Latin America clamors for abortion rights

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Thousands of women took to the streets of Latin America to demand their right to abortion, a practice banned in most countries in the region and for which hundreds of women are serving prison sentences under draconian laws.

With banners reading “legal abortion now” or “right to decide” and green scarves characteristic of the global movement in favor of decriminalizing abortion, the demonstrators raised their voices in El Salvador, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia.

EL SALVADOR

In El Salvador, whose legislation prohibits abortion in all circumstances and establishes penalties of up to eight years in prison, 17 women are serving sentences on charges of aggravated homicide after seeking medical assistance following obstetric emergencies.

Prosecutors and judges in that country classify some abortion cases, even involuntary ones, as “aggravated homicide”, punishable by up to 50 years in prison.

In response, hundreds of Salvadoran women presented a proposal to Congress on Tuesday to legalize abortion in some cases: under “the possibility of interrupting the pregnancy to save the life and health of women and girls”, also “when a fetal malformation has been detected that is incompatible with extrauterine life”, and, finally, when the pregnancy “is the result of sexual violence”.

With slogans such as “we all have the right to decide about our lives” and “to decide is my right, legal abortion now”, the demonstration took place days after President Nayib Bukele withdrew a constitutional reform proposal that would open the door to legalizing therapeutic abortion.

CHILE

In Chile, where the Catholic Church has historically maintained its fierce opposition to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, the Lower House approved the decriminalization of free abortion up to 14 weeks of gestation.

“The decriminalization of abortion has been approved! This is for all women and pregnant people who have been persecuted and criminalized, especially if they are of lesser means,” wrote on Twitter the communist deputy Camila Vallejo, one of the promoters of the motion.

MEXICO CITY

Also, in Mexico City, dozens of women demonstrated in favor of decriminalizing abortion, weeks after the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to punish the practice.

The high court’s decision opened the door for women from all over the country to access this procedure through an Amparo appeal and invalidated state laws that punished abortion with jail and enshrined the protection of life from conception.

“Fear the machistas, Latin America will be all feminist!” shouted several women as they walked guarded by hundreds of police officers, with whom they had some altercations.

According to official figures, the Mexican women also denounced the violence they suffered in the country, where from January to last August, 672 femicides have been registered.

COLOMBIA

In Colombia, where abortion is only authorized in cases of fetal malformation, the mortal risk to the mother, and sexual abuse, hundreds of women gathered in front of Congress in Bogotá to demand its legalization on all grounds.

“We are here basically because we believe that women have the right to decide when and how we want to be mothers (…) We are vindicating the rights of a lot of women who could not decide and have died in many clandestine abortion sites,” Tatiana Vargas, a 25-year-old law student, told AFP.

Some 205 women have been convicted of having abortions in the country since 2005, according to a report by the group La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres.

PERU

Meanwhile, in Peru, dozens of women organized by feminist groups marched through Lima to demand its legalization, a demand that the new leftist president, Pedro Castillo, a conservative on social issues, flatly rejected during his recent electoral campaign.

“Legal, safe and free abortion” could be read on numerous green banners carried by women during the demonstration held in front of the Palace of Justice. “A State that does not provide the right to abortion is a feminicidal State,” read another sign brandished by a group of young women with bare torsos.

Source: AFP