What’s Current: Ecuador National Assembly rejects bill decriminalizing abortion for rape victims

  • Ecuador’s National Assembly rejected a bill which would have legalized abortion in cases of rape. The country’s ban on abortion has been in place since 1938, and women are imprisoned for up to two years for the medical procedure.
  • The government of South Africa joined 55 other countries in signing a declaration on gender-responsive standards to increase participation and representation of women. During the parliament session, President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “There is a dark and heavy shadow across our land. Women and children are under siege,” and declared South Africa one of “the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman.”
  • Education officials in northwest Pakistan overturned a decision requiring female students to wear veils to school, following a wave of criticism on social media.
  • Prosecutors in a gang rape trial that sparked fury in Spain upgraded charges against six men from sexual assault to rape. Prosecutors previously argued that the defendants, charged with raping a 14-year-old girl, should receive a lighter sentence because she was drunk and was not perceived to be fighting back against her attackers.
  • Nigerian women protested in response to the murders of eight women by an apparent serial killer.
Genevieve Gluck

Genevieve Gluck is a writer and advocate for women's sex-based rights and creator of Women's Voices, an audio library dedicated to bringing awareness to feminist texts and speeches.