Abortion: The double torture of a girl in Bolivia

Abortion: The double torture of a girl in Bolivia

Written by George Holan
December 3, 2021

The ordeal of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after repeated rapes by a relative has given visibility, albeit fleetingly, to the enormous obstacles that stand in the way of access to legal abortion in Bolivia.

After weeks of disseminating the case in the local media and thanks to the intervention of the Ombudsman’s Office, the girl was finally able to terminate her pregnancy on November 6. Since then, the subject has disappeared from public discussion, as if it had been an exceptional case.

Continued: https://plainsmenpost.com/2021/12/03/abortion-the-double-torture-of-a-girl-in-bolivia-opinion/

Sexual violence and abortion restrictions in Paraguay are fueling an epidemic of childhood pregnancy: Amnesty

By Kara Fox, CNN
Wed December 1, 2021

(CNN) An epidemic of childhood pregnancy in Paraguay is being fueled by widespread sexual abuse and restrictive abortion laws, according to a new Amnesty International report.

At least 1,000 girls aged 14 or younger gave birth in the country between 2019 and 2020, the report says. It adds that more than 12,000 teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 gave birth in 2019.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/01/americas/paraguay-pregnancy-child-abuse-sexual-violence-intl/index.html

Chile lawmakers knock down bill to ease abortion rules

by Fabian Cambero
Nov 30, 2021

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's lower Chamber of Deputies rejected a bill on Tuesday that sought to expand legal access for women to get abortions, legislation that was opposed by the South American country's center-right government.

At the end of
September, legislators in the chamber voted in favor of studying and debating
the bill, that proposed legalizing termination of pregnancy up to 14 weeks.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chile-lawmakers-knock-down-bill-ease-abortion-rules-2021-11-30/

30.11.2021

’The court owes it to women’: Groups decry Colombia’s abortion ruling delay

The Constitutional Court had been expected to make history Friday, but it didn't happen. Unsafe abortions are the country's fourth-leading cause of maternal mortality.

Nov. 23, 2021

By Albinson Linares, Noticias Telemundo

Women's groups that sued to decriminalize abortion in Colombia are pushing for
a decision after a much-anticipated ruling from the country's top court was
postponed last week.

“The court owes it to women," Catalina Martínez Coral, the Latin America
and Caribbean director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Noticias
Telemundo.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/-court-owes-women-groups-decry-colombias-abortion-ruling-delay-rcna6477

Colombia on Cusp of Decriminalizing Abortion

With a majority vote in the Constitutional Court this week, Colombia could become the first country in Latin America to remove abortion from its penal code.

Sophie Foggin
November 17, 2021

A few months after arriving in Colombia with her three children, Evaluna, a then 22-year-old migrant from Venezuela, discovered she was pregnant.

“I felt scared; I was very depressed,” she said, after finding out the news. “I had no way of maintaining [the baby] because I didn’t have a job.”

Continued: https://nacla.org/colombia-cusp-decriminalizing-abortion

Colombia Weighs Abortion Decriminalization As Feminist ‘Green Wave’ Sweeps Latin America

Travis Waldron
Thu, November 11, 2021

Colombia’s top constitutional court is set to rule in the coming days in a landmark case that could fully decriminalize abortion, a result that would provide the latest jolt to the feminist “Green Wave” movement that has pushed for and won expanded reproductive rights across Latin America.

In December, Argentina became the largest of the region’s nations to legalize abortion. In April, Ecuador’s top court decriminalized abortion in instances of rape, expanding the number of circumstances in which it is allowed. Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in September that criminal penalties for abortion are unconstitutional, paving the way for legalization across a country where abortion has been legal in some states for more than a decade. The same month, Chile’s lower chamber of congress opened debate on legislation to expand legal access to abortion, although it has not yet become law.

Continued: https://news.yahoo.com/colombia-weighs-abortion-decriminalization-feminist-163746267.html

11-year-old whose pregnancy ignited a debate in Bolivia granted an abortion

by Maite Fernández Simon
Nov 9, 2021

An 11-year-old girl, whose pregnancy reignited debate about the legality of abortion in Bolivia, moved forward with the procedure Saturday after receiving official approval, government officials told reporters.

Eduardo del Castillo, Bolivia’s government minister, said in a news conference on Sunday that “the girl discontinued her pregnancy,” “in accordance with current laws and what has been decided by the judicial authorities in our country,” according to the EFE, a Spanish news agency. She has been released from the hospital and is being monitored by the children’s ombudsman in Yapacaní, in the Santa Cruz province.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/09/bolivia-abortion-debate-pregnant-girl/

09.11.2021

Featured

News

Ana Paola García Villagomez

Bolivia: Protests erupt and church criticised for interfering with 11-year-old girl’s abortion

Church authorities reportedly promised to help the family, who then decided not to allow the abortion to go ahead.

Saturday 30 October 2021

The Bolivian government has criticised the Catholic Church for interfering in an 11-year-old girl's abortion.

The girl became pregnant after allegedly being raped by her step-grandfather and, after her pregnancy was discovered at 21 weeks, her family requested permission for her to have an abortion.

Continued: https://news.sky.com/story/bolivia-protests-erupt-and-church-criticised-for-interfering-with-11-year-old-girls-abortion-12454863

30.10.2021

Featured

News

Bolivian Episcopal Conference

‘Saving millions of lives’: Abortion could be decriminalised in Colombia in next month

‘Many women in Colombia are forced to have their rapist’s baby,’ says lawyer

Maya Oppenheim, Women’s Correspondent
Oct 30, 2021

Abortion could be decriminalised in Colombia in the next month as landmark decisions to legalise pregnancy terminations in Latin America have a “ripple effect” across the region, campaigners said.

Colombia decriminalised pregnancy terminations for women whose life or health is at risk, or in cases where there are fatal foetal abnormalities, or if the pregnancy is the by-product of rape or incest, back in 2006.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/abortion-colombia-constitutional-court-decriminalised-b1947814.html?r=2891

Bolivia: fate of 11-year-old girl raped by family member sparks abortion debate

Religious groups seek to force girl to give birth as intervention of the Catholic church questioned

Dan Collyns in Lima
Fri 29 Oct 2021

The fate of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family member has unleashed a fierce debate between human rights activists and the Catholic church in Bolivia, as religious groups seek to force her to complete the pregnancy and give birth.

The girl was impregnated after being repeatedly raped and suffering other sexual abuse by the father of her stepfather in the town of Yapacaní, in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz region.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/29/bolivia-11-year-old-girl-rape-catholic-church