In coronavirus-hit Mexico, many women are ‘determined to not have babies’

By Mary Beth Sheridan and Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul
Jan 3, 2022

MEXICO CITY — Everyone knew the pandemic would bring death. Edith García Díaz thought it would also bring birth — lots of birth.

As a state health official, she worried that the crisis would impede access to contraceptives, leading to a rise in pregnancies. Doctors were swamped with covid-19 patients. Couples were hunkering down at home, afraid to go out. Early in the pandemic, Mexico’s population agency warned that the pandemic could result in 120,000 additional unplanned births — an unwelcome reversal in the long battle to tame the fertility rate.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/03/coronavirus-mexico-baby-bust/


Pandemic further hinders safe abortion in Latin America

Pandemic further hinders safe abortion in Latin America

By Carlos Christian
April 9, 2020

Calls decreased, but text messages increased. They cannot speak because they hear them. They cannot say in front of their families that they seek help, that they need to abort. Las Comadres, a feminist network in Ecuador that provides information to women who want to terminate their pregnancies with drugs, has had to change its communication channels in recent weeks. Telephone calls are becoming increasingly difficult. Isolation, imposed as a mitigation measure by Covid-19, has limited the freedom of those seeking access to an abortion, but not the determination of those who are determined to do so.

Verónica Vera, one of the sixty Ecuadorians who responds to requests for accompaniment, now through platforms such as Telegram, says that in March requests for support increased by 25%. Women who want to abort will do so even in a health emergency, and the public health system in Latin America seems not ready to respond. “The difficulty of mobilizing due to the measures adopted by the pandemic, the collapsed medical services and the lack of privacy within prolonged confinements could lead to a setback in Latin America,” he warns.

Continued: https://theunionjournal.com/pandemic-further-hinders-safe-abortion-in-latin-america-society/