The new ASTRA Bulletin is out!
The latest ASTRA SRHR Bulletin (4/2025) brings news from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia at a time of growing political pressure, funding cuts, and coordinated campaigns against gender equality.
A hot topic is the A Choice That Matters campaign, which highlights why continued support for SRHR donors in our region is more important than ever before.
In this issue, you can read about:
- the landmark decision of the European Court of Human Rights on the ban on abortion in Poland;
- mass protests and civil society resistance following attempts to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention in Latvia;
- new restrictions on mifepristone in Russia, limiting access to both medical abortion and emergency contraception;
- improved access to medical abortion in Armenia thanks to collaboration with healthcare professionals in the field of gynecology and midwifery;
- community and digital initiatives in Hungary and Georgia that are expanding access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services;
- and regional voices on the global stage at ICFP 2025.
Our input:
The end of the year at Možnosť voľby (Freedom of Choice) was marked by the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign. In addition to publishing educational articles and media posts explaining how restricting reproductive rights constitutes violence against women, we released the second part of our project Recognize, Resist, Rise Up: Tackling Gender-Based Violence against Women in Politics. This report compares findings from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany, and Hungary.
Key findings reveal that women from minority backgrounds face uniquely intensified forms of violence in political life. While evidence from Ireland and Germany is the strongest, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic indicate serious gaps in recognition and response. Without targeted interventions, the compounded violence experienced by minoritised women will continue to suppress their political participation – and with it, the representative capacity of European democracies (Fórum 50%, 2025).
Earlier this year, we formed a Human Rights Coalition with other NGOs in Slovakia. Collectively, we organized a march on Human Rights Day to highlight the ongoing violations of rights in our country. As stated in our report on the state of human rights, women, queer people, and Roma experience injustice daily.
Regarding the state of reproductive rights, the situation remains critical:
“Slovakia ranks an unflattering 42nd out of 49 European countries in terms of abortion accessibility, placing us among the seven worst countries. According to surveys by Možnosť voľby and data from our support line, the main obstacles include lack of information, refusal of care due to “conscientious objection”, and harmful attitudes of medical staff. Other barriers include medically unjustified waiting periods, biased counselling, and the unavailability of medical abortion. A major barrier is the high cost, averaging €414. The situation is alarming: in some regions, abortions are not performed at all, forcing women to travel hundreds of kilometres,” stated Adriana Mesochoritisová, the Statutory Representative of Freedom of Choice.
We continue to alert the Slovak government to these barriers. Thanks to the active participation of our statutory representative in participatory bodies, we have succeeded in convening an extraordinary meeting of the Government Council, which will discuss specifically the state of abortion care.
We believe education is a pathway to a fairer society, so we continue with our gender trainings, including sessions for volunteers and our alumni club. Positive feedback from participants and our community motivates us to move forward, even in difficult times.
