The 12-week abortion myth blocking reproductive care across Latin America

There is no scientific reason for time limits on abortion – so why are they used to deny vulnerable people healthcare?

By Angelina de los Santos, Open Democracy
August 05, 2026

Four years ago, a 17-year-old arrived at a hospital in Mexico seeking an abortion. She had been raped and forced to flee to the mountains by an organised crime gang, and was the sole carer for her sister, who lived with mental health conditions.

Under Mexican legislation, the teenager was allowed an abortion, which has been legal in cases of sexual or domestic violence since 2009. But the primary healthcare centres that had previously treated her did not offer a termination, and by the time she reached the hospital, she was at an advanced stage of pregnancy and doctors refused to provide one.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/abortion-mexico-latin-america-12-week-time-limit-myth-science-law-autonomy/

Calling for the urgent protection of women’s sexual and reproductive health amid the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela

31 July 2026
FIGO - Dr Aparna Sridhar, Diya Shah Patel, Prof Helena Paro and Dr Margit Endle

In June 2026, two consecutive earthquakes killed at least 4,700 people and injured more than 16,000 individuals in Venezuela, exacerbating a pre-existing humanitarian crisis1. Close to 59,000 buildings are estimated to have been destroyed, and Venezuela’s already fragile infrastructure was further damaged, leaving many people displaced.2 Women’s sexual and reproductive health is expected to be further affected in the coming months, and efforts must be directed towards ensuring access to essential, life-saving health services.

After more than a decade of underfunding, health worker emigration and deteriorating public infrastructure, the current humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has struck an already fragile reproductive health system. The country’s maternal mortality ratio was estimated at 125 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017, up from 52.8 in 1997, evidencing limited access to safe abortion services – abortion is only legally permitted when a woman’s life is at risk – and the erosion of decades of progress in maternal health. UNICEF’s 2026 humanitarian appeal for Venezuela was only 35 percent funded before the earthquakes struck, and capacity on the ground has been weakened by global funding cuts to the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) sector.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/blog/calling-urgent-protection-womens-sexual-and-reproductive-health-amid-humanitarian-crisis

31.07.2026

Commentary

FIGO

gender-based violence

maternal mortality

sexual and reproductive health and rights

In Bolivia, climate change is reshaping decisions about pregnancy, contraception and family

In Bolivia, climate change is reshaping decisions about pregnancy, contraception and family
Ipas research with Indigenous communities in Bolivia shows how drought, floods and food insecurity are affecting reproductive health, livelihoods and gender dynamics.

July 28, 2026
Ipas

In rural Bolivia, the weather no longer follows the patterns the elders taught. “You can’t plan anymore. You wait for the rain, you plant, and it doesn’t rain again. The sun is extremely harsh. It’s become quite hard to talk about life in the countryside—it’s just not there anymore.”

Those words came from a Guaraní woman in Bolivia’s Chaco region, in one of eight Indigenous communities across four of the country’s ecological regions where Ipas researchers spent weeks documenting how climate change was impacting daily life. They learned about harvests that no longer come in, water sources that had dried up or been contaminated, and husbands and partners who left to find work in cities.

They spoke with women who shared that these impacts made them hesitate to have children at all. “Climate change affects a lot—you don’t want to have many children anymore because it’s already costly, sometimes there’s no work… There’s nothing to eat.” – Indigenous woman, Bolivia

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/in-bolivia-climate-change-is-reshaping-decisions-about-pregnancy-contraception-and-family/

28.07.2026

Commentary

climate change and reproductive justice

climate change and women's rights

Chile – Political Undertones of the Anti-Abortion Bill: Urruticoechea, the Kaisers, and Ethical Concerns

The controversial anti-abortion bill proposed by the far-right is closely tied to political connections, particularly with its main proponent, Cristóbal Urruticoechea, a deputy of the National Libertarian Party, who is married to Senator Vanessa Kaiser.

20/07/2026

The controversial anti-abortion bill proposed by the far-right is closely linked to political ties: its main proponent, Cristóbal Urruticoechea, a deputy of the National Libertarian Party (PNL), has been married since February to Senator Vanessa Kaiser, sister of Johannes and Axel Kaiser.

The initiative titled «Listen to His Heart» requires women to hear fetal heartbeats before obtaining an abortion. This proposal was introduced on June 7 by Urruticoechea along with deputies Chiara Barchiesi (Republican Party), Catalina del Real (Republican Party), Álvaro Jofré (National Libertarian Party), Claudia Reyes (Republican Party), and Ximena Ossandón (Renewal National), who later withdrew her signature, admitting it was a “mistake” to endorse it.

Continued: https://www.elciudadano.com/en/political-undertones-of-the-anti-abortion-bill-urruticoechea-the-kaisers-and-ethical-concerns/07/20/

20.07.2026

Commentary

anti-choice misogyny

Cristóbal Urruticoechea

Chile Abortion Bill Puts Women’s Choice Through a Political Stethoscope

The Latin American Post
July 15, 2026

A far-right proposal in Chile would require doctors to offer fetal cardiac audio before legal abortions, then deny the procedure when patients decline. The contradiction has reopened a struggle over autonomy, trauma and President José Antonio Kast’s promised political restraint.

A Choice That Cancels Itself
The scene written into Chile’s latest abortion bill is intimate by design. A doctor tells a patient that embryonic or fetal cardiac activity is detectable, then offers to make it audible. She may say no. Under the bill’s own language, the physician must then refuse the abortion and record her decision. This is the controversy’s hinge: the proposal calls her refusal free, yet attaches the loss of care to it. Choice becomes ceremony, then consequence. The clinical room becomes a checkpoint, and consent becomes conditional, too.

Continued: https://latinamericanpost.com/life/chile-abortion-bill-puts-womens-choice-through-a-political-stethoscope/

Latin American Feminists Train U.S.-Based Doulas on New Mifepristone Protocol for Second-Trimester Abortions

U.S. abortion doulas are turning to decades of Latin American feminist expertise to make second-trimester medication abortions safer, less painful and more accessible

June 5, 2026
by Carrie N. Baker

Across the world, women living in countries that ban licensed clinicians from performing abortions have always found ways to access abortion outside of the medical system. Today, abortion pills have made it much safer.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and many states banned abortion, U.S.-based activists turned to Latin American feminists who have run collectives supporting women seeking abortions outside of the medical system for decades.

With their guidance, U.S.-based activists have created their own feminist collectives that now serve thousands of women and girls each month in 38 states that ban and restrict abortion access, including the entire Southeast and much of the Midwest of the country. These collectives provide free abortion pills and the doula support to see them through.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/06/05/two-mifepristone-home-self-managed-abortion-pills-later-late-term-second-trimester-pregnancy/

Brazil moves to limit abortion access for child rape victims

Jun 03, 2026

BRASILIA – Brazilian lawmakers voted on June 2 to make it tougher for underage victims of sexual violence to access abortion, in a lightning vote that followed less than two minutes of debate.

The vote moves to dismantle a resolution from the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents that mandates prioritising the interests of victims.

“It is a historic defeat in the comprehensive protection of girls and adolescents in Brazil,” the state body said in a statement, calling it a “serious setback”.

Continued: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/brazil-moves-to-limit-abortion-access-for-child-rape-victims

03.06.2026

News

Damares Alves

National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents

rape and abortion

sexual violence and abortion

Too many global funders are overlooking women in Latin America

Alyse Lopez-Salm and Daniela Perdomo

1 June 2026

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the most dangerous regions in the world to be a woman—yet it remains one of the most underfunded.

Despite systemic denial of reproductive rights, high levels of gender-based violence, accelerating climate risk, and worsening restrictions on civil society’s freedoms of association, assembly, and expression, global investments in women in LAC fall short—with drastic consequences in a region rife with extreme inequality.

Continued: https://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/too-many-global-funders-are-overlooking-women-in-latin-america/

01.06.2026

gender-based violence

global funders of abortion

Beyond American Exceptionalism: What the Success of the Green Wave Can Teach U.S. Abortion Activists

As abortion rights erode across the United States, feminist organizers are looking to Argentina’s Green Wave and other global movements for lessons in solidarity, strategy and mass mobilization.

5/21/2026
by Clare Daniel and Martha Silva

The United States has long positioned itself as an enlightened exporter of democratic governance, moral correctness and technical expertise. The notion of American exceptionalism—in which the U.S. is thought to possess a distinct character born of its revolutionary history, frontier spirit and democratic structure—dates back to the 1800s and has informed approaches to international development and global governance throughout the 20th century to today.

While the idea of the U.S. as a bastion of moral superiority has always been a myth—evident, for example, in efforts to shield Jim Crow laws from scrutiny in the founding of the United Nations—the overturning of Roe v. Wade is one of the latest reminders of this fallacy, particularly as it pertains to global health and women’s rights. It is also a cautionary tale for the rest of the world about the fragility of reproductive rights.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/05/21/america-abortion-latin-america-green-wave-activism/

The Right to Abortion in Colombia: An Interview with Alejandra Alemán

April 9, 2026
Women’s Link Worldwide

In recent years, Colombia has established itself as one of the countries with the most advanced legal framework on abortion in Latin America. However, legislative progress does not always translate into effective access for all women and pregnant people.

We spoke with Alejandra Alemán, an attorney at Women’s Link, to better understand the current state of abortion rights in Colombia, the changes following decriminalization, and the main challenges that remain.

Continued: https://womenslinkworldwide.org/en/the-right-to-abortion-in-colombia-an-interview-with-alejandra-aleman/

09.04.2026