Burner phones, aliases, code words: The secret networks that women use to circumvent Honduras’ abortion ban

MAY 20, 2023
Associated Press

Inside a little wooden house among the pine and oak forests of western Honduras' coffee-growing mountains, a woman opened a tiny package of pills, delivered to a nearby town. She didn't know it, but the medication had more than likely entered the country hidden in an activist's suitcase, from Mexico.

The woman, 27, was confident in her decision to have an abortion, but in the moment, she panicked. She knew she was breaking national law banning all abortions and could be prosecuted. Even more, she feared medical complications, or her religious family finding out.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/burner-phones-aliases-code-words-how-secret-networks-help-women-circumvent-honduras-abortion-ban/

These Women Are Fighting Back Against Honduras’s Incredibly Harsh Abortion Laws

In a country with some of the strictest laws curbing reproductive rights in the Western Hemisphere, a diverse group of women-led activists are taking action, from TikTok to the Supreme Court.

Story by Kaelyn Forde
Photos by Nincy Perdomo
March 7, 2023

Elena was 21 when she went to the emergency room with severe abdominal pain and was told she was pregnant. The news came as a shock. Living in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa — the sprawling capital of Honduras — Elena (whose name has been changed here to protect her privacy) lacked access to proper nutrition and had received no prenatal care, since she didn’t even know she was pregnant. At the public hospital that day in 2017, she learned she was suffering from an internal infection and severe anemia. Elena was told her fetus had died, and she spent three days in the emergency room.

But what came after the miscarriage was even more shocking.

Continued: https://narratively.com/these-women-are-fighting-back-against-hondurass-incredibly-harsh-abortion-laws/

How US abortion organisers are learning from Honduran activistsc

As networks, some clandestine, form to help women access abortion in the US, they look to Central America for a road map – and a warning.

By Delaney Nolan
Published On 19 Feb 2023

New Orleans, United States – The half dozen women gathered in the backyard pause for a moment to listen to the television next door. The neighbour is playing a football game at high volume. It’s loud. That’s good – it gives them cover.

“I couldn’t hear anything from the sidewalk,” says Ana,* referring to the women’s conversation. “I think we’re OK,” says another. The rest are reassured.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/19/how-us-abortion-organisers-are-learning-from-honduran-activists

Women’s rights advocates across Americas region say their struggle goes on after top US court overturns Roe v Wade.

By Natalie Alcoba
28 Jun 2022

Feminists in Latin America have long understood their struggle for abortion rights to know no borders. So when the United States Supreme Court decision that stripped women of their right to an abortion in the country became official last week, the blow was personal across North and South America.

“We can’t confide in the state – we only have each other,” said Crystal P Lira, a member of the Tijuana, Mexico-based feminist group Bloodys Collective. “And there are many of us.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/28/latin-american-activists-undeterred-despite-us-abortion-rollback

Latin American feminists vow to protect abortion rights at home after shock US ruling

Women’s movements have fought hard to reverse anti-abortion laws in their countries and say it’s not the end for the US

Natalie Alcoba in Buenos Aires
Thu 5 May 2022

Reproductive rights activists across Latin America have vowed to protect hard-fought gains in their own territories as they brace for potential ripple effects if the US supreme court overturns Roe vs Wade – the 1973 ruling which guarantees the right to abortion.

Latin America has some of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the world. But feminist movements have fought for decades to chip away at the prohibitions, and in recent years a younger, diverse generation of activists has mobilized in massive numbers to help clinch a string of victories in traditionally conservative countries.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/05/latin-america-abortion-rights-roe-v-wade

06.05.2022

Amnesty International Argentina

Ana Cristina González Vélez

Anis

Anis – Institute of Bioethics

Honduras hardened its abortion ban. These women remain undeterred

Honduran Congress put a lock on decades-old ban on abortion weeks after Argentina legalised it in landmark decision.

By Natalie Alcoba
7 Feb 2021

In the days since the Congress of Honduras hardened its absolute prohibition of abortion, the ranks of a feminist organisation that has been campaigning for decriminalisation in the staunchly conservative nation have been swelling.

The new recruits to the women’s rights group, Somos Muchas, are mostly young women between the ages of 18 and 30 who have been moved into action by recent events. For local activists, it is a sign that change is still possible in a country with some of the most severe restrictions on abortion in the world.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/7/honduras-hardened-abortion-ban-these-women-remain-undeterred

How lawmakers made it nearly impossible to legalize abortion in Honduras

By Tatiana Arias, CNN
Sun January 31, 2021

(CNN)This week, lawmakers in Honduras changed the country's constitution to make it virtually impossible to legalize abortion in the future -- an extreme election-year move that critics warn will further endanger women's health.

On Thursday, the country's Congress ratified a January 21 amendment to constitutional Article 67, which now specifically prohibits any "interruption of life" to a fetus, "whose life must be respected from the moment of conception."

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/americas/honduras-abortion-ban-ratified-intl/index.html

31.01.2021

anti-choice ignorance

anti-choice misogyny

Catholic Church

clandestine abortion

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

Doctors Without Borders

emergency contraception

evangelicals and abortion

Gloria Bonilla

Human Rights Watch

Juan Orlando Hernandez

Margaret Wurth

Merly Eguigure

Movimiento de Mujeres por La Paz

Neesa Medina

Oswaldo Canales

religion and abortion

sexual violence

Shield Against Abortion in Honduras

United Nations Population Fund

Visitación Padilla

Women's Rights Center

Today is Honduran Women’s Day: an unjust Constitutional amendment that disregards women’s lives must be rejected

Press release, 25 January 2021: for immediate publication
Somos Muchas

After the decision by the Argentine Congress on 29 December 2020 to legalise abortion for both public health reasons and in support of women’s rights, everyone is waiting to see what the rest of Latin America will do. Responses from Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica – and now Honduras – have already become public. The response from the Congress of Honduras is bad news for all women and girls in the country and in the region – it shows a complete disregard for Honduran women’s health and lives. Yet ironically, it is due to be ratified on Honduran Women’s Day without consultation and with undue haste.

In every country in Latin America, there is a strong women’s movement that has been calling for safe and legal abortion for many years. Although legal reform has been slow, due to the powerful influence of conservative religious and political forces, many changes have still taken place.

Continued: https://mailchi.mp/safeabortionwomensright/press-release-somos-muchas?e=372dd34034

Life or Death Choices for Women Living Under Honduras’ Abortion Ban

Life or Death Choices for Women Living Under Honduras’ Abortion Ban
Women Tell Their Stories

Amy Braunschweiger, Senior Web Communications Manager
Margaret Wurth, Senior Researcher, Children's Rights Division
June 6, 2019

The calls to La Línea almost always came from panicked women, often crying. “Please answer me!” they begged. “Don’t keep me waiting!” Many said they were calling for a “friend.” All were desperate to know the same thing, forbidden by law in Honduras: how to end an unwanted pregnancy safely.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-choices-women-living-under-honduras-abortion-ban

Somos Muchas fight for changes to the penal code in Honduras

Somos Muchas fight for changes to the penal code in Honduras
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
May 9, 2017

The above photograph was taken at a sit-in outside the National Congress on 4 May where anti-abortion demonstrators shouted and shook their fists, threw eggs and water at the sit-in and slashed their banners with knives.

For the past two years, Honduran lawmakers have been completely overhauling the country’s Penal Code for the first time in more than three decades. Every article of the Penal Code was being changed in some way except for the one on abortion, so there was hope that this would open the possibility of a revision of the ban on abortion too. For many months now, Somos Muchas, a coalition of groups in Honduras who support safe abortion, have campaigned for the Special Commission charged with revising the Penal Code to allow abortions on grounds of rape/incest, fatal fetal anomaly, and for health reasons.

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/somos-muchas-fight-for-changes-to-the-penal-code-in-honduras/