Colombia – ‘It’s not the 90s any more’: the all-women team reinventing abortion advice for the TikTok age

The irreverent approach of the Colombian hotline Jacarandas has made it the most-followed abortion account on social media in the Spanish-speaking world

Isabel Choat
Tue 13 Jan 2026

What do a purple cartoon cat and abortion have in common? Nothing – and that is the point, say the women behind Jacarandas, a Colombian abortion helpline. Determined to set themselves apart from more traditional reproductive health organisations, Jacarandas commissions street and graphic artists to create eye-catching illustrations – most recently a cartoon feline called Gataranda, inspired by the team’s much-loved office pet.

The aim is not to make light of abortion but to appeal to the teenagers and young women who use Jacarandas’ services. “A lot of people do not connect with [an image of] the uterus on fire, so we thought ‘what can we do to connect more with young women?” says Carolina Benítez Mendoza, the deputy director.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/13/its-not-the-90s-any-more-the-all-women-team-reinventing-abortion-advice-for-the-tiktok-age

Oscar-Shortlisted Film ‘Belén’ Exposes the Injustice That Helped Transform Argentina’s Abortion Laws

Based on a true story, Belén revisits a miscarriage turned prosecution, and the movement that refused to let it stand.

Jan 13, 2026
by S. Mona Sinha

Belén didn’t know she was pregnant until she miscarried in a hospital. She’d gone to the emergency room suffering excruciating abdominal pain. Instead of receiving care, she awoke from surgery handcuffed to her hospital bed, accused of having an illegal abortion.

This is the true story behind Belén, a powerful new Argentine film directed by, co-written by and starring Dolores Fonzi. It is based on the ordeal of a young woman from northern Argentina, chronicled in Ana Correa’s nonfiction book What Happened to Belén: The Unjust Imprisonment That Sparked a Women’s Rights Movement, the prologue of which was written by Margaret Atwood. (Belén is a pseudonym to protect her identity.)

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/13/oscar-film-belen-argentina-abortion-laws-miscarriage/

13.01.2026

What Happened to Belén: The Unjust Imprisonment That Sparked a Women’s Rights Movement

Guyana – The Great Abortion Resistance: The Government v Mid-level Health Workers

By Fred Nunes (Stabroek News)

January 12, 2026

On January 15, 2026, the Government of Guyana will celebrate the tenth anniversary of its quiet disregard of an unequivocal High Court ruling regarding mid-level health care professionals and early term, non-surgical abortion services. Ever since 1995, all duly registered mid-level health workers have been legally authorized to perform early term, non-surgical abortions.

There is no need for additional registration to perform abortions. They only need three things: (i) access to Misoprostol (Cytotec), (ii) a cooperating physician, and (iii) the Form F on which they must submit an anonymous report. That’s all.

But the Ministry of Health has waged a very successful, 30-year war against this provision. Why?

Continued: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2026/01/12/features/in-the-diaspora/the-great-abortion-resistance-the-government-v-mid-level-health-workers/

12.01.2026

Royal College of Nursing

New Book Outlines Medication Abortion’s Origins—From ‘Chance’ Discovery to Decades of Clinical Tests and Global Approval

“Just Pills” author Rebecca Kelliher also discusses how the U.S. stacks up against Latin America on abortion rights, and what we can learn from the region’s fight for reproductive justice.

Dec 16, 2025
Catesby Holmes

The abortion drug mifepristone has transformed abortion care in the U.S. since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration 25 years ago.

…Journalist Rebecca Kelliher’s recent book, Just Pills, traces the history of abortion medications, starting with misoprostol’s whispered origins among Brazilian women in the 1980s as a “pill that makes your period back” through decades of clinical trials and widespread use in almost 100 countries.

Rewire News Group spoke with Kelliher about abortion politics, the disinformation that swirls around reproductive rights, and inspiration from abroad.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/12/16/mifepristone-just-pills-rebecca-kelliher-book/

Dolores Fonzi on Argentine Abortion Rights Film ‘Belén’

Dano Nissen
December 15, 2025

Dolores Fonzi spoke with the Knockturnal about her film “Belén.” The film follows the true story of its titular character, a young Argentine woman who miscarries a pregnancy and is charged with an illegal abortion. Fonzi plays Soledad Deza, the lawyer who represents Belén. She also directed the film.

I want to start with the very first scene. It’s very thrilling and fast-paced and has a very different tone from the rest of the film. So tell me, as a director, because that’s one of the few scenes you’re not in, right? What was it like creating that feeling at the beginning of the film?

Continued: https://theknockturnal.com/dolores-fonzi-on-argentine-abortion-rights-film-belen/amp/

15.12.2025

Argentina – We Are All Belén

by Michelle Young
December 15, 2025

Belén (2025) is Argentina’s International Feature Film entry for the upcoming Oscars. The story is a true one, and it follows Belén, a pseudonym for a real woman who is falsely imprisoned for having an abortion, when she really had a miscarriage. Belén is held for over two years in Tucumán, Argentina, before being released in 2016. By telling her story, the film shows us a society that’s happy to predetermine a woman’s guilt when it comes to questions around abortion.

Unaware she’s pregnant, Belén goes to the hospital presenting with severe abdominal pain. The doctor determines she’s having a miscarriage at 22 weeks, which is considered the second trimester. It’s important to know that it’s entirely possible to be pregnant for this long and not know it – there’s even a term for it – a cryptic pregnancy.

Continued: https://latinamedia.co/belen/

Rollback and Resistance: The Erosion of Abortion Access in Argentina

Dec 10, 2025
Mercedes Sayagues

The movie “Belén”, Argentina’s submission for the 2026 Oscars, tells the story of a 26-year-old woman who suffered a miscarriage in a hospital in Tucuman province in 2014 and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2016 after being convicted of procuring an illegal abortion.

Her case sparked a nationwide campaign to decriminalize abortion, known as the Green Tide after the green scarves protestors wore.

In December 2020, the Green Tide won: abortion was legalized on request up to 14 weeks, and later in cases of rape or risk to the woman’s physical or mental health.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/rollback-and-resistance-the-erosion-of-abortion-access-in-argentina/

Kast, the favorite to win Chile’s presidential runoff, could limit abortion access

By Sarah Morland and Nicolas Cortes
November 27, 2025

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's gradual expansion of abortion access is at risk of a dramatic reversal as far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast, a staunch Catholic who opposes even morning-after contraception, surges toward a likely presidential runoff victory in December.

Abortion in Chile, which was completely banned under the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, was partially decriminalized in 2017, when it became legal only in cases of risk to the woman's life, fetal inviability and rape.

Continued: https://archive.is/flqrx
(https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/kast-favorite-win-chiles-presidential-runoff-could-limit-abortion-access-2025-11-27/)

27.11.2025

With Friends and At Home

The Negative Impact of Police Reporting Requirements on Health Professional Ethics in Brazil

Center for Reproductive Rights
November 14, 2025

The police reporting requirement under Brazil’s Reporting Law places health professionals in a dynamic of dual loyalty to, on the one hand, their ethical duties and obligations to patients and, on the other, their role in the criminal legal system that they have been co-opted into by law to facilitate abortion criminalization against patient care, health, and well-being. Police reporting has wide-ranging impacts on professional duties related to confidentiality, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, non-discrimination, and respect for human rights, especially when the reporting requirement is incorrectly interpreted to enable the identification of patients and providers and of specific information about the sexual violence preceding abortion care.

Health professionals must act to ensure that they, and those with whom they collaborate in providing care, comply with ethical duties and obligations to patients.

Brazil’s Ministry of Health should promulgate revised regulations and release guidance to clarify applicable law and procedures and explicitly signal that the proper scope of the Reporting Law excludes mandatory notification to law enforcement authorities that identify patients seeking legal abortion on the basis that the pregnancy resulted from rape.

Read the full report: https://reproductiverights.org/resources/the-negative-impact-of-police-reporting-requirements-on-health-professional-ethics-in-brazil/

14.11.2025

Commentary

Research

Brazil's reporting law

health professional ethics

Belén review – gripping true story of woman unjustly accused of illegal abortion

In Argentina a lawyer fights to free a working-class woman jailed after the miscarriage of her baby in this heartfelt retelling

Cath Clarke
Wed 5 Nov 2025

Belén is a pseudonym; in 2014, a 25-year-old woman arrived at a hospital in Argentina with severe abdominal pain that turned out to be a miscarriage. She had no idea she was 22 weeks pregnant, but doctors suspected she had had an abortion, then illegal in Argentina, and called the police. Belén was charged with aggravated homicide and sentenced to eight years in prison. When her case was taken up by feminist lawyer Soledad Deza it sparked protests, thousands taking to the streets in green scarves. This heartfelt drama tells the story, mostly from the perspective of lawyer Deza (played by the film’s director Dolores Fonzi).

It begins in the hospital. The doctor in charge barely bothers to look up at Belén from his clipboard – she is a poor working-class woman and this will determine her fate. After a foetus is found in the hospital toilet, police arrive, handcuffing Belén to her bed. They do not carry out DNA tests on the foetus, so there is no physical evidence – a fact not raised by the blood-boilingly lazy defence at her trial.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/nov/05/belen-review-gripping-true-story-of-woman-unjustly-accused-of-abortion

05.11.2025