To Expand Access to IVF, We Need to Expand Access to Abortion

Latin America’s history reveals how policies aimed at boosting births can backfire without safeguarding reproductive choice for families.

7/15/2025
by Jess Ogden

History rarely repeats itself, but it does often rhyme. We may feel like the expanding restrictions on reproductive freedom that is currently happening in the United States is unprecedented, but our Latin American neighbors have walked this path for decades. There are many lessons we can learn from their experience on the far-reaching impact of such restrictions on social justice, legal strategies and policymaking.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 18 aimed at expanding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) by reducing costs and removing barriers to care. However, the current regulatory landscape, which is characterized by antiabortion language, poses significant threats to IVF access. Without safeguarding abortion rights, efforts to make fertility treatments more accessible may be undermined by legal precedents that restrict reproductive autonomy.

Continued; https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/15/expand-ivf-access-protect-abortion-bans-reproductive-rights-families/

15.07.2025

Commentary

Dr. Gabriela Alvarado

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

anti-choice vindictiveness

March in Costa Rica as [Anti-choice] Protesters Oppose Abortion Ruling in Latin America

Tico Times
November 10, 2024

Hundreds of Costa Ricans marched this Sunday in opposition to abortion and headed to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), where a case against El Salvador is being heard regarding a woman who was denied the right to terminate her pregnancy despite her life being at risk.

The protesters, mostly dressed in light blue and singing Christian hymns, marched a kilometer from a park to the Court’s headquarters in San José, which has been handling the “Beatriz vs. El Salvador” case since March of last year—the first case it has examined on abortion in Latin America.

Continued: https://ticotimes.net/2024/11/10/historic-march-in-costa-rica-as-protesters-oppose-abortion-ruling-in-latin-america

10.11.2024

News

Beatriz vs. El Salvador

IACHR

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Costa Rica Threatens IACHR Departure on Abortion

By Ileana Fernandez
December 16, 2023

In a recent interview, President Rodrigo Chaves of Costa Rica acknowledged the possibility of withdrawing the country from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court) if the court mandates changes to national legislation on abortion.

The discussion arose in connection with the ongoing analysis of the “Beatriz case” against El Salvador by the IACHR Court.

Continued: https://ticotimes.net/2023/12/16/costa-rica-threatens-iachr-departure-on-abortion

16.12.2023

News

Beatriz abortion

IACHR

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Rodrigo Chaves

Tlaleng Mofokeng

World Health Organization

In Latin American, not only abortions but miscarriages can lead to jail time

January 5, 2022
By Megan Rivers-Moore, Carleton University and 'The Conversation’

Georgina and I are drinking coffee on a rainy winter evening in San José, Costa
Rica. She’s telling me about her abortion, “When it was over, I felt a lot of
things.… But the most overwhelming feeling was relief. I was so relieved that
it was over and that I wasn’t pregnant anymore. I was so relieved to be alive
and not pregnant.”

Abortion is criminalized throughout Latin America, but Central American countries
have some of the strictest abortions laws in the world. El Salvador has been
especially notorious, with abortion banned in all cases and prison sentences if
caught — you can even go to prison for having a miscarriage or a stillbirth.

Continued: https://canadianinquirer.net/2022/01/05/in-latin-american-not-only-abortions-but-miscarriages-can-lead-to-jail-time/

The new anti-abortion tactics of the far right in the Americas

ISABELLA COTASTEPHANIA CORPI
OCT 24, 2021

An EL PAÍS investigation in five Latin American countries has found that a network of centers affiliated with the far-right US organization Heartbeat International (HI) promote themselves online as feminist support groups and use misleading language in favor of abortion, but in reality they work to manipulate and institutionalize women to get them to carry their pregnancy to term.

Five female reporters and one male reporter went undercover to centers in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico between 2019 and 2021, as a follow-up to an OpenDemocracy investigation into HI’s operations in the region.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-10-24/the-new-anti-abortion-tactics-of-the-far-right-in-the-americas.html

24.10.2021

Commentary

Featured

Research

adoption and abortion

anti-choice deception

anti-choice intimidation

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misogyny

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

Centers to Help Women

CLACAI

crisis pregnancy centres

El Pais investigation

Fanny Cordero

Fundación Hogar Margarita

Gretchen Sisson

Heartbeat International

Latin American Consortium against Unsafe Abortion

Miguel Ángel Salazar

National System for the Integral Development of the Family

PANI

Privacy International

Ron Archer

Susana Chávez

Susana Vallina

undercover investigation of CPCs

Vida y Familia A.C.

Women’s Institute of Comprehensive Health

Abortion Is an Issue that Attracts Controversy

Is abortion legal in the territory that the Republic of Costa Rica buys?

By TCRN STAFF
March 28, 2021

It is an important year to celebrate the achievements of women, not only
because the world needs good news but because there are many reasons for hope.

Change is always possible even during a pandemic.

The green tide triumphed in Argentina After years of tireless campaigning,
abortion was finally legalized in Argentina in December of last year.

Continued: https://thecostaricanews.com/abortion-is-an-issue-that-attracts-controversy/

28.03.2021

Costa Rica’s president says therapeutic abortions will be allowed

Costa Rica's president says therapeutic abortions will be allowed

December 12, 2019
Reuters

SAN JOSE — Costa Rica’s President Carlos Alvarado on Thursday issued a technical decree that will allow for therapeutic abortions in the Central American nation, despite opposition from religious and conservative political groups.

On paper, a 50-year-old law allows a pregnancy to be terminated only if the mother’s health is at risk, but a lack of regulatory clarity at hospitals has meant the law could not be applied.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/costa-ricas-president-says-therapeutic-abortions-will-be-allowed

12.12.2019

Costa Rica – Therapeutic abortion, part II: paper vs. practice

Therapeutic abortion, part II: paper vs. practice

Paula Umaña
February 22, 2018

Because of a lack of knowledge and fear of legal consequences, health care professionals in Costa Rica often bolster obstacles to pregnancy interruption in Costa Rica, even though the practice is legal when it is carried out to protect the health of the mother.

In one case studied by Semanario Universidad, a pregnant woman was hospitalized because of complications as a result of heart disease. Her life was in danger and her pregnancy had to be terminated. The patient’s discharge papers describe her treatment; however, the abortion wasn’t registered as such in the medical record. According to those records, she was treated for heart disease.

Continued: http://www.ticotimes.net/2018/02/22/therapeutic-abortion-part-ii-paper-vs-practice

22.02.2018

Commentary

Featured

Allan Varela

Article 121 of the Costa Rican Penal Code

INCIENSA

María Carranza

Research and Teaching Institute in Nutrition and Health

Therapeutic abortion: a Costa Rican right ensnared in doubts and fears

Therapeutic abortion: a Costa Rican right ensnared in doubts and fears

Paula Umaña
January 25, 2018

On Nov. 29, 2017, journalism student Paula Umaña published an in-depth feature for the weekly Semanario Universidad as part of Punto y Aparte, a mentoring program for young journalists. The Tico Times is proud to translate and publish her original piece with Semanario Universidad about therapeutic abortion in Costa Rica. Part I of III.

Because of lack of knowledge and fear of legal consequences, health care professionals contribute to the obstacles to therapeutic abortion in Costa Rica.

At 24, Lucía is in her last year of medicine at one of the country’s universities. When asked about therapeutic abortion, she says she remembers seeing it mentioned in one class and says “that it’s prohibited in Costa Rica”.

Continued: http://www.ticotimes.net/2018/01/25/therapeutic-abortion-a-costa-rican-right-ensnared-in-doubts-and-fears