On 27 May 2019 Karen Woodall crowed on her blog that the World Health Organization had recognised parental alienation in its diagnostic manual.

The concept has been gathering momentum in many countries, often in tandem with the rise of far right and Christian right political parties. In September 2018 the Guardian reported on concerns among Italian family lawyers and women’s rights advocates that ministers’ plans to criminalise parental alienation would hand a powerful weapon to domestic abusers.