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

In Honduras, the Right Is Permanently Locking in Its Abortion Ban

BY SUYAPA PORTILLO
Jacobin Magazine, March 1, 2021

In a country
that is already home to some of the worst restrictions on women’s rights, the
Honduran Congress voted last month to lock in its bans on abortion and gay
marriage, making them almost impossible to overturn. It’s a reminder that, as
the feminist green tide washes over much of Latin America, there is still much
work to be done.

On January 28, on the heels of Honduran Women’s Day (January 25), the far-right
Nationalist Party–led Congress dealt a blow to feminists, LGBT people, and
countless Hondurans who believe in equality and human rights. With little
notice and virtually no public input, the Congress voted to amend the constitution
by enshrining the “right to life at conception” and by instituting a narrow
definition of marriage as “between a man and a woman.” Rushing the vote along
partisan lines, normal rules of procedure were suspended, and even advocates
closely following these issues were blindsided by the alacrity of the
fundamental change to the nation’s most important document.

Continued: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/03/honduras-abortion-ban-constitutional-amendment

How lawmakers made it nearly impossible to legalize abortion in Honduras

By Tatiana Arias, CNN
Sun January 31, 2021

(CNN)This week, lawmakers in Honduras changed the country's constitution to make it virtually impossible to legalize abortion in the future -- an extreme election-year move that critics warn will further endanger women's health.

On Thursday, the country's Congress ratified a January 21 amendment to constitutional Article 67, which now specifically prohibits any "interruption of life" to a fetus, "whose life must be respected from the moment of conception."

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/americas/honduras-abortion-ban-ratified-intl/index.html

31.01.2021

anti-choice ignorance

anti-choice misogyny

Catholic Church

clandestine abortion

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

Doctors Without Borders

emergency contraception

evangelicals and abortion

Gloria Bonilla

Human Rights Watch

Juan Orlando Hernandez

Margaret Wurth

Merly Eguigure

Movimiento de Mujeres por La Paz

Neesa Medina

Oswaldo Canales

religion and abortion

sexual violence

Shield Against Abortion in Honduras

United Nations Population Fund

Visitación Padilla

Women's Rights Center

Today is Honduran Women’s Day: an unjust Constitutional amendment that disregards women’s lives must be rejected

Press release, 25 January 2021: for immediate publication
Somos Muchas

After the decision by the Argentine Congress on 29 December 2020 to legalise abortion for both public health reasons and in support of women’s rights, everyone is waiting to see what the rest of Latin America will do. Responses from Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica – and now Honduras – have already become public. The response from the Congress of Honduras is bad news for all women and girls in the country and in the region – it shows a complete disregard for Honduran women’s health and lives. Yet ironically, it is due to be ratified on Honduran Women’s Day without consultation and with undue haste.

In every country in Latin America, there is a strong women’s movement that has been calling for safe and legal abortion for many years. Although legal reform has been slow, due to the powerful influence of conservative religious and political forces, many changes have still taken place.

Continued: https://mailchi.mp/safeabortionwomensright/press-release-somos-muchas?e=372dd34034

Honduran Lawmakers Vote to Lock in Bans on Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

By Reuters
Jan. 21, 2021

TEGUCIGALPA (REUTERS) - Members of the Honduran Congress voted on Thursday to amend the constitution making it much harder to reverse existing hard-line bans on abortion and same-sex marriage, as lawmakers double down on socially conservative priorities.

Lawmakers voted to require a three-quarters super-majority to change a constitutional article that gives a fetus the same legal status of a person, and another that states that civil marriage in the Central American nation can only be between a man and a woman.

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-01-21/honduran-lawmakers-vote-to-lock-in-bans-on-abortion-same-sex-marriage

21.01.2021

Featured

News

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

gay marriage

Juan Orlando Hernandez

Honduras lawmakers seek to lock in ban on abortion for ever

A constitutional reform would require a three-quarters majority in congress to overturn Latin America’s most draconian ban

Jeff Ernst in Tegucigalpa
Thu 21 Jan 2021

Legislators in Honduras are pushing a constitutional reform through Congress that would make it virtually impossible to legalise abortion in the country – now or in the future.

The measure, called a “shield against abortion” by its proponents, comes in response to the feminist “green wave” movement sweeping across Latin America that recently achieved its biggest victory yet with the legalisation of abortion in Argentina.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jan/21/honduras-abortion-constitutional-reform-ban

21.01.2021

shield against abortion

total abortion ban

Women’s Movement for Peace

Honduras strict abortion law: Women judged no matter the verdict

Honduras strict abortion law: Women judged no matter the verdict
Honduran women accused of having abortions - even if not convicted - face years of stigmatisation.

Anna-Cat Brigida
18 Sept 2019

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - On a rainy day two years ago, 26-year-old domestic worker Lucia* was sent outside to shut the gate of her employer's home in a rural area on the outskirts of the Honduran capital. Her employers didn't want the sheep to get out. As Lucia headed back inside, she slipped and fell, hitting her back on the ground, according to court documents. She didn't know it at the time, but she was 24 weeks pregnant.

During the early hours the following morning, Lucia screamed in pain. Another domestic worker informed Lucia's employer, who then took her to a nearby hospital in Tegucigalpa, a 20-minute drive from her home. There Lucia learned that she had been more than five months pregnant and had lost the fetus. But what Lucia could not have known then was that her long journey of trauma was only just beginning.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/honduras-strict-abortion-law-women-judged-matter-verdict-190917221108819.html

The informal networks resisting Honduras’s abortion ban

The informal networks resisting Honduras's abortion ban
Through hotlines and clinics, activists and health experts are trying to change the stigma associated with abortion.

Anna-Cat Brigida
July 12, 2019

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - At 22 years old, Ana Padilla was certain of one thing: she did not want to be a mother. So when she found out she was pregnant six years ago, she frantically called a friend to see if she knew how to get an abortion, which is illegal under all circumstances in Honduras. The friend calmed her nerves and gave her the phone number of someone she knew who clandestinely sold mifepristone and misoprostol, pills used for at-home abortions.

"I was desperate in that moment," says Padilla, adding that the experience of buying the pills was "mysterious", like a drug deal.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/informal-networks-resisting-honduras-abortion-ban-190712162754747.html

What Life is Like When Abortion is Banned

What Life is Like When Abortion is Banned

Margaret Wurth, Senior Researcher, Children's Rights Division
June 10, 2019

As Republicans in states around the country pass sweeping abortion bans, I think about what life could be like for women and girls if these laws take effect. I don’t have to use my imagination.

Women and girls across Latin America are already living in places where abortion is heavily restricted or completely banned. In the past year, I’ve done research for Human Rights Watch in two countries that ban abortion completely, without any exceptions, even if the woman’s life is in danger.
Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/10/what-life-when-abortion-banned

Honduras abortion misery a ‘frightening preview’ of America’s future – study

Honduras abortion misery a 'frightening preview' of America's future – study
Reproductive rights pushback could leave American women facing same life-or-death choices as Hondurans, say researchers

Karen McVeigh
Fri 7 Jun 2019

One woman handcuffed by police after suffering a miscarriage, another forced to bear her rapist’s child. A doctor who risks imprisonment to end pregnancies that threaten the lives of patients. The reality of healthcare in Honduras provides a “frightening preview” of what could happen in America if the pushback on reproductive rights continues, Human Rights Watch has warned.

Researchers from the organisation spoke of the “enormous suffering” of women and girls in Honduras, where there is a total ban on abortion in all circumstances.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jun/07/honduras-abortion-misery-frightening-preview-of-america-future-study