The Global Gag Rule as a Human Rights Crisis: Restricting Autonomy and Healthcare Access
In January 2025, the newly inaugurated Trump administration reaffirmed and broadened the so-called Global Gag Rule (GGR), a policy preventing foreign NGOs receiving US funding from providing or even discussing...
Gender and Justice: Navigating the Arguments Around Prenatal Sex Detection in Bangladesh
The High Court Division (HCD) of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has directed authorities to adhere to guidelines that discourage (without prohibiting) the disclosure of a foetus’s sex for non-medical...
Buffer Zones: Time to Rethink Abortion and the Carceral State?
On 31 Oct 2024, legislation enacting “buffer zones”—designated areas around abortion clinics where protests and certain forms of interference are prohibited—came into force in England and Wales under the Public...
Decisional Autonomy: Unrealised Right under India’s Abortion Law?
Legislative discussions surrounding the 2020 Amendment Bill to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (‘Act’) stated that it is an effort in ensuring autonomy for women who desire to...
Reproductive Rights and the Judicial Attitudes in Recent Abortion Cases in Strasbourg: Will Women’s Suffering Ever Be ‘Severe’ Enough? Part 2
As discussed in Part 1 of this blog, the European Court of Human Rights did not find a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR (prohibition against torture) in the...
Reproductive Rights and the Judicial Attitudes in Recent Abortion Cases in Strasbourg: Will Women’s Suffering Ever Be ‘Severe’ Enough? Part 1
On 14 December 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) released its ML v Poland judgment. As the ECtHR did not find a violation of Article 3 of the...
The Future of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Iraq
The Republic of Iraq ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1986 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural...
If Frozen Embryos Are Unborn Children Then What Is IVF’s Future in the United States?
In Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade(1973), and the fate of reproductive freedom fell to the political whims of state...
The Enshrinement of Abortion in the French Constitution. Kairos: Dobbs as a window of opportunity? (Part I)
On 8 March 2024, the sealing ceremony for the 25th amendment to the French Constitution of 1958 took place at the ministry of Justice in Paris, marking the inclusion in...
The Enshrinement of Abortion in the French Constitution. Phronesis: after the celebration, a call for caution (Part II)
The first part of this blog examined the process that led to the amendment that enshrined abortion in the French Constitution. In this second part, it is argued that, while...
Empathy and Justice: Abortion Rights for Minor Rape Victims in India
Otherwise viewed as a laudable step in addressing rights to abort, India’s Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 (MTP) inadvertently leaves minor rape victims vulnerable. A recent decision of the...
Unveiling the Silent Struggles of Adolescents Seeking Safe Abortion in India
The tragic Nirbhaya Gang Rape Case revolutionised Indian Criminal Law with the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) in 2012. The primary objective of...
