Abortion bans affect Latinas the most among women of color, new report finds

Forty-two percent of Latinas live in the 26 states that have banned or are likely to ban abortions, the National Partnership for Women & Families and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice found.

Nov. 1, 2022
By Nicole Acevedo

Latinas are the largest group of women of color affected by current and future state abortion bans and restrictions: More than 4 in 10 Latinas of reproductive age live in the nearly two dozen states where officials are working to make abortion inaccessible.

A new analysis from the National Partnership for Women & Families and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, first shared with NBC News, found that close to 6.5 million Latinas (42% of all Latinas ages 15-49) live in 26 states that have banned or are likely to ban abortions after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade this summer.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latinas-most-impacted-abortion-bans-study-rcna54793

01.11.2022

Featured

News

abortion bans and Latinas

Candace Gibson

National Bureau of Economic Research

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

National Partnership for Women and Families

Yes, most Latinos are Christian. No, that doesn’t make them anti-abortion.

Why Latino voters have such a misunderstood stance on abortion.

By Nicole Narea
Sep 20, 2022

Alba has never been in a situation where she had to consider an abortion, even during four high-risk pregnancies. And the Latina mother of five from Dodge City, Kansas, doesn’t know what she’d do if she were in such a situation.

“Even if I don’t agree with it for myself, I’m not going to get in the way of somebody else seeking health care,” said Alba, who was raised Catholic and asked to be identified only by her first name because of the stigma around abortion in her conservative community. “The decisions that I make for myself are for myself only.”

Continued: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23322487/abortion-latino-voters-roe-midterms-election

20.09.2022

Commentary

Featured

abortion referendum

Alejandro Rangel-López

Brendan Steinhauser

Elizabeth Estrada

Latinos and abortion.

Matt Barreto

Mike Madrid

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

Latinas are the targets of abortion misinformation. Providers and advocates are pushing back

Most of the abortion misinformation comes from online platforms, anti-abortion protests outside clinics and crisis pregnancy centers run by anti-abortion rights activists.

Aug. 5, 2022
By Nicole Acevedo

Latinas who work in clinics and with organizations that are making abortions accessible after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade say they're increasingly having to counter abortion-related misinformation that can harm women and the larger communities the groups serve.

Misinformation spreaders have found ways to latch on to the national abortion conversation in English and in Spanish “to continue disseminating this misinformation at a more rapid pace,” said Susy Chávez of California Latinas for Reproductive Justice.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latinas-abortion-misinformation-online-spanish-hispanic-rcna40590

Challenges increase for immigrants accessing abortion after Roe reversal

From language to travel barriers, immigrants are left with few options.

By Amanda Su
July 17, 2022

After Texas' Senate Bill 8, which banned any abortions after the detection of embryonic cardiac activity, was allowed to go into effect last year, Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a physician at Planned Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston, said interstate travel was often the only recourse he could suggest for patients seeking to terminate their pregnancy.

But for one patient, that wasn't possible. Due to her pending immigration case, the patient could not travel more than 70 miles or would risk jeopardizing both her ability to remain in the country and the security of her two children, he said.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/challenges-increase-immigrants-accessing-abortion-roe-reversal/story?id=86404717

18.07.2022

abortion for undocumented people

Bolaños Perea

Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights

Dr. Bhavik Kumar

Dr. Kristyn Brandi

immigrants and abortion

Nancy Cárdenas Peña

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

Physicians for Reproductive Health

Planned Parenthood Center for Choice

Seri Lee

Mexican border town sees an increase in sales of abortion drugs to women from the U.S.

May 9, 2022
John Burnett, NPR

Since Texas passed a strict anti-abortion law in September, more and more women along the southern border have been going to unregulated pharmacies in Mexico to get abortion pills. Border health professionals fear the Mexican pharmacies have become a last resort for some women. Observers say it's a sign of what's to come if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

The main street of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico — just across the sluggish Rio Grande from Weslaco, Texas — is a chaotic border bazaar that caters to American day-trippers looking for bargains and exotica. The street is packed with businesses that sell prescription eyeglasses, dental care, switchblades, tequila shots, statues of ghoulish drug saints and over-the-counter medicine.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/09/1097210654/mexican-border-town-sees-an-increase-in-sales-of-abortion-drugs-to-women-from-th

09.05.2022

Dr. Roberto Diaz-Gonzalez

mifepristone

misoprostol

misoprostol in Mexico

Nancy Cárdenas Peña

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

Nuevo Progreso abortion pills

Mexico

Health

Human Rights

Lizelle Herrera’s case highlights the misunderstood realities of abortion access, criminalization, and advocacy in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley

Cross-movement collaboration at the intersections of criminal and reproductive justice helped local organizers mobilize quickly

by Tina Vásquez
April 21st, 2022

On April 8, a small news outlet covering Texas’ Rio Grande Valley published a story that sent shockwaves through the reproductive justice movement. A woman named Lizelle Herrera was arrested April 7 by the Starr County Sheriff’s Office and charged with murder for allegedly having a self-induced abortion, which is when a person chooses to perform their own abortion outside of a medical setting. According to her indictment, Herrera “intentionally and knowingly” caused “the death of an individual.” She was held at the Starr County Jail, and her bond was set at $500,000.

In the days since Herrera’s story was made public, there has been a great deal of reporting about whether her criminalization was simply “a hasty error” by a district attorney or a case that should be treated as “a warning” that “foreshadows [a] post-Roe future.” But for reproductive justice advocates in Texas who are forced to navigate some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, Herrera’s case isn’t merely a sign of what’s to come; it’s a reality that low-income women of color overwhelmingly shoulder. It’s also the inevitable result of complicated, convoluted anti-abortion laws.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2022/04/21/realities-navigating-texas-anti-abortion-laws/

How Grassroots Activists Forced a Texas District Attorney to Drop Murder Charges for Self-Induced Abortion

4/18/2022
by CARRIE N. BAKER

On Thursday, April 7, Texas police in the Rio Grande Valley arrested a woman and charged her with murder for allegedly self-inducing an abortion last January. The Starr County Sherriff’s Department detained 26-year-old Lizelle Herrera in a jail near the Texas-Mexico border on a $500,000 bail bond.

Reproductive justice advocates in the community organized a protest at the Starr County Jail on Saturday morning and urged people to call the jail demanding the release of Herrera. Calls poured in from across the country. By Saturday afternoon, If/When/How’s Repro Legal Defense Fund paid Herrera’s bail and she was released.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2022/04/18/frontera-fund-lizelle-herrera-murder-abortion-texas-activists/

Woman faces Texas murder charge after self-induced abortion

Authorities say a 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after causing “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion.”

By KEN MILLER and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press
9 April 2022

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas -- A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.

It’s unclear whether Lizelle Herrera is accused of having an abortion or whether she helped someone else get an abortion.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-induced-abortion-83982115

USA – A Reproductive-Rights Activist Explains the Realities of Abortion for Latina Women

“When you have to flee a country . . . it’s women who are being raped, sexually harassed, sexually assaulted,” Elizabeth Estrada, of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said.

By Lizzie Widdicombe
January 26, 2022

With the Supreme Court seemingly inching closer to overturning Roe v. Wade, many Americans are trying to imagine a future in which abortion is a crime in roughly half the country. How will women cope with unwanted pregnancies? What will the public-health consequences be? All signs point to a fractured nation, in which barriers to abortion exacerbate existing inequities. But, if you talk to reproductive-rights advocates, they’ll tell you that, to some extent, that America already exists. While abortion is technically constitutionally protected, in practical terms, many women have a hard time accessing the procedure, owing to restrictive local laws, prohibitive costs, and social stigma. That’s especially true for immigrants, the poor, and those living in marginalized communities.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/a-reproductive-rights-activist-explains-the-realities-of-abortion-for-latina-women

Indigenous and immigrant communities stand to be disproportionately affected by Texas’s abortion ban

For these groups, access to abortion has long been entangled in other structural and historical issues

Frances Nguyen, The Lily
September 14, 2021

Long before Texas’s Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8) went into effect on Sept. 1, making it the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, abortion rights advocates, providers and funds have been trying to interpret what the measure could actually mean for them, especially its most unprecedented provision: Private citizens, even people who live outside the state, are empowered to sue anyone they think may have “aided or abetted” someone getting an abortion after six weeks — before most people know they’re pregnant.

Many believe that, for those trying to access abortion care, anyone within their support system — from the doctor who administers the procedure to the fund that pays for their fees, and even the person who drives them to the clinic — could be liable for a civil suit for $10,000 for each abortion.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/indigenous-and-immigrant-communities-stand-to-be-disproportionately-affected-by-texass-abortion-ban/