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/

Puerto Rico – Anti-abortion centers without health regulations deceive those seeking abortion

Three anti-abortion centers advertise themselves as offering medical services, sonograms and information about abortions and abortion pills, even though they are not regulated by the Department of Health. People who come to their facilities, lured by confusing language, share their personal information, not knowing that they will then receive false information and multiple follow-up calls urging them to continue with a pregnancy they do not want.

Sept 26, 2024
Photos by Brandon Cruz González | Center for Investigative Journalism
by Cindy Burgos | ALL and Center for Investigative Journalism

They look like ordinary medical offices — with scrubs -clad employees offering free sonograms and pregnancy tests — but they are not. They are called “crisis pregnancy centers,” and while they promote themselves as places that provide scientific medical information about options for an unwanted pregnancy, in practice, they are anti-abortion centers that use techniques of deception, manipulation, incomplete or false information, and from a religious perspective, to convince pregnant people to continue with a pregnancy they do not want.

There are three such pseudoclinics in Puerto Rico: two Hope Women's Clinics in Río Piedras and Bayamón; and Centro Raquel in Carolina. All are located near or next to one of the four clinics in Puerto Rico that offer abortion services, an essential health procedure that can only be performed by a licensed physician.

Continued: https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2024/09/centros-antiaborto-sin-regulacion-salud-puerto-rico/

Puerto Rico – The Abortion Haven That Wasn’t

Puerto Rico doesn’t restrict abortion. So why is it a struggle for locals to get one?

By Andrea González-Ramírez
December 12, 2022

It was raining despite the sun — the type of weather Boricuas make superstitious jokes about — on a recent Tuesday at Women’s Medical Pavilion, an abortion clinic in Puerto Rico. The eight patients seated around me in the waiting room looked at their phones in silence as a midday entertainment program played on a small TV. Nurses called them to the front desk one by one, referring to them as “mi amor” and “corazón” as they gave an overview of the 15-minute procedure. An abortion seeker seated to my right took a call and told the person on the other end of the line that she was hungry — it was nearly 1 p.m. — because the clinic had instructed her to not eat anything two hours before her visit. Plus, she said, she couldn’t afford to spend money on a meal — not even from the fast-food joint across the street from the clinic’s pink entrance.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2022/12/puerto-rico-is-an-abortion-haven-just-not-for-locals.html

Abortion access and funding have always been a struggle in U.S. territories

Access to abortion in U.S. territories post-Dobbs is just as difficult as before, and those concerns aren’t even a discussion within the mainstream reproductive rights movement

by Cecille Joan Avila
November 7th, 2022

In June, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively eliminating the federal right to abortion, but in Guam, it’s been four years since the last surgical abortion provider retired, leaving the small island territory without anyone who can perform the procedure. Pregnant people seeking an abortion can either receive abortifacients by mail, or, if they are beyond the timeframe where it’s possible to have a medication abortion, they have to travel to Hawai‘i. That is only feasible if they have the means to—and many do not.

For many in U.S. territories, getting an abortion hasn’t just depended on the procedure being legal. People have had to rely on community networks and whatever resources were available to get or pay for an abortion. The common factor is that in U.S. territories, they need to know the right people to ask for assistance, information, and resources, which is ultimately an unsustainable way to access a key component of reproductive health.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2022/11/07/abortion-access-us-territories-struggle/

Abortion is legal but under threat in Puerto Rico

October 3, 2022
MAYA ROSENBERG

The day after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a representative in the Puerto Rican legislature introduced a bill punishing "the crime of abortion" with 99 years in jail.

The bill was withdrawn the same day it was introduced, but it represents renewed interest in greatly restricting abortion in Puerto Rico after the Supreme Court threw out its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protected abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/03/1125170596/abortion-puerto-rico-policy-opposition-rights

What to know about abortion laws in Puerto Rico, Guam and other U.S. territories

Ella Lee, Rachel Looker, USA TODAY
Aug. 11, 2022

The reproductive rights of Americans across the country were thrown into question with the Supreme Court's decision to dismantle the landmark case Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to have an abortion. But people residing in the continental United States alone weren't the only U.S. citizens affected.

Without constitutional protection of abortion rights, the legislatures
of U.S. territories are able to decide for themselves whether abortion access
is guaranteed, and to what extent, unless Congress intervenes.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/11/puerto-rico-guam-us-territories-abortion-rights-post-roe/10223844002/

Hundreds March in Puerto Rico in Defense of Abortion Rights

By: Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco
MAY 31, 2022

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A green wave of pro-choice demonstrators washed over Old San Juan on Saturday, May 28 —the International Day of Action for Women’s Health— to demand abortion rights be protected in the face of legislative attacks.

Following a leaked draft ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that signaled it was moving to overturn Roe v. Wade, and a push to limit abortion at 22 weeks by the Puerto Rico Life and Family Commission with Senate Project 693 (PS 693), pro-choice activists gathered in front of the Jose V. Toledo Courthouse in Old San Juan for a “Marea Verde por el Derecho a Decidir” (Green Wave for the Right to Decide) to protest against the assault on reproductive rights.

Continued: https://www.latinorebels.com/2022/05/31/prabortionmarch/

On remote US territories, abortion hurdles mount without Roe

By Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press
Fri., May 27, 2022

HONOLULU (AP) — Women from the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands will likely have to travel farther than other Americans to terminate a pregnancy if the Supreme Court overturns a precedent that established a national right to abortion in the United States.

Hawaii is the closest U.S. state where abortion is legal under local law. Even so, Honolulu is 3,800 miles (6,100 kilometers) away — about 50% farther than Boston is from Los Angeles.

Continued: https://www.thespec.com/ts/news/world/us/2022/05/27/on-remote-us-territories-abortion-hurdles-mount-without-roe.html

In Puerto Rico, lawmakers clash over bill to restrict abortions in first public hearing

The legislation crafted by powerful political leaders looking to join a similar conservative push in the U.S. mainland seeks to ban abortions starting at 22 weeks.

April 27, 2022
By Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico on Tuesday held its first public hearing on a bill that aims to restrict abortions in the U.S. territory as powerful political leaders who support the measure seek to join a similar conservative push in the U.S. mainland.

If approved, the bill would ban abortions starting at 22 weeks or when a doctor determines that a fetus is viable. The only exception would be if a woman’s life is in danger. Most U.S. states already have similar laws, unlike Puerto Rico, where abortions with no term limit are currently allowed.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/puerto-rico-lawmakers-clash-bill-restrict-abortions-first-public-heari-rcna26332

27.04.2022

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Inside the Battle to Save Abortion Rights in Puerto Rico

Inside the Battle to Save Abortion Rights in Puerto Rico
Providers on the island say access has been hindered by Hurricane Maria and threatened by legislation.

Emily Shugerman
Nov 10, 2018

The most aggressive attempt to restrict abortion access in Puerto Rico in decades came to a dramatic end this week when the bill’s author pulled it from consideration on the very last day of the legislative session. But women’s rights activists say the failed legislation is just the first of many threats to abortion access on the island.

The bill, written by Puerto Rico Sen. Nayda Venegas Brown, would have instituted a mandatory 48-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions, required parental consent for minors, and banned the procedure outright after 20 weeks gestation—restrictions that are common in many states in the continental U.S., but unheard of in Puerto Rico.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-battle-to-save-abortion-rights-in-puerto-rico