With few exceptions, most countries’ criminal laws contain restrictions on the grounds on which an abortion is legal, up to what stage of pregnancy, who can determine whether an abortion is legal, who is permitted to provide abortion services, and the punishments for violating these restrictions. In these countries, such laws combined with fear of prosecution, lack of information on the legal grounds for abortion, and social stigma intersect to create an environment where women and others often feel they have no alternative other than to have an unsafe abortion, which can lead to major complications and often death.
At the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, we are researching trials and imprisonment of women and abortion providers. We are publishing reports on the legal situation of abortion in countries where we know prosecutions and imprisonments have taken place over the past five years. Campaign members have already done a good deal of research to uncover existing cases of women and abortion providers imprisoned. Many of these researchers are also actively involved in working for the release of women and abortion providers from prison and for abortion law reform. You can find the full length country reports we have published so far below.

CAMPAIGN REPORT: The law, trials and imprisonment for abortion in Malaysia
This report looks at the abortion law and access to abortion in Malaysia and reviews calls to change the law and access by sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and human rights advocates. The report ends with a discussion of the cases against medical professionals, and prosecutions of women for infanticide.
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CAMPAIGN REPORT: The law, trials and imprisonment for abortion in Senegal
This report looks at Senegal’s abortion law and policy, the prevalence of unsafe abortions, attempts to reform the law, the process of criminalisation of women, the extent of infanticide, and women’s stories, based on a range of published sources and valuable input from Senegalese human rights and women’s rights advocates.
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CAMPAIGN REPORT: The law, trials and imprisonment for abortion in Kenya
This report summarises the law and policy on abortion in Kenya and cases of trials and imprisonment for abortion between 2004 and 2017.
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CAMPAIGN REPORT: The law, trials and imprisonment for abortion in Mexico
This report summarises the law and policy on abortion in Mexico and cases of trials and imprisonment for abortion between 2007 and 2017. Also available in Spanish.
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FEATURE: The law, trials and imprisonment for abortion in Argentina
This report summarises the law and policy on abortion in Argentina and cases of trials and imprisonment for abortion between 2011 and 2016. Also available in Spanish.
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