Abortion

People who break abortion buffer zones have been warned they face "significant fines". Legislation establishing protected zones of 200 metres around abortion services comes into force tomorrow.

MSPs have passed a bill to introduce buffer zones around clinics that provide abortions. The legislation aims to prevent protests or vigils taking place within 200m of 30 clinics that offer abortion services in Scotland.

Major social media companies including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok may be failing to respect international human rights standards by removing abortion-related content on their platforms, according to Amnesty International. A new Amnesty report reveals how, since the 2022 US Supreme Court decision

The Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has agreed to the general principles of the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill. The recommendation comes as part of the committee’s stage one report. The committee said the evidence it has gathered has l

France is to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution at a joint session of its parliament next week. The move, approved by the senate last night, would create a “guaranteed freedom” of women to choose an abortion.

The future of reproductive rights in Scotland will be the focus of the Humanist Society Scotland's annual conference this weekend. The annual gathering will take place at Surgeons' Hall on Friday 27 October, with guest speakers including:

A woman who was sentenced to jail for unlawfully securing abortion tablets to terminate her own pregnancy will be released following a reduction of her sentence by Court of Appeal judges. The judges stated that the situation required "compassion, not punishment".

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 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

The Scottish Parliament has declined to close a petition to modify a law that does not apply in Scotland. Petition PE1969 is entitled 'Amend the law to fully decriminalise abortion in Scotland' and claims that the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 makes abortion a criminal offence in Scotland.

Women seeking an abortion in Hungary must first listen to their embryo's heartbeat under a new decree. The move by the right-wing government of Viktor Orban indicates a change in the country's liberal laws on abortion by requiring doctors to show women the vital signs of the embryo or foetus.

A Scottish Green Party MSP today launched a consultation on her legislative proposal to designate protest free ‘buffer zones’ outside abortion clinics across the country. Gillian Mackay said that intimidation and harassment outside these healthcare facilities must end, and that legislati

Human rights laws are an impediment to the Scottish government's ability to ban protests outside of abortion clinics, Nicola Sturgeon has said. Ms Sturgeon said progress was being stalled on introducing a 150m buffer zone outside clinics to keep keep anti-abortion campaigners away from women using t