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Protest held in Kyiv against law limiting right to abortion

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A demonstration against a draft law which would limit access to abortions is held in front of the Ukrainian parliament on April 8. The posters read: "war means war. If you've permitted fascism, we permit ourselves to destroy it"; "your abortion means murder"; "if you want an abortion, do it yourself."
Photo by Anastasia Vlasova

A demonstration was held in Kyiv on April 8 to protest a draft law limiting the rights of women to abortion. The bill, if passed, would allow abortions only in cases of rape, when a pregnancy presents a threat to the life of the mother, or when the child is unlikely to be able to survive past birth. In all cases an abortion would only be permitted during the first 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Under Ukraine’s current legislation a woman can decide to have an abortion at any time during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. After 12 weeks abortion is possible in certain cases as prescribed by law.

Protest organizers wrote on their Facebook page that limiting the right to abortion would lead to a spike in the procedure being carried out illegally and said that such a law would be like throwing Ukraine into a “totalitarian dictatorship.”