Honduran Lawmakers Vote to Lock in Bans on Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

By Reuters
Jan. 21, 2021

TEGUCIGALPA (REUTERS) - Members of the Honduran Congress voted on Thursday to amend the constitution making it much harder to reverse existing hard-line bans on abortion and same-sex marriage, as lawmakers double down on socially conservative priorities.

Lawmakers voted to require a three-quarters super-majority to change a constitutional article that gives a fetus the same legal status of a person, and another that states that civil marriage in the Central American nation can only be between a man and a woman.

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-01-21/honduran-lawmakers-vote-to-lock-in-bans-on-abortion-same-sex-marriage

21.01.2021

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Juan Orlando Hernandez

Honduras lawmakers seek to lock in ban on abortion for ever

A constitutional reform would require a three-quarters majority in congress to overturn Latin America’s most draconian ban

Jeff Ernst in Tegucigalpa
Thu 21 Jan 2021

Legislators in Honduras are pushing a constitutional reform through Congress that would make it virtually impossible to legalise abortion in the country – now or in the future.

The measure, called a “shield against abortion” by its proponents, comes in response to the feminist “green wave” movement sweeping across Latin America that recently achieved its biggest victory yet with the legalisation of abortion in Argentina.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jan/21/honduras-abortion-constitutional-reform-ban

21.01.2021

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Honduras: UN experts deplore further attacks against right to safe abortion

United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
19 January 2021

GENEVA – UN human rights experts* today condemned a proposed bill that would basically block any potential progress on women's and girls' sexual and reproductive rights in Honduras, a country where one in four girls has been pregnant at least once before reaching age 19**.

The Constitutional amendment presented by a
deputy from the National Party and Vice-President of the Honduran Congress on
11 January would incorporate the absolute prohibition of abortion in article 67
of the national Constitution.

Continued: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26675&LangID=E

19.01.2021

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Dominican Republic activists fear total abortion ban banishes women to the dark ages

Scores of Dominican women die each year from botched attempts to end unwanted pregnancies

Michelle Del Rey in Santo Domingo
Mon 18 Jan 2021

As Argentina becomes the first major Latin American country to fully legalize abortion, activists in the Dominican Republic fear their own government is banishing its women to the dark ages by upholding a total ban first implemented in 1884.

The Dominican Republic is one of four countries in Latin America – along with Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador – where abortion is illegal in all circumstances.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jan/18/dominican-republic-total-abortion-ban

Rage and hope fuel women’s revolt over abortion in Poland

by VANESSA GERA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted Dec 2, 2020

WARSAW, Poland — Karolina Micula had used her bare chest in political protest once before.

When Poland’s right-wing government first tried to restrict abortion rights, the actress and singer delivered an intense performance onstage in Wroclaw in 2017 that included her spreading paint in the national colours — white and red — onto her breasts and face, ending with a fist raised high.

Continued: https://www.570news.com/2020/12/02/rage-and-hope-fuel-womens-revolt-over-abortion-in-poland/

Poland’s recent challenge on the road towards emancipation of women

Abortion has always been a topic of dispute regarding both women’s rights and a broader notion of human rights.

Monday, 30 November 2020
Sukran Unal

Various political, medical, religious or ethical
views on the topic have eventually led to the deepening of the controversy and
blocked the way to figure out a common solution across the world. Today, there
are also ongoing debates in the EU concerning the ethics and legitimacy of
abortion.

The issue is attributed utmost importance not only by most of the EU Member
States, but also by the EU itself, as well as the candidate countries having to
comply with the acquis to realise their prospective EU membership aspirations.

Continued: https://www.brusselstimes.com/opinion/140805/an-eu-wide-debate-polands-recent-challenge-on-the-road-towards-emancipation-of-women/

30.11.2020

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Poland’s government creates constitutional crisis it will find hard to resolve

Malgorzata Tomczak, Warsaw
November 30, 2020

In the past, the problems of the country’s constitutional court were seen as complex and detached from people’s daily lives. Until now that is, when they started to impact on the most private and sensitive areas of Polish women’s lives.

With its recent legal attempt to put further limits on abortion, the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has created a constitutional crisis that will be hard to resolve. And its reckless actions are already impacting on Polish women’s lives.

Continued: https://balkaninsight.com/2020/11/30/polands-government-creates-constitutional-crisis-it-will-find-hard-to-resolve/

Polish de facto ban on abortion puts women’s lives at risk, says Parliament

November 27, 2020
by The Sting's Team

MEPs condemn the setback to women’s sexual and reproductive rights in Poland and stress the EU’s legal obligation to uphold and protect them.

In a resolution adopted with 455 votes to 145 and 71 abstentions, Parliament says that the ruling of 22 October by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal to make abortion illegal in cases involving severe and irreversible foetal defects “puts women’s health and lives at risk”, as most legal abortions in the country are performed on those grounds. Banning that option, which accounted for 96% of legal pregnancy terminations in Poland in 2019 (1,074 out of 1,110), would lead to an increase in “unsafe, clandestine and life-threatening abortions”, MEPs warn.

Continued: https://europeansting.com/2020/11/27/polish-de-facto-ban-on-abortion-puts-womens-lives-at-risk-says-parliament/

27.11.2020

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Poland’s abortion protests: A fight for democracy?

(25 minute video)
27 Nov 2020
Al Jazeera

In this episode of UpFront, we debate the abortion ban and the protests it has triggered with Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Paweł Jabłoński and Karolina Wigura, political editor of the Polish weekly Kultura Liberalna.

And in a Special Interview, we discuss climate justice and Indigenous rights with activist and economist Winona LaDuke.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2020/11/27/polands-abortion-protests-a-fight-for-democracy/

Model Anja Rubik poses naked on three covers for Vogue Poland’s Power of Women issue to protest against country’s new tighter abortion laws

By LATOYA GAYLE
27 November 2020

Social media users have praised Vogue Poland for supporting pro-choice campaigners following the ruling to ban abortions in Poland in all but exceptional cases.

Polish model Anja Rubik, 37, stripped off to appear on three different covers for the glossy publication entitled 'The Power of Women', in response to the country now having some of the most draconian abortion laws in Europe, which sparked nationwide protests last month.

Continued: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8990693/Vogue-Poland-shows-support-pro-choice-following-abortion-ban.html

27.11.2020