Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries have taken steps to liberalize their abortion laws, says Katarina Bergenhed, expert on women's rights at Amnesty Sweden, in the Morning Studio.
"But 40 percent of the world's women of reproductive age still live in countries with very restrictive abortion laws," she continues.
And the issue of abortion continues to divide countries and continents.
A new report by Amnesty International also claims that health professionals, activists and others around the world who defend the right to abortion and provide basic health care are stigmatised, threatened, attacked and unjustly prosecuted.
After the presidential election in Argentina, the winner, the controversial ultra-liberal and anti-abortion Javier Milei, has promised a referendum on abortion – which was legalized in the country less than three years ago. At the same time, other countries in Latin America, such as Mexico and Colombia, have decriminalized abortion.
"A big problem"
Katarina Bergenhed notes that globally there is "a very divided picture".
"It's a movement forward and at the same time a movement backwards. In general, it can be said that unsafe abortions are still a major problem.
Every year, more than 30 million unsafe abortions are carried out, and every six minutes a woman dies because of unsafe abortion, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, several states have severely restricted women's right to decide and introduced abortion bans. The New York Times reports that up to a quarter of women who would have previously had an abortion instead appear to have carried the pregnancy to term. But many have also traveled to other states or bought abortion pills online.
In Poland, the left, which is part of the coalition with a majority in the new parliament, has already put forward two proposals to liberalize the country's strict abortion laws since the elections. In Denmark, too, the right may be in the process of being expanded.