions should do...

Healthcare staff should not report suspected illegal abortions to the police as prosecutions are never in the public interest, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has said. The health unions should join the Royal College in issuing advice to health workers against reporting abortions to the police. Dr Ranee Thakar, the College’s president, said “outdated and antiquated” abortion laws meant women were “left vulnerable to criminal investigation.” The comments have provoked a backlash from anti-choice groups and have intensified attention on decriminalisation of abortion...

Verónica Cruz Sánchez is the founder of Las Libres, an organisation based in Guanajuato, Mexico, which campaigns for universal access to free, safe and legal abortion. Since 2021, and the repeal of Roe v Wade, Las Libres have been supporting women in the US to access abortions as well. Verónica spoke to Camila Vergara. What is Las Libres? Las Libres is a feminist organisation in Guanajuato, Mexico, that I and other feminists founded 23 years ago. In 2000, the state decided to criminalise abortion even in cases of rape, the only legal exception previously. There were big mobilisations against...

Elinor Cleghorn , author of Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World , reflects on witch trials, birth control and fainting couches. Elinor spoke to Justine Canady. In your book you tell the story of Anne Greene, who had a stillbirth and was put on trial in 1650 for “Destroying and Murdering Bastard Children”. This would have been during the most intense stages of the witch trials. How should feminists understand this historical period? The crossover between feminist history and the feminist health movement in the 1970s really reinvigorated attention around the...

The country’s second largest fire service has approved maternity leave of 52 weeks on full pay. West Midlands Fire Service, the second largest in the country, has approved 52 weeks full pay for employees on maternity and adoption leave. Paternity leave was increased from one to two weeks with full pay. “This is a fantastic result for members in the West Midlands, for which we applaud the efforts of the brigade representatives and the local women’s committee,” said FBU assistant general secretary Ben Selby. “We are seeing other services move significantly too, which again is positive — but our...

Moral panic and societal anxiety over “the demographic crisis” have become a consensus shared by more and more governmental officials and mainstream media of China in the past few years, accompanied by the burgeoning of the internet feminist movement and the deterioration of gender equality both at home and in work. The video showing a woman wearing a chain in a rural village in Fenxian, Jiangsu, in February 2022, who was then revealed to have been kidnapped and forced to bear eight children with a man called Zhiyong Dong, has aroused national rage and criticism against the local authorities...

There is much to agree with in Ann Nukeman’s article on the Polish election ( Solidarity 687 ). I would like to add some further detail on the mobilisation of pro-choice voters and a more critical assessment of Lewica, the main left-wing electoral alliance. The All-Poland Women’s Strike, the organisation that provided the most prominent leadership in the 2020-21 mass protests against the near-total abortion ban, supplied a website where people could enter their postcode to see a list of politicians in red who do not support abortion. However, Women’s Strike’s role was minimal and politically...

When the results were announced of Poland’s general election on 15 October, progressives breathed a sigh of relief. The ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party was finally out of power. PiS’s eight years in government were characterised by attacks on democratic institutions, LGBTQ+ people, migrants and women. In 2020, a move to further restrict Poland’s already draconian abortion law led to the biggest wave of protest in the country’s democratic history. While the mass demonstrations didn’t manage to stop the near-complete ban on abortions, the election was seen as an opportunity to...