Justa Libertad: A Movement to Decriminalize Abortion in Ecuador

The Green Wave Continues to Make Strides in Latin America

April 15, 2024
Cristina Quijano Carrasco, Researcher, Women's Rights - Human Rights Watch

Justa Libertad, an Ecuadorian coalition of eight civil society organizations, recently filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador seeking to decriminalize abortion. This crucial initiative seeks to ensure that women, girls, and other pregnant people can access safe abortion care. It follows similar coalitions that achieved progress in other Latin American countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina.

Abortion is currently penalized in Ecuador with up to three years in prison, with exceptions for cases in which the pregnancy represents a risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman or, after a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling, when the pregnancy is the result of sexual violence. Even for cases that fit these narrow exceptions, accessing abortion care remains challenging due to stigma among health personnel and other institutions that hold the belief that once pregnant, women and girls are obligated to become mothers.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/15/justa-libertad-movement-decriminalize-abortion-ecuador

15.04.2024

News

Constitutional Court of Ecuador

Cristina Quijano Carrasco

decriminalization of abortion

Mexico moves toward decriminalizing abortion following landmark ruling

While Mexico City had decriminalized abortion, it remained criminal at the federal level

By Angelica Dino
11 Apr 2024

A group of Mexican senators has initiated legislation to remove abortion from the federal penal code, a significant move following the Supreme Court's decision last autumn to decriminalize abortion at the federal level, the International Bar Association reported.

This legislative effort is a direct response to the Supreme Court's directive, requiring the Mexican Congress to align federal law with this landmark judgment. Historically, Mexico City and several other states had decriminalized abortion, but at the federal level, it remained classified as a criminal offense. The journey towards reform was advanced in 2021 when the Supreme Court, through a series of judgments, decriminalized abortion in the northern state of Coahuila. These rulings set a constitutional precedent, emphasizing that criminal penalties for abortion and restrictive measures like “expansive rights to conscientious objection” used to deny abortion services were unconstitutional.

Continued: https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/international/mexico-moves-toward-decriminalizing-abortion-following-landmark-ruling/385367

Florida’s strict laws make Latin America a potential destination to get an abortion

WLRN 91.3 FM | By Helen Acevedo, Sergio R. Bustos
April 9, 2024

With the Florida Supreme Court upholding the state’s new stricter abortion ban, pregnant women in Florida — especially those in South Florida — may soon head to countries in Latin America, where several countries have legalized the procedure, a reproductive health expert told WLRN on Friday.

“We have something unique because we do have a population in South Florida that has a Latin American connection and that has cultural roots, family members and the language,” said Daniela Martins. “So it is very likely that we will see folks that do have that connection with Latin America now start to travel to Colombia, Mexico or Argentina for an abortion.”

Continued: https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-04-09/florida-strict-laws-six-week-ban-latin-america-potential-destination-get-abortion

Abortion: Pro-choice Forces in Brazil Are Being Threatened by Christian Radicals and the Ultra-right

BY ANDREA DIP
DECEMBER 10, 2023

Brazil’s Supreme Court has postponed a debate on decriminalizing early-term abortion, leading feminists and rights advocates to warn that the justices will be responsible for the deaths of more women and girls in the country.

Abortion in the country is punishable by up to three years in prison, and is allowed on only three grounds: rape, risk to the life of the pregnant person, and – following a 2012 Supreme Court decision – when the fetus suffers anencephaly, a fatal birth defect.

Continued: https://www.brazzil.com/abortion-pro-choice-forces-in-brazil-are-being-threatened-by-christian-radicals-and-the-ultra-right/

Canada – Decriminalizing Abortion: A Journey Towards Access and Equity

Dec 6, 2023
Written by Clare Szalay Timbo, Executive Director at The SexEd Justice Project, and Andrea Rodriguez, Policy and Advocacy Officer at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights

In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country’s abortion law as unconstitutional, asserting that it violated women’s Charter rights to the security of the person. Since then, abortion has been removed from the Criminal Code and is treated and regulated as a medical procedure. Canada stands out globally as one of only a few countries without specific legal restrictions on abortion.

The full decriminalization of abortion is a critical step towards recognition that abortion is a fundamental human right and ensuring universal access to abortion care. Importantly, decriminalizing abortion preserves legal protections for harms against pregnant people, such as forced abortions or other types of physical harm.

Continued: https://www.actioncanadashr.org/news/2023-12-06-decriminalizing-abortion-journey-towards-access-and-equity

06.12.2023

Commentary

Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights

Andrea Rodriguez

Canada Health Act

Clare Szalay Timbo

decriminalization of abortion

NAF Canada

SexEd Justice Project

Supreme Court of Canada

‘The time is now’: Inside Brazil’s fight to decriminalize abortion

Women will die due to far right’s attack on Supreme Court that has made decriminalization unlikely, activists say

Andrea Dip
5 December 2023

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/brazil-fight-abortion-decriminalize-supreme-court-lula-justice-weber-barroso/

UN experts say U.S. abortion bans violate human rights

New recommendations call on the U.S. to fully decriminalize abortion

November 17, 2023

The United States is violating human rights by denying legal access to abortion—and should take immediate action to end the criminalization of abortion at the federal, state and local levels. This is the newly released conclusion of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in response to testimony from Ipas and partners in October.

“This is a reckoning for U.S. policymakers at every level of government,” said Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, Ipas senior legal and policy advisor, who attended the October hearing in Geneva. “The UN Human Rights Committee has appropriately called on the U.S. government to acknowledge the human rights crisis that is taking place within America, as states continue to ban abortion and limit access to sexual and reproductive health care.”

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/un-experts-say-u-s-abortion-bans-violate-human-rights/

Safe spaces advocates to senators: Study, don’t shun decriminalization of abortion the moment you hear “abortion”

Friday, November 17, 2023

Advocates for safe spaces called on senators to study and not shun the call for the decriminalization of abortion automatically after remarks made during the Senate plenary debate for the 2024 budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

At the debate, senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Jinggoy Ejercito, and Miguel Zubiri took issue with the CHR’s previous position to decriminalize abortion, and moved to defer its budget pending a “strong stand against abortion.”

But safe space advocates, Enough Is Enough Ph (EIE), claim that the senators went on auto mode in shunning the critical issue the moment they heard “abortion” as if it were taboo as they held the CHR budget hostage to forward their anti-progress, anti-women, and anti-poor agenda.

Continued: https://journal.com.ph/safe-spaces-advocates-to-senators-study-dont-shun-decriminalization-of-abortion-the-moment-you-hear-abortion/

17.11.2023

News

Alan Peter Cayetano

Commission on Human Rights

decriminalization of abortion

Public healthcare in northern Mexico is dodging federal rules on abortion

Mexican law allows abortion for victims of rape – but state hospitals and politicians often stand in their way

Dánae Vílchez, Verónica Martínez
2 November 2023

Mexican federal regulations to provide emergency abortion services to victims of rape are being systematically flouted by state government health workers and law enforcement bodies in regions bordering the US, an investigation by openDemocracy and La Verdad de Juárez has found.

Federal regulations permit women and girls to have an abortion if they are victims of rape. But hospitals and police in northern Mexican states – where there is a growing rate of sexual violence and high prevalence of under-age pregnancy – stop abused pregnant women from taking control of their healthcare decisions, say medical sources and rights advocates.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/mexico-abortion-legal-rules-regulations-supreme-court-chihuahua-nuevo-leon-sonora/

Abortion is decriminalized in Mexico, but the social and cultural stigma remains

Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide in September, but reproductive rights advocates grapple with the challenge of “social decriminalization.”

Nov. 2, 2023
By Isabela Espadas Barros Leal

MEXICO CITY — Every recovery room at Fundación ILE, an abortion clinic in Mexico City’s Roma Sur neighborhood, is equipped with a small bed, blankets, sanitary pads and a turquoise journal.

The journals are filled with letters written by women minutes after having had abortions.

Some of them detail the reasons they chose to undergo the procedure. Others have messages of encouragement for the next women who will be in their position.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-abortion-legal-social-cultural-stigma-remains-rcna123029