El Salvador violated woman’s rights in high-stakes abortion case, court rules

By Reuters December 20, 2024

SAN JOSE/SAN SALVADOR - El Salvador violated a woman's rights after denying her an abortion in 2013 despite doctors' calls to terminate her high-risk pregnancy, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR)said on Friday.

The case of the woman, a domestic worker known as Beatriz, became a symbol of El Salvador's blanket ban on abortion, which punishes with prison time those who undergo the procedure, perform it or assist with it.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-violated-womans-rights-high-stakes-abortion-case-human-rights-court-2024-12-20/


Proposal to Ban Abortion in Brazil, Even in Legally Permitted Cases, Advances

There were 35 votes in favor and 15 against in the committee; government advised against it

Nov.27.2024
The Constitution and Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday (27) a PEC (proposed constitutional amendment) aiming to ban abortion in Brazil, under protest from left-wing parliamentarians.

The vote was 35 in favor and 15 against. The government advised against it. The committee session had to be interrupted for about 50 minutes after a group of women entered the plenary to protest.

Continued: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/scienceandhealth/2024/11/proposal-to-ban-abortion-in-brazil-even-in-legally-permitted-cases-advances.shtml


Activists Protest Bill to Keep Total Abortion Ban in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Senate will approve a new bill that would to continue to criminalize abortion in any circumstance

Dominican Republic Abortion

By  Sofía Aguilar
July 26, 2024

Over the past few years, we have seen different developments in the fight for abortion rights across Latin America. Last year, Mexico’s Supreme Court made headlines for decriminalizing abortion, allowing doctors and medical facilities who refused to complete the procedure to be taken to court. However, there are other countries who have continued to restrict or outright ban abortion and reproductive freedoms like the Dominican Republic.

This month, the Dominican Senate announced that they are days away from giving final approval to bill for a new criminal code that would keep the total abortion ban in place. It was introduced to the Senate in June, which was given initial approval, and it will soon become codified in national law. The code will criminalize abortion with no exceptions, even if the mother’s life is at risk, if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, or if the fetus will not carry to term. In response, local abortion rights activists have taken to the streets to protest, arguing that this code will drastically impact the lives of women and all people who can become pregnant and give birth, the Associated Press reported.

Continued: https://hiplatina.com/dominican-republic-anti-abortion-protests/


Dominican activists protest against a new criminal code that would maintain a total abortion ban

Activists in the Dominican Republic are protesting against a bill for a new criminal code that would retain a total abortion ban

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press
July 17, 2024

Activists in the Dominican Republic protested on Wednesday against a bill for a new criminal code that would keep in place the country’s total abortion ban.

The Dominican Senate gave initial approval to the bill in late June and lawmakers are expected to give it final approval in the next few days.

“We continue to fight,” said feminist activist Sergia Galván, who along with fellow protesters have asked for legal abortion when the woman’s life is at risk, when a pregnancy is the product of rape or incest, and in cases of fetal malformation incompatible with life.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dominican-activists-protest-new-criminal-code-maintain-total-112054507


Dominican Republic’s Senate Doubles Down on Abortion Ban in Criminal Code

Bill Reduces Penalties for Sexual Violence, Excludes LGBT People from Protection

Stephanie Lustig, Research Assistant, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch
July 3, 2024

A deeply problematic bill for a new Criminal Code is now approaching final approval in the Dominican Republic's Senate. The bill, which the Senate approved on first review on June 26, maintains the country's complete ban on abortion. It also reduces penalties for sexual violence within marriage, classified as ‘non-consensual sexual activity,’ and continues to exclude sexual orientation from the list of characteristics protected from discrimination, thus failing to afford equal protection to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

The Dominican Republic is one of only five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that maintains a total prohibition on abortion and imposes incarceration for women and girls seeking abortions, as well as for those performing them. For decades, women's rights organizations have called for access to safe and legal abortion.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/03/dominican-republics-senate-doubles-down-abortion-ban-criminal-code


Louisiana’s move to criminalize abortion pills is cruel and medically senseless

Louisiana, with one of the US’s worst maternal mortality rates, wants to make abortion medication a ‘controlled substance’

Moira Donegan
Wed 29 May 2024

This week, Louisiana moved to expand the criminalization of abortion further than any state has since before Roe v Wade was decided. On Thursday, the state legislature passed a bill that would reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol – the two drugs used in a majority of American abortions – as dangerous controlled substances.

Under both state and federal classifications, the category of controlled substances includes those medications known to cause mind-altering effects and create the potential for addictions, such as sedatives and opioids; abortion medications carry none of this potential for physical dependence, habit-forming or abuse. The move from Louisiana lawmakers runs counter to both established medical opinion and federal law.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/29/louisiana-abortion-pill-law


‘Forced Motherhood’: Honduras Reported To UN For Abortion Ban

By AFP - Agence France Presse
April 10, 2024

An Indigenous woman has reported her country, Honduras, to the UN Human Rights Committee for denying her an abortion after she was raped, rights groups said Wednesday.

It is the first time the Central American country has been brought before the UN for its absolute abortion ban which has meant "forced motherhood" for countless women and girls, said the Center for Reproductive Rights, an NGO supporting the case brought by the woman identified only as Fausia.

Continued: https://www.barrons.com/news/forced-motherhood-honduras-reported-to-un-for-abortion-ban-b3817b30


Arizona supreme court upholds 1864 law banning almost all abortions

Justices rule to hold off on requiring state to enforce ban for 14 days, to allow advocates to ask lower court to pause it again

Carter Sherman
Tue 9 Apr 2024

The Arizona supreme court ruled Tuesday to let a law banning almost all abortions in the state go into effect, a decision that could curtail abortion access in the US south-west and could make Arizona one of the biggest battlefields in the 2024 electoral fight over abortion rights.

The justices said Arizona could enforce a 1864 near-total abortion ban, first passed before Arizona became a state, that went unenforced for decades after the US supreme court legalized abortion nationwide in the 1973 decision Roe v Wade. However, the justices also ruled to hold off on requiring the state to enforce the ban for 14 days, in order to allow advocates to ask a lower court to pause it again.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/09/arizona-supreme-court-abortion-decision


Welcome to El Salvador where a miscarriage sends you to jail

Tuesday, January 23, 2024
By Moraa Obiria, The Nation

What you need to know:
The country in Central America has laws tormenting women and girls with the harshest abortion laws under the sun.
Should a woman abort, regardless of circumstances, the law sends them to jail for between two to eight years.
A 19-year-old woman who miscarried after a rape ordeal was charged with aggravated homicide-intentional and premeditated killing of another person - and jailed for 30 years.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/welcome-to-el-salvador-where-a-miscarriage-sends-you-to-jail-4499792


Kate Cox on her struggle to obtain an abortion in Texas

January 12, 2024
CBS News

Kate Cox was pregnant with her third child when she learned the baby had a rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 18.  Cox and her husband, Justin, were informed by their doctors that if their child survived the pregnancy, her life expectancy would be at best a week. With the baby's health at risk as well as her own, Kate and Justin Cox sued the state of Texas for the right to have an abortion.

In her first interview since the Texas Supreme Court ruled against her, Cox talks about the case, her decision to have an abortion in New Mexico, and more in an interview with Tracy Smith for "CBS News Sunday Morning," to be broadcast Sunday, January 14 on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kate-cox-interview-on-her-struggle-to-obtain-an-abortion-in-texas/