What Arizonans can learn from Brazil’s near-total abortion ban

By Rep. Analise Ortiz
June 13, 2025

This is the powerful translation of Nem Presa, Nem Morta, the name of an advocacy organization that is leading the resistance against anti-abortion laws in Brazil. In a country with a near-total ban, this is more than a name, it is a rallying cry against restrictions that can lead to jail time and death.

I met them, and other activists, on a legislative delegation to Brazil made possible by the State Innovation Exchange and the Women’s Equality Center. Why should a State Senator from Arizona care about abortion policy in Latin America when our state just passed Prop. 139 to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution? Because by strengthening connections between the U.S. and Brazil, we can exchange strategies and deepen our understanding of how to stand in resistance to protect each other across the globe.

Here are four ways:.

Continued: https://coppercourier.com/opinion/opinion-what-arizonans-can-learn-from-brazils-near-total-abortion-ban/

USA – The reality of navigating immigration enforcement and abortion bans as a pregnant migrant

The 19th spoke with the head of the Women’s Equality Center about how inadequate medical care and the fear of deportation can lead to dangerous outcomes in the Trump administration.

Candice Norwood
March 7, 2025

President Donald Trump’s efforts to significantly restrict immigration have extended the presence of immigration enforcement officers to schools, churches and hospitals. The administration is also rolling back funding for organizations that provide services for immigrants, as well as states and cities with legal protections. These policies have raised the risks that immigration restrictions and limited abortion access present to the health and well-being of pregnant undocumented people.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2025/03/navigating-immigration-enforcement-abortion-bans-pregnant/

07.03.2025

Commentary

migrants and abortion bans

Paula Avila-Guillen

Women's Equality Center

Latin American activists warn of pushback on reproductive rights

By Sarah Morland and Natalia Siniawski
March 6, 2025

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Latin American rights activists on Thursday warned of growing political threats to reproductive rights across the region, as the United States rolls back access to abortion.

“What we are seeing is a lot of backlash of progress after many years of human rights struggles," Paula Avila-Guillen, executive director of the Women's Equality Center told a conference. "What happens in one country has repercussions."

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/latin-american-activists-warn-pushback-reproductive-rights-2025-03-06/

06.03.2025

News

Amnesty International Argentina

Javier Milei

Mariela Belski

misoprostol and mifepristone

Natalia Marmol

Paula Avila-Guillen

Women's Equality Center

The UN Urged Peru To Relax Its Abortion Stance. Lawmakers Did the Opposite

Across Latin America, a backlash against women’s rights is underway and girls are criminalized for miscarrying

Harriet Barber
June 6, 2024

Camila’s body folds in on itself, eyes fixated on the cuffs of her sweater and thick black hair shielding her face. The 19-year-old, an Indigenous teenager from the Peruvian mountains, sits close to her lawyer, arms touching, in a small office overlooking Lima’s skyline. In clipped and hushed sentences, she begins her story.

At the age of 9, Camila was raped by her father. He ordered her not to tell anyone, threatening to kill her and her mother and brother if she did. For a while, his threats worked and she stayed silent. His vicious assault was the start of years of violence, abuse that would make Camila pregnant at the age of 13 and leave her ostracized from her community.

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-un-urged-peru-to-relax-its-abortion-stance-lawmakers-did-the-opposite/

06.06.2024

Commentary

40 days for life

American Convention on Human Rights

Camila in Peru

Camila v. Peru

Center for the Promotion and Defence of Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Diana Aleman

Elga Prado

fetal personhood laws

Manuela Ramos Movement

menstrual regulation

Milagros Jauregui Martinez de Aguayo

Paula Avila-Guillen

Peruvian Institute for Responsible Parenthood

U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child

Women's Equality Center

The Dark State Of Abortion Rights In El Salvador, And First Signs Of Light

Although the last Salvadorian woman imprisoned on charges linked to abortion was released in December, 11 similar cases are currently pending in the country. Human rights activists acknowledge the progress made, and the work that remains to be done to overturn strict anti-abortion laws.

Mariana Escobar Bernoske
March 09, 2024

BOGOTÁ — In December 2023, Lilian was the last Salvadoran woman to regain her freedom after spending seven years in prison for an obstetric emergency. In 2015, the courts found her guilty of "murdering" her unborn baby by planning an abortion, when in fact, a tear in her uterus had caused the death. Medics had to give her three blood transfusions to stabilize her.

El Salvador is one of Latin America's most restrictive states in terms of women's sexual and reproductive rights. Abortion is banned as the state considers persons to exist from the moment of conception, contrary to the advice of international human rights groups. Under this strict ban, women who have had pregnancy complications, miscarriages or prenatal deaths to be charged with premeditating abortion.

Continued: https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/abortion-righs-el-salvador

U.S. abortion rights setbacks spark fears in Latin America

Concerns in Latin America that abortion rights could face setbacks similar to those in the U.S. are adding urgency to the protests planned for International Women's Day this Friday, Marina writes.

March 5, 2024
Marina E. Franco

Why it matters: Regions of Latin America already are some of the most dangerous in the world for people who wish or need to terminate a pregnancy.

Threat level: Abortion bans can jeopardize the lives of women in trauma situations where continuing the pregnancy puts a woman's life at risk. Last month, Adilka Féliz, a senator's legal aide in the Dominican Republic — where there is a full ban on abortion— died from complications after an emergency premature birth procedure. She had an unviable pregnancy but was denied an abortion, her mother says.

Continued: https://www.axios.com/2024/03/05/international-womens-day-abortion-terminate-pregnancy

How Dominican women fight child marriage and teen pregnancy while facing total abortion bans

BY MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ
January 2, 2024

AZUA, Dominican Republic (AP) — It was a busy Saturday morning at Marcia González’s church. A bishop was visiting, and normally she would have been there helping with logistics, but on this day she was teaching sex education at a local school.

“I coordinate activities at the church and my husband is a deacon,” González said. “The bishop comes once a year and children are being confirmed, but I am here because this is important for my community.”

For 40 years, González and her husband have pushed for broader sex education in the Dominican Republic, one of four Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion without exceptions. Women face up to 2 years in prison for having an abortion; penalties for doctors or midwives range from 5 to 20 years.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/dominican-republic-abortion-child-marriage-teen-pregnancy-45a2dd71fc006c413ae1386f601e912d

El Salvador – Abortion laws: The women jailed for suffering miscarriages

By Valeria Perasso and Fernando Duarte
Jun 30, 2022

Karen was sentenced to 30 years in prison in El Salvador in 2015 after being accused of having an abortion

When Karen woke up in an El Salvador hospital, she
noticed that she was handcuffed to a bed and there were police officers by her
bedside.

"There were a lot of people around and they were saying I had taken my
baby's life and that I was going to 'pay for what I had done'," Karen
tells BBC 100 Women.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-61995250

30.06.2022

Commentary

Featured

green wave

jailing women for miscarriage

Las 17

Morena Herrera

Nayib Bukele

Women's Equality Center

For abortion rights activists, Latin America provides a roadmap of ‘long fight’ ahead

It may take decades to constitutionally legalize abortion in the United States again, but advocates point to opportunities that could speed up such efforts.

June 24, 2022
By Nicole Acevedo

Human rights attorney Paula Avila-Guillen never thought she'd be fighting to decriminalize abortions in the U.S. until now, as nearly two dozen states move to ban the procedure following Roe v. Wade's official repeal Friday.

A leader of Latin America's "green wave" movement for reproductive rights, earlier this year Avila-Guillen helped legalize abortions for women up to 24 weeks-pregnant in her native Colombia, which now joins Argentina and parts of Mexico in the short list of places in Latin America where terminating a pregnancy is no longer a crime.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/abortion-rights-activists-latin-america-provides-roadmap-long-fight-ah-rcna35197

24.06.2022

Featured

News

Alianza Americas

Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion

Paula Avila-Guillen

Roe v. Wade

Women's Equality Center

El Salvador’s jailed women offer US glimpse of post-Roe future

‘Don’t let our reality become your reality,’ campaigners warn after woman is freed after decade behind bars for medical emergency ruled attempted murder

Nina Lakhani
Thu 19 May 2022

A33-year-old woman in El Salvador who suffered a medical emergency while pregnant has been freed after serving a decade in jail for attempted murder, the victim of a draconian abortion ban being replicated in the US.

The woman, named only as Jacqueline, sought medical help for an obstetric complication in 2011, and even though the baby survived, she was arrested on suspicion of attempted abortion. She was separated from her newborn daughter and eight-year-old son, and sentenced to 15 years for attempted murder.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/19/abortion-el-salvador-jailed-women-roe-v-wade