2023-09-27 10:10:00
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Before him Global Day of Action for Legal, Safe and Accessible Abortion, that commemorates the September 28Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:
“Despite the numerous victories of the green tide in the Americas in recent years, the rights won and opportunities to expand abortion protections are under attack by anti-rights actors. The setback to Roe vs. Wade in the United States last year was a wake-up call for the movement, reminding us once again that the defense of our rights and the fight to expand them must be permanent.”
“Brazil has the opportunity to join the green tide and recognize the right of access to safe and legal abortion for women and girls. and all people who can get pregnant. For decades, the criminalization of abortion has violated our sexual and reproductive rights and disproportionately discriminated against Black, Indigenous women, and those living in poverty. “It is time for the Supreme Federal Court to put an end to this injustice.”
Additional Information
The feminist and human rights movement that has fought for years for the legalization of abortion throughout Latin America has been called “the green tide.” This movement has driven important advances, but the risk of setbacks remains in the region.
The setback to Roe vs. Wade has exacerbated a sexual and reproductive health crisis in the United States, as 21 states have partially or completely restricted access to pregnancy termination. Several states such as Ohio, Kentucky and Montana have managed to stop anti-abortion initiatives legislatively or electorally. However, anti-rights groups continue to push for new bans in the states and are now betting on restricting medical abortion and hindering – if not criminalizing – the interstate solidarity networks that have emerged to help people seeking abortions.
In Argentina, a key territory for the advance of the green tide, almost three years after the historic milestone of the legalization of abortion in December 2020, the figures linked to maternal mortality have notably improved, demonstrating once again that the liberalization of legal interruption pregnancy protects health and life. Although some resistance persists in implementation throughout the country, it is key that, in the electoral context, the importance of defending the rights already achieved is reinforced and effective access to abortion is guaranteed.
In Brazil, the next few days could be decisive to advance the decriminalization of abortion until the 12th week of gestation through the vote reopened in the Supreme Federal Court by the minister and president, Rosa Weber, who, before retiring, voted in favor of the reproductive rights of women, girls and all people seeking access to abortion. In Brazil, according to official figures, one in every 28 people who attempt an abortion dies from doing so in unsafe conditions. In this context, race inequalities are evident: Black women are twice as likely to die from an unsafe abortion, as they are 46% more likely to have one in the first place. So they are differentially exposed to the risks to their health, life and dignity associated with the criminalization of abortion. Abortion in Brazil remains a crime, according to the 1940 Penal Code, with the exception of cases of statutory rape and anencephaly. Although there are legal prerogatives to guarantee access in these cases, women face misinformation and barriers to access and care in health centers.
A little more than a year after achieving the right to abortion in Colombia, different judicial appeals have been presented to reverse the decriminalization. The court upheld the ruling by rejecting the annulments of the ruling that decriminalized abortion; but a couple of guardianships have resulted in the imposition of additional barriers for indigenous women. In parallel, irregularities have been reported in a referendum that proposes restricting abortion at the constitutional level. Finally, effective access to abortion in Colombia continues to be restricted due to lack of information or misinformation on the part of anti-rights groups; medical negligence, including improper use of conscientious objection, and lack of physical coverage of centers that perform the procedure.
Mexico It is another of the countries with decisive advances: resolutions of the highest court resolved that the absolute criminalization of abortion is unconstitutional; and they decriminalized abortion in the federal penal code. Thus, the right to abortion was already recognized in Mexico and the obligation of federal health institutions to guarantee it was determined. At the local level, 12 federal entities have already decriminalized abortion completely or for periods. However, two thirds of the country still have restrictions in force at the local level and in places where it is allowed, there is no road to guarantee access. Four years after decriminalization, Oaxaca only has seven clinics that perform the procedures and there is often a lack of equipment and supplies to perform them.
Peru, which barely allows therapeutic abortion, has also faced threats. Several bills have sought to eliminate or hinder therapeutic abortion in the Andean country, ignoring that, according to official figures from 2021, every day 4 girls under 15 years of age were forced to become mothers. In this regard, in June 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child determined that the Peruvian State violated the rights to life, health and integrity of Camila, an indigenous girl who was the victim of rape and who was denied access to the therapeutic abortion.
In cases of Chile and Puerto Rico, there have been intentions and even bills to restrict abortion due to causes or age. For its part, the leading force of the Constitutional Council in Chile, the Republican Party, has expressed itself against the law that regulates abortion in cases of rape, fetal inviability and danger to people’s lives. To date, they have presented initiatives to eliminate abortion protections; and they would seek to impose restrictions also through constitutional means.
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Suriname, Aruba and Curacao They continue to absolutely criminalize abortion. Which does not reduce the practice, but only puts people who seek to do so in a risk situation, disproportionately affecting impoverished, racialized, peasant, indigenous and Afro-descendant people. Before partial decriminalization for reasons in Ecuador, at least 148 people had been criminalized for having, accompanying or assisting abortions. Among them, 33 girls.
In the specific case of El Salvador, figures from local organizations indicate that at least 181 women were criminalized for obstetric emergencies that led to abortions between 1998 and 2019; seven would continue to face criminal proceedings.
Finally, throughout the region, the siege and harassment of anti-rights actors, and even the criminalization of abortion companions or people seeking abortion, generates an environment of anxiety, misinformation and discouragement that in itself is a barrier to exercising the right. to abortion.
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