Welcome to El Salvador where a miscarriage sends you to jail

Tuesday, January 23, 2024
By Moraa Obiria, The Nation

What you need to know:
The country in Central America has laws tormenting women and girls with the harshest abortion laws under the sun.
Should a woman abort, regardless of circumstances, the law sends them to jail for between two to eight years.
A 19-year-old woman who miscarried after a rape ordeal was charged with aggravated homicide-intentional and premeditated killing of another person - and jailed for 30 years.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/welcome-to-el-salvador-where-a-miscarriage-sends-you-to-jail-4499792


Kate Cox on her struggle to obtain an abortion in Texas

January 12, 2024
CBS News

Kate Cox was pregnant with her third child when she learned the baby had a rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 18.  Cox and her husband, Justin, were informed by their doctors that if their child survived the pregnancy, her life expectancy would be at best a week. With the baby's health at risk as well as her own, Kate and Justin Cox sued the state of Texas for the right to have an abortion.

In her first interview since the Texas Supreme Court ruled against her, Cox talks about the case, her decision to have an abortion in New Mexico, and more in an interview with Tracy Smith for "CBS News Sunday Morning," to be broadcast Sunday, January 14 on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kate-cox-interview-on-her-struggle-to-obtain-an-abortion-in-texas/


What does a total abortion ban look like in Dominican Republic?

BY MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ
January 2, 2024

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Dominican Republic is one of four Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion without exceptions. Women face up to 2 years in prison for having an abortion, while the penalties for doctors or midwives range from 5 to 20 years. Abortion rights activists argue that the country’s total abortion ban not only restricts women’s reproductive choices but also puts their lives in danger.

Here’s a look at the country’s ban.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/dominican-republic-abortion-ban-women-catholic-church-5890252153c3b451b16b62b4aa3fe26d


How Dominican women fight child marriage and teen pregnancy while facing total abortion bans

BY MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ
January 2, 2024

AZUA, Dominican Republic (AP) — It was a busy Saturday morning at Marcia González’s church. A bishop was visiting, and normally she would have been there helping with logistics, but on this day she was teaching sex education at a local school.

“I coordinate activities at the church and my husband is a deacon,” González said. “The bishop comes once a year and children are being confirmed, but I am here because this is important for my community.”

For 40 years, González and her husband have pushed for broader sex education in the Dominican Republic, one of four Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion without exceptions. Women face up to 2 years in prison for having an abortion; penalties for doctors or midwives range from 5 to 20 years.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/dominican-republic-abortion-child-marriage-teen-pregnancy-45a2dd71fc006c413ae1386f601e912d


Maltese society divided over arrest of woman who had abortion

By Alice Taylor and Spiros Sideris | EURACTIV.com and EURACTIV.gr
Jun 6, 2023

The arrest of a Maltese woman for having a medical abortion at home has divided Maltese society, with pro-choice groups calling for urgent changes to the law and staging protests, and the prime minister declaring it makes him feel ‘uncomfortable’.

Malta has a total ban on abortions, even in the case of rape, incest, or if the woman’s life is in danger. The unnamed woman reportedly took abortion pills, likely imported from abroad as they are illegal in the country, and had a medical abortion. She was subsequently arrested and given a conditional discharge.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/maltese-society-divided-over-arrest-of-woman-who-had-abortion/


The GOP is learning just how hard it is to legislate abortion

Ahead of the midterms, severe abortion restrictions are coming up against public opinion — and people’s real lives.

By Ellen Ioanes 
Sep 10, 2022

South Carolina’s state senate on Thursday refused to pass a bill that would outlaw abortion after fertilization, with some exceptions, despite a Republican majority in that body. In South Carolina, as in states like Michigan, Kansas, Idaho, and Indiana, the challenge of legislating such extreme bans is becoming increasingly apparent — and abortion is becoming a landmine issue for Republicans.

Five Republican senators joined Democrats in opposing the bill in South Carolina’s Senate, with GOP Sen. Tom Davis threatening a filibuster should the measure as written come to a vote. Davis joined all three Republican women in the senate, as well as one male GOP colleague, in filibustering the House’s severe restrictions; Davis and one woman Republican senator, Penry Gustafson, voted in favor of the compromise measure.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2022/9/10/23344663/south-carolina-gop-vote-legislation-abortion


Tracking new action on abortion legislation across the states

By Caroline Kitchener, Kevin Schaul and Daniela Santamariña
Updated April 14 (originally published March 26, 2022)

Two states this week approved bills that ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, the latest actions as Republican-led states move swiftly to restrict abortion access. Kentucky’s ban, passed by the Republican-led legislature over the Democratic governor’s veto, took effect immediately. Florida’s governor signed a ban this week that is set to take effect in July.

While a lot of the bills this year look similar to bills we’ve seen before, the stakes are completely different. In recent years, the most restrictive bans were blocked by the courts, ruled unconstitutional because they violated Supreme Court precedent established in Roe v. Wade, which has protected the constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2022/abortion-rights-protections-restrictions-tracker/


Latin American Abortion Laws Hurt Health Care and the Economy—a Lesson for a Post-Roe U.S.

A region with some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws has started to tentatively move in the opposite direction

By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
on January 4, 2022

As the U.S. braces for the possible rollback of abortion rights later this year, seismic shifts are happening south of the border. A series of recent legal and legislative decisions has begun to loosen restrictions in Latin America, a region with some of the world’s harshest antiabortion laws. And they could chart a path toward reform for governments that still advocate for the procedure to remain illegal. The health and economic consequences of keeping longtime bans in place may provide cautionary lessons for the U.S. as a Supreme Court decision to scrap Roe v. Wade appears to be imminent.

El Salvador has stood out for its aggressive pursuit of pregnant people who seek an abortion or have a miscarriage. Since 1998 the country has upheld a total ban on abortion, even in cases of rape, incest and high-risk pregnancy. As a result, about 181 women were prosecuted between 2000 and 2019 for getting an abortion or suffering an obstetric emergency, according to data compiled by a human rights group.

Continued: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/latin-american-abortion-laws-hurt-health-care-and-the-economy-a-lesson-for-a-post-roe-u-s/


El Salvador frees three women convicted of abortions

Abortion rights groups say President Nayib Bukele’s government has freed three Salvadoran women who were sentenced to 30 years in prison under the nation’s strict anti-abortion laws after suffering obstetric emergencies

By The Associated Press
25 December 2021

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- President Nayib Bukele's government has freed
three Salvadoran women who were sentenced to 30 years in prison under the
nation's strict anti-abortion laws after suffering obstetric emergencies,
according to abortion rights groups.

Morena Herrera of the Citizen's Group for the Depenalization of Abortion said
late Friday that the group was told one woman would be set free at presidential
order, but when they went to the prison to greet her, three were released.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/el-salvador-frees-women-convicted-abortions-81938352


Abortion ban: El Salvador frees women jailed after miscarriages

The women had been jailed for terms ranging from six to 13 years under some of the region’s harshest anti-abortion laws.

24 Dec 2021
Al Jazeera

Authorities in El Salvador have freed three women who spent between six and 13 years in jail under the country’s harsh anti-abortion laws after suffering miscarriages, a rights group has reported.

The women had lost their fetuses due to “health emergencies” during pregnancy, said the ACDATEE abortion rights group.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/24/abortion-ban-el-salvador-frees-women-jailed-after-miscarriages