Yucatan Legalizes Abortion up to 12 Weeks: Landmark Decision!

Apr 10, 2025

Yucatan has become the 23rd out of 32 states in Mexico to decriminalize abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation. This move is seen as a significant step towards ensuring reproductive rights for women and those who can become pregnant.

On Wednesday, the Yucatan Congress voted in favor of the decriminalization, with 22 votes for and 13 against. The Women's Secretariat of the Government of Mexico hailed the decision as a "historic breakthrough in the fight for reproductive rights" in a social media post.

Continued: https://www.rivieramayanews.mx/yucatan-23rd-mexican-state-to-decriminalize-abortion-up-to-12-weeks/

10.04.2025

News

abortion law reform

GIRE

Information Group on Reproductive Choice

Yucatan decriminalization

‘We are failing’: doctors and students in the US look to Mexico for basic abortion training

Since Roe was overturned, a growing number of would-be abortion providers have begun to leave the country in search of an education as training in the US dwindles

Carter Sherman
Wed 9 Apr 2025

On paper, it should not be difficult for Dr Sebastian Ramos to learn to perform abortions. As a family medicine doctor, Ramos works in a specialty that frequently provides the procedure. He lives in deep-blue California, where it is still allowed. And the administrators running Ramos’s residency program – a kind of apprenticeship that US doctors must undergo to become full-fledged physicians – support Ramos’s desire to learn how to do it.

But over the course of his three-year-long residency, Ramos is guaranteed just three days’ worth of training at Planned Parenthood. Residents get to participate in only a handful of abortions.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/doctors-mexico-abortion-training

New threats to abortion rights hit Puerto Rico as advocates share how to fight back

Abortion is legal in the U.S. territory, but a new wave of anti-abortion proponents are pushing for more restrictions, with some success

by Mariela Santos-Muñiz
March 20th, 2025

Nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights across the country have been dangerously eroded. But the impact on reproductive rights didn’t affect just the 50 states: The case also altered the landscape in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean made up of about 3.2 million people.

Reproductive rights are still intact in Puerto Rico, as there are legal grounds to support them. The Penal Code considers abortion a crime, but not if it’s performed in the interest of the pregnant person’s health, and the El Pueblo de Puerto Rico vs. Pablo Duarte Mendoza case established that that standard encompasses both the physical and mental health.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2025/03/20/puerto-rico-abortion-advocates/

Bermuda – Women’s advocates call for better access to abortion

Sarah Lagan, Chief Reporter
Mar 20, 2025

The head of a charity and a former senator have welcomed a Throne Speech pledge to remove abortion from the criminal code.

They agree that more is needed to improve access to and affordability of pregnancy termination.

Juanae Crockwell, the executive director of the Women’s Resource Centre, who previously spoke out on the issue, and Arianna Hodgson, the former senator who pushed the issue of abortion to the fore in September in the Upper House, backed a commitment by the Progressive Labour Party to remove the requirements for a medical committee’s approval for terminations.

Continued: https://www.royalgazette.com/health/news/article/20250320/womens-advocates-call-for-better-access-to-abortion/

20.03.2025

Social Justice Bermuda

Therapeutic Abortion Committee

Women's Resource Centre

Latin American activists warn of pushback on reproductive rights

By Sarah Morland and Natalia Siniawski
March 6, 2025

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Latin American rights activists on Thursday warned of growing political threats to reproductive rights across the region, as the United States rolls back access to abortion.

“What we are seeing is a lot of backlash of progress after many years of human rights struggles," Paula Avila-Guillen, executive director of the Women's Equality Center told a conference. "What happens in one country has repercussions."

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/latin-american-activists-warn-pushback-reproductive-rights-2025-03-06/

06.03.2025

News

Amnesty International Argentina

Javier Milei

Mariela Belski

misoprostol and mifepristone

Natalia Marmol

Paula Avila-Guillen

Women's Equality Center

Antigua & Barbuda – Court of Appeal upholds High Court’s decision in abortion legislation case

28 February 2025
By Latrishka Thomas

Three Court of Appeal judges have unanimously ruled that they have “no basis to interfere” with the High Court’s decision regarding a motion to strike out a constitutional challenge to the nation’s abortion laws.

Last year, abortion rights advocates initiated legal action against the Attorney General concerning the Offences Against the Person Act, a 163-year-old Colonial-era statute.

They are challenging legislation which imposes severe penalties for abortion-related activities, including up to 10 years’ imprisonment for women who terminate pregnancies and two-year sentences for those who assist in such procedures.

Continued: https://antiguaobserver.com/court-of-appeal-upholds-high-courts-decision-in-abortion-legislation-case

28.02.2025

News

Offences Against the Person Act

Sexual Offences Act of 1995

What the UN’s ruling on abortion in Ecuador and Nicaragua means for the rest of the world

Although implementation will depend on each country, these sorts of rulings have a potential for global influence

By Elizabeth Hlavinka
February 19, 2025

The United Nations Human Rights Committee issued a ruling last month with the potential to expand reproductive rights in Ecuador and Nicaragua. Although it’s unclear how each country will implement the UN mandates handed down, the ruling is a step forward for a growing reproductive rights movement working to decriminalize abortion in Latin America.

In 2016, Planned Parenthood Global, Amnesty International, and other Latin American activism groups came together to form the “Son Niñas, No Madres” (Girls, Not Mothers) movement. They have filed legal cases before the UN Human Rights Committee against Ecuador and Nicaragua, representative of a regional pattern of girls forced to become mothers due to sexual violence and a lack of access to reproductive health services like abortion in 2019.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2025/02/19/what-the-uns-ruling-on-abortion-in-ecuador-and-nicaragua-means-for-the-rest-of-the-world/

Guatemala: Failed Response to Sexual Violence Against Girls

Inadequate Health Care, Education, Social Security, Justice for Young Survivors

Human Rights Watch
February 18, 2025

(Guatemala City) – Successive governments in Guatemala have failed to meet their obligations toward girls facing early and forced pregnancies due to sexual violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The authorities need to provide sexual violence survivors with comprehensive health care, education, and social security, as well as necessary legal protections, justice and reparations.

The 85-page report, “‘Forced to Give Up on Their Dreams’: Sexual Violence against Girls in Guatemala,” documents the numerous barriers that girls who are survivors of sexual violence face accessing essential health care, education, social security, and justice. Guatemalan law classifies any sexual activity involving a child under 14 as sexual violence. Guatemala’s National Registry of Persons (RENAP) reported that between 2018 and 2024, 14,696 girls under 14 gave birth and became mothers, in many cases against their will.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/02/18/guatemala-failed-response-sexual-violence-against-girls

18.02.2025

Commentary

Cristina Quijano Carrasco

forced pregnancies

Forced to Give Up on Their Dreams’: Sexual Violence against Girls in Guatemala

Human Rights Watch

sexual violence

sexual violence survivors

Antiguan advocate calls for nuanced dialogue on abortion amidst legal battle

10 February 2025

As a constitutional challenge to Antigua and Barbuda’s colonial-era abortion law awaits a ruling from the Court of Appeal, Tanya Ambrose, a prominent local advocate for reproductive rights, is emphasizing the need for a more nuanced public dialogue on the complex issue.

Ambrose, a public health professional and founder of the nonprofit Scrub Life Cares, shared her perspective on the ongoing legal battle and the broader abortion debate in a recent interview.

She argued that the discourse often overlooks the diverse circumstances encompassed by the term “abortion”.

Continued: https://antiguaobserver.com/antiguan-advocate-calls-for-nuanced-dialogue-on-abortion-amidst-legal-battle/

10.02.2025

News

1857 Offences Against the Person Act

Costa Rica Seeks Tougher Abortion Penalties

Tico Times
January 30, 2025

The Costa Rican government, led by President Rodrigo Chaves, has announced its intention to introduce a bill that would significantly increase prison sentences for those involved in abortions. The proposed reform to the Penal Code seeks to align the country’s criminal legislation with a more restrictive stance on abortion, prioritizing the protection of life from conception.

“We must punish with greater force those who attempt against the lives of human beings in a state of defenselessness, such as unborn children,” stated Minister of the Presidency, Laura Fernandez.

Continued: https://ticotimes.net/2025/01/30/costa-rica-seeks-tougher-abortion-penalties

30.01.2025