Reproductive rights

Women's bodies have become political "battlegrounds", putting at risk 30 years of progress on sexual and reproductive health for women and girls, the U.N. warned Wednesday.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the progress toward gender equality is "vanishing before our eyes," and it will take 300 years to bridge that gap, according to the official release from the UN.

Each year, March 8 International Women's Day is the time to celebrate women and girls around the world and their remarkable achievements in the persisting struggle for equality and justice.

Ljubljana – The outcome of a referendum on the right to abortion in the conservative US state of Kansas is not as surprising as it might seem initially, since it reaffirms what opinion polls have been saying all along, says Dnevnik on Thursday, highlighting that the divide on this issue is not as simple as the Republicans vs Democrats divide.

Hazal Kaya, a prominent Turkish actress, has been selected as the new goodwill ambassador of Turkey by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

UNFPA Turkey announced the selection through a live broadcast from its social media account with the participation of Kaya.

Bosnia has relatively liberal abortion laws, but women in some parts of the country still face a fight to exercise their rights.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently established a panel that will supposedly provide "fresh thinking about human rights discourse" but will most likely undermine gender equality and reproductive freedoms.

Clearly, rights activists must up their game. But they should be under no illusion that the human rights movement alone can save the planet.

The new law on abortion, whose draft version is nearly complete, will put an emphasis on women's right to choose, health minister Venko Filipce pledged.

The law will allow women to choose to have an abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy after consultation with their gynaecologist.

The Irish government says it will hold a referendum next year on whether to change the country's laws on abortion, one of the strictest in Europe, BBC writes.

Voters will be asked to decide whether to change the Irish constitution under which abortion is only allowed if the life of the mother is in danger.

​According to a law that came into force in 1983, abortion was legalized in Turkey. Research conducted in 2013 by Ankara-based Hacettepe University revealed that 14 percent of the women in this country have had at least one abortion in their lives.