Argentina: Can one country’s change of abortion law alter a continent?

By Katy Watson, BBC South America correspondent
March 4, 2021

When Argentina's Congress voted to legalise abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy, Renata (not her real name) felt excited.

"How cool," the 20-year-old from
northern Brazil remembers thinking in late December. A student and supermarket
worker, Renata saw it as the start of something new in a region where abortion
is mostly illegal.

But she thought little more of it until a
week later, when she found out she was pregnant herself. Then, she says, her
world collapsed.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56098334

Chile’s Government Gave Out Flawed Birth Control Pills Which Caused Dozens of Unplanned Pregnancies

By Mary Anne Webber
Mar 04, 2021

The government of Chile has provided hundreds of thousands of defective birth control pills to women that resulted in at least 140 unplanned pregnancies.

The birth control pill packs, which went by the name of Anulette CD, were packaged incorrectly, with the sugar pills or placebo, in the place of the active pills.

Continued: https://www.latinpost.com/articles/149505/20210304/chile-government-flawed-birth-control-pills-unplanned-pregnancies.htm

04.03.2021

Anulette CD

birth control pills

Corporación Miles

defective birth control pills

flawed birth control

Paula Avila-Guillen

Sebastian Pinera

unplanned pregnancies

Women's Equality Center

Defective Birth Control Blamed for Scores of Unplanned Pregnancies in Chile

The public health system delivered, and then quietly recalled, 276,890 potentially flawed packets of birth control pills. At least 140 women believe they got pregnant because of the error.

by Ernesto Londoño, New York Times
March 2, 2021

There had to be a mistake, Melanie Riffo thought, staring in disbelief at the result of her pregnancy test: Positive.

She had been taking her birth control pills without fail, Ms. Riffo said. She and her boyfriend were careful. He’d even been told by doctors that a childhood ailment could have left him infertile.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/world/americas/chile-women-birth-control.html

Chile’s feminists push to decriminalize abortion

February 19, 2021
By Carole Concha Bell

Abortion campaigners in Chile have been heartened by the recent legalization of abortion in neighboring Argentina and are currently presenting a bill for the decriminalization of abortion. But with a pro-life government and Senate inherited from the Pinochet regime (1973-90) any amendments to the existing law will be hard won.

Chile has one of the world’s most draconian abortion laws in the world. Dictator General Augusto Pinochet’s last act before leaving office in 1989 was to completely outlaw abortion and make it a punishable crime. It was not until 2017 that President Michelle Bachelet’s administration was able to amend the law to allow abortion in extreme cases. But women’s reproductive rights have come under attack again by far-right President Sebastian Pinera’s cabinet. In 2019 Pinera introduced an amendment allowing entire (private) hospitals and medical professionals to object to the procedure on grounds of “conscience.”

Continued: https://towardfreedom.org/americas-2/chiles-feminists-push-to-decriminalize-abortion/

Activists in Latin America battle to guarantee access to safe abortion in COVID-19 world

By Josefina Salomón & Christopher Alford
7 September 2020

For decades, women human rights defenders across Latin America have been fighting an uphill battle to ensure sexual and reproductive rights, including access to safe abortion, are a reality for all. Over the last five months that battle has turned into a war.

The figures have been shocking for a long time. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned them into a catastrophe, with a potential bleak future.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/09/activists-latin-america-access-safe-abortion-covid19/

Abortion ‘doulas’ in Chile risk prison, saying women need their help

Abortion 'doulas' in Chile risk prison, saying women need their help
“We are doing this because the law is insufficient."

May 28, 2020
By Liam Miller

SANTIAGO, Chile — The woman anxiously removes the SIM card from the cheap cellphone and cuts the chip into pieces before sweeping the fragments into the trash. When her nerves pass, she allows herself a small sigh of relief.

Despite using a "burner" phone like those associated with drug deals in TV crime series, this woman is using it for a different purpose. A college-educated professional, she's one of several women in a group of abortion "doulas," part of a clandestine network willing to break the law and face prison to help women obtain abortions, as long as it's medically safe to do so.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/abortion-doulas-chile-risk-prison-saying-women-need-their-help-n1154506

CHILE – Chilean feminist organisations called for a demonstration against racism and for free, safe, and legal abortion

CHILE – Chilean feminist organisations called for a demonstration against racism and for free, safe, and legal abortion

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Aug 7, 2019

Feminist organisations in Chile called an anti-racist march for free and legal abortions for 25 July 2019 in celebration of the International Day of Black Latin American and Caribbean Women, as a joint effort to raise all voices against attacks suffered by migrant women and women with African roots in Chile. Hashtag: #AbortamosRacismo

“This year we were able to sit down and talk with Afro-Caribbean organizations, which are present in our country, to say that we join our tasks, join our struggles to address this march,” said Veronica Avila, the spokeswoman for the Coordinadora Feministas en Lucha (Coordination of Feminists in Struggle).

Continued: https://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/chile-chilean-feminist-organisations-called-for-a-demonstration-against-racism-and-for-free-safe-and-legal-abortion/

Chilean court: Private health facilities can’t be forced to do abortions

Chilean court: Private health facilities can’t be forced to do abortions

December 17, 2018 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Santiago, Chile, Dec 17, 2018 / 10:53 am (ACI Prensa).- A Chilean court has ruled that private healthcare facilities may conscientiously object to abortions, declaring unconstitutional a law that had gone into effect in October.

By a vote of 8-2, the nation’s Constitutional Court struck down a portion of the Regulation on Conscientious Objection of the Law on Abortion. The court accepted a Dec. 6 appeal filed by senators of the Chile Vamos coalition which sought to annul part of the Department of Health regulation.

Continued: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/12/17/chilean-court-private-health-facilities-cant-be-forced-to-do-abortions/

17.12.2018

News

Chilean Constitutional Court

conscientious objection

Michelle Bachelet

private abortion facilities

refusal to treat

Regulation on Conscientious Objection of the Law on Abortion

Leftist Chilean lawmakers lodge abortion bill in Congress

Leftist Chilean lawmakers lodge abortion bill in Congress

By AFP
Aug 21, 2018

Leftist opposition MPs in Chile on Tuesday presented a bill in Congress seeking to legalize abortion in the conservative South American country, weeks after a similar bid in Argentina was narrowly defeated.

Abortion in Chile was decriminalized under the previous leftist government in a landmark vote in Congress last year but only in cases of rape or in medical emergencies.

Continued: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/leftist-chilean-lawmakers-lodge-abortion-bill-in-congress/article/530029

Latin America’s fight to legalise abortion: the key battlegrounds

Latin America's fight to legalise abortion: the key battlegrounds
After Argentina rejected a bill to allow abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, hopes of reform now rest elsewhere

Annie Kelly
Thu 9 Aug 2018

An estimated 6.5 million abortions take place across Latin America each year. Three-quarters of these procedures are unlawful, often performed in unsafe illegal clinics or at home.

Of 33 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, only Cuba, Uruguay and Guyana permit elective abortions. Women also have the right to choose in Mexico City. Elsewhere, however, the right to an abortion is severely restricted, with terminations often permitted in cases of rape, or if the pregnancy will endanger the life of the mother. Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Suriname all have a complete ban on abortion.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/09/latin-america-fight-to-legalise-abortion-argentina-brazil-chile-venezuela-uruguay-colombia-el-salvador-peru