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

Triple stabbing at Chile abortion rights rally sparks outcry

Triple stabbing at Chile abortion rights rally sparks outcry
Demonstrators suspect anti-abortion activists after three women attacked by masked assailants

Sun 29 Jul 2018

Human rights activists in Chile have expressed shock and concern after masked attackers stabbed three women at a protest in favour of free and legal abortion.

One of the women was wounded in the stomach and two others in the legs during a march in the country’s capital, Santiago, on Wednesday. Their injuries were not described as life-threatening. A policeman was also hurt in the incident.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/29/chile-abortion-rights-rally-attack-stabbing

Three women stabbed in Chile pro-abortion march

Three women stabbed in Chile pro-abortion march

28/07/2018
Bridie Chetwin-Kelly

Three women have been stabbed in Santiago, Chile during a march for free and safe abortions.

The women and a police officer were attacked by a group of people wearing hoods, leaving them with non-life threatening injuries.

Santiago resident and pro-abortionist, Ale Silva, told Newshub the group were men from a far-right group, and the Chile media ignored the attack.

Continued: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/07/three-women-stabbed-in-chile-pro-abortion-march.html

Chileans March En Masse To Expand Legal Abortion Rights

Chileans March En Masse To Expand Legal Abortion Rights

Published 25 July 2018

Thousands of Chileans are marching in Santiago demanding the right to safe, free and legal abortions, and carrying green bandanas the same as campaigners in Argentina.

Around 40,000 abortion rights activists are taking to the streets of Santiago and several other Chilean cities to demand free, safe and legal abortions.

Activists are out in support of the abortion bill introduced to Congress on Wednesday by legislature Guido Girardi, member of the opposition Party For Democracy. Girardi said as he presented the measure he wants "to open a debate in Chile, a conversation, a democratic process, a space for the vindication of rights and autonomy."

Continued: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Chileans-March-En-Masse-To-Expand-Legal-Abortion-Rights-20180725-0031.html

How ‘conscientious objectors’ threaten women’s newly-won abortion rights in Latin America

How ‘conscientious objectors’ threaten women’s newly-won abortion rights in Latin America
From Uruguay to Chile, medical staff are refusing to provide abortion services even after their legalisation.

Diana Cariboni
18 July 2018

Women’s rights to legal abortion have increased in Latin America – but so have campaigns and policies for medical staff to be able to ‘conscientiously object’ and refuse to participate in these procedures.

“We didn’t see it coming,” said feminist activist Lilián Abracinskas in Uruguay, a secular country where abortion, same-sex marriage and the marijuana market were each legalised in the last decade.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/diana-cariboni/conscientious-objectors-threaten-abortion-rights-latin-america