Chile’s abortion rights movement faces uphill battle

Advocates say fight continues despite rejection of new constitution last year that would have enshrined reproductive rights.

By Charis McGowan
10 Mar 2023

Santiago, Chile – Siomara Molina stands on the steps of the Chilean National Library on a busy street in the heart of Chile’s capital.

Waving fists in the air and wearing green scarves, symbolic of the Latin American movement for abortion rights, Molina and the dozens of women around her chant: “Abortion yes, abortion no, that’s my decision”.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/10/chiles-abortion-rights-movement-faces-uphill-battle


PAHO and partners launch campaign to reduce maternal mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Every hour, a woman loses her life in the region due to complications in pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum, the vast majority of which are preventable.

PAHO  / WHO
8 Mar 2023 

Washington DC - The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) together with other United Nations agencies and partners, today launched a campaign to encourage countries in Latin American and the Caribbean to reduce maternal mortality, which increased by 15% between 2016 and 2020.

Around 8,400 women die each year in the region from complications in pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. High blood pressure, severe bleeding, and complications from unsafe abortion are the most common causes. However, nine out of ten of these deaths are preventable through quality care, access to contraception and by reducing inequities in access to care.

Continued: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/paho-and-partners-launch-campaign-reduce-maternal-mortality-latin-america-and-caribbean


Abortion may be legal in Argentina but women still face major obstacles

Mar 4, 2023
By Agustina Latourrette, BBC World Service

María was 23 when she decided to have an abortion. At the health centre where she had gone for treatment, she says she overheard one doctor saying to a colleague: "When will these girls learn to keep their legs closed?"

María lives in Salta, a religiously conservative province in north-west Argentina, where many healthcare workers are still against abortion. She was eventually given a pill to end her pregnancy, but she says the nurses were reluctant to treat her and wanted to make her feel guilty: "After I expelled the pregnancy tissue, I could see the foetus."

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64784660


While abortion restrictions spread across the U.S., access expands in Latin America

Some abortion rights advocates in the U.S. are seeking inspiration from their counterparts in Latin American countries where abortion access has expanded in recent years.

March 2, 2023
Sarah McCammon
3-Minute Listen with Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:
While abortion restrictions spread across the United States, abortion access has been expanding in Latin America. Some abortion rights advocates in the U.S. are now turning to the south for ideas and support. NPR's Sarah McCammon reports.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: As an immigrant from Colombia to the United States, Paula Avila-Guillen has watched the two countries move further apart on abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160563759/while-abortion-restrictions-spread-across-the-u-s-access-expands-in-latin-americ


The State of Reproductive Rights in the Americas

By Mariel Yacolca Maguina
Feb 11, 2023

Until 2019, abortions weren’t widely legal anywhere in Latin America except for Cuba and Uruguay; whereas, in the United States, Roe v. Wade widely legalized abortions throughout the country in 1973. Within the last two years, however, countries in Latin America made advances in reproductive rights while the U.S. became increasingly restrictive and finally overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson case. How have the United States and Latin America diverged in their approach to reproductive rights?

In 2015, Argentinian feminists marched with the slogan #NiUnaMenos [“Not one (woman) less”] and started demanding action against gender-based violence and for the end to abortion restrictions. In order to obtain support from the population, #NiUnaMenos framed the issue of abortion as a social justice problem that disproportionally affected low-income women who could not afford safe illegal abortions and often died during clandestine procedures. According to The Economist, upper and middle-class women could get safe illegal abortions by taking misoprostol, which cost about 112 USD, or a surgical abortion which cost 1000 USD. If there were complications, wealthy women could access private healthcare; whereas, low-income women had to seek aid at public hospitals, where the staff was likely to report them.

Continued: https://www.mironline.ca/the-state-of-reproductive-rights-in-the-americas/


Countries in the Americas should reinforce abortion protections, rights commission urges

El Salvador “stood out,” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said, for 30- and 50-year sentences for homicide even though activists said women suffered miscarriages.

Feb. 1, 2023
By Reuters

MEXICO CITY — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Wednesday called for countries in the Americas to reinforce protections for women and girls seeking abortions, after observing measures that “go backwards” last year.

“Both material and formal measures were observed that go backwards in the guarantee of reproductive rights free of all forms of violence and discrimination,” the IACHR said in a statement.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/countries-americas-reinforce-abortion-protections-rights-commission-ur-rcna68574


‘Outsider Girls,’ Chilean Dramedy About Abortion Dilemma, Debuts Trailer Ahead of Rotterdam Premiere

By Anna Marie de la Fuente
Jan 30, 2023

Niña Niño Films’ “Outsider Girls” (“Las Demás”), the debut feature of rising Chilean talent Alexandra Hyland, which world premieres in the Bright Future sidebar of Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam, has bowed its trailer exclusively with Variety.

Hyland was named one of Variety’s Five Chilean Talents to Watch in 2018. Her feature debut follows best friends Gaby (played by Alicia Luz Rodriguez) and Rafa (Nicole Sazo), two college girls whose pink-hued oasis is disrupted when Rafa gets pregnant after a night of debauchery. Given Chile’s ultra-conservative society, abortion is illegal except in extreme cases. They set out to earn enough to pay for the pricey abortion pills through a series of oddball part-time jobs, straining their friendship in the process.

Continued: https://variety.com/2023/film/global/outsider-girls-rotterdam-1235506196/


Latin American feminists vow to continue fight for abortion rights in 2023

Sexual and reproductive rights activists in the region say ‘our struggle continues’ to maintain progress so far

Angelina De Los Santos, OpenDemocracy
3 January 2023

Last year, while US conservatives led the Supreme Court to remove constitutional protection for abortion, feminists across Latin America and the Caribbean moved several governments in the opposite direction.

But the powerful movement behind such progressive change faces difficult challenges in 2023, including safeguarding hard-won rights and overcoming the disparity of abortion policies between different countries.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/latin-america-caribbean-abortion-rights-feminists/


Argentina – She had a miscarriage. Now she’s facing life in prison

By Natalie Alcoba
December 12, 2022

One morning in December 2020, La China* was overcome with abdominal cramps. She has polycystic ovary syndrome and has often suffered severe pain and irregular, heavy periods. The condition was a reason why she hadn’t realised she was pregnant until after eight months with her first child, and until after six months with the second.

That morning, in intense pain, the 43-year-old Venezuelan, who lives in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, took some painkillers and went to bed. But she began bleeding profusely. What happened next is disputed.

Continued: https://bhekisisa.org/features/2022-12-12-she-had-a-miscarriage-now-shes-facing-life-in-prison/


La Lucha Sigue: Lessons From Latin America’s Abortion Victories

Abortion advocates reeling from the end of Roe v. Wade can look to Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina for perspective, strategy, and hope.

Winter 2023, Bodies: In Depth
BY TINA VASQUEZ

NOV 21, 2022

The abortion rights movement in the United States is in the fight of its life. Although the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gave advance notice that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision was still a devastating blow. In the months since, the situation has only become more dire for people in need of abortion care. As of October 2022, abortion is banned or severely restricted in 15 states, with 11 additional states and territories threatening to restrict or eliminate access.

As a result, people needing abortions in the U.S. are looking everywhere to find health care—including across the border.

Continued: https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/bodies/2022/11/21/la-lucha-sigue-lessons-from-latin-americas-abortion-victories