The women calling for reform of Venezuela’s severe anti-abortion laws – in pictures

by Weronika Strzyżyńska
Photographs by Magda Gibelli
Tue 8 Aug 2023

Century-old legislation in the South American country decrees up to six years in prison for those who have or provide abortions. Despite demands for change, the government shows no sign of reforming the 1926 law. Only in 2000 was it amended to allow for abortions to save the life of the pregnant woman. Venezuelans have been turning to online sellers of abortion pills or paying for costly and illegal procedures in a doctor’s office

Ketsy Medina, 40, smiles at her baby during an interview in Caracas last month. Ketsy previously had a miscarriage and felt judged by the nurses and doctors at the hospital, who treated her suspiciously as if she had caused an abortion. Venezuela, a fervently Catholic and conservative country, punishes ‘induced abortion’ with sentences of up to six years. The penalties are reduced when the abortion involves saving the ‘honour’ of the woman or her family, and the offence is pardoned if it is to ‘save the life of the woman in labour’

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2023/aug/08/the-women-calling-for-reform-of-venezuelas-severe-anti-abortion-laws-in-pictures

08.08.2023

Commentary

abortion law reform

Belmar Franceschi

Civil Association for Family Planning

Venezuelan women lose access to contraception, and control of their lives

By Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera, New York Times
February 20, 2021

SAN DIEGO DE LOS ALTOS, Venezuela — The moment Johanna Guzmán, 25, discovered she was going to have her sixth child, she began to sob, crushed by the idea of bringing another life into a nation in such decay.

For years, as Venezuela spiraled deeper into an economic crisis, she and her husband had scoured clinics and pharmacies for any kind of birth control, usually in vain. They had a third child. A fourth. A fifth.

Continued: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/20/world/venezuelan-women-lose-access-contraception-control-their-lives/

Venezuela – This Woman Performed Her Own Abortion — And Was Lucky To Survive

This Woman Performed Her Own Abortion — And Was Lucky To Survive
After barely surviving two illegal abortions, Beatriz sells birth control on the black market to help other women in Venezuela, as the economic and political crisis deepens.

Karla Zabludovsky, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on February 28, 2019

CARACAS, Venezuela — With a flick of the wrist, Beatriz pulled out two strips of birth control pills from her top.

Contraceptives are in short supply in Venezuela, with most pharmacies sold out, so it’s largely up to black marketeers like Beatriz to supply women with them. And despite their exorbitant price tag — on the street, $1 gets you a month’s birth control, but that represents a week’s salary — the pills remain highly sought after.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/karlazabludovsky/venezuelas-crisis-is-pushing-women-to-have-illegal-abortions