When the U.S. Supreme Court this month declined to block a restrictive Texas law banning abortion after about six weeks into a pregnancy, abortion rights campaigners across Europe watched with dismay. Anti-abortion campaigners, however, were taking notes.
and beyond in rare cases. France moved last week to offer free contraception to girls and women under 25, in a sign of the continent’s generally liberal approach.. Some countries have a near or total ban, and activists who are calling for more restrictive laws, or to keep existing ones, say the Texas ruling offers inspiration.
For abortion rights activists in the country, the Texas ruling was a sober reminder of how far their campaign has to go. The mountainous microstates of Andorra and San Marino are the only other countries in Europe with a complete ban, although San Marino is set to hold a referendum later this month on allowing abortion up to 12 weeks.
“Poland just made its already superdraconian law even worse, where they made abortion for fetal abnormality unconstitutional. To put that into context, there were 1,000 to 2,000 legal abortions there every year and 98 percent of them were for indications of fetal abnormality. So that’s really, really bad.”last year to protest the change, in perhaps the biggest show of public anger since the fall of communism.
She describes the anti-abortion lobby there as a part of a “very mobilized, internationally connected movement.”
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