While the United States lives with the risk of the Supreme Court’s reversal of the abortion guarantee, in the south of the same country the winds have generally been blowing more in favor of advances in women’s reproductive rights.
Today, 37% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean live in nations where the legal right to terminate a pregnancy has been conquered or where the practice has been decriminalized – five years ago, this proportion was 3%. There are important differences between these two points: in Colombia, for example, abortion has only ceased to be a crime, while in Argentina there are regulations to force the public health system to provide care, free of charge, to women who seek the resource. .
The most recent advances took place precisely in these two countries and in Mexico —the three largest economies in the region after Brazil, and therefore of a strong symbolic character.
In Bogotá, the decision took place in February, with the Constitutional Court eliminating abortion up to the 24th week of pregnancy from the list of crimes; before that, the procedure was only allowed in cases of rape or risk of death of the woman.
The court ruled on a lawsuit filed by Causa Justa, an association of more than 120 women’s rights groups in a country that, each year, tried around 400 women for this crime, with sentences ranging from 16 to 54 months in prison. However, Colombia still does not have regulations on how care should be provided in the public network — this should be discussed shortly by Congress.
In Mexico, the Supreme Court ruled last year that it is unconstitutional to penalize abortion and scrapped the federal law that allowed doctors to plead conscientious objection to not having the procedure. Regulation, however, is up to each state: the decision of the Judiciary only allows regional assemblies to draft their laws.
Before the decision, Mexico City (Federal District) and Oaxaca had already legalized abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy. After that, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Baja California, Colima and Sinaloa were added.
In Argentina, the campaign for legalization was a long one, having gone through two attempts to pass Congress. The first, still in the administration of former president Mauricio Macri, ended up frustrated by few votes in the Senate.
The current president, Alberto Fernández, included the flag in his 2019 election campaign, supported by feminist movements. Thus, with a push from the Executive, the matter returned to Congress, and in a marathon of more than 12 hours, accompanied by crowds in favor of “yes” and “no” outside, the law was passed. It allows abortion up to the 14th week only by the woman’s will, with the guarantee of attention in the public health system.
In all three cases, there was a large and noisy participation of feminist social movements, led by young people. The Argentine women introduced a scarf in the campaign, inspired by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who use the item to symbolize the search for their missing children during the dictatorship (1976-1983). The green garment was adopted by pro-change in law, while conservative activists later opted for the blue scarves, with the slogan “Let’s save both lives”.
The brand became a symbol of the struggle in other places as well. In Chile, however, it is not green, but violet. In the country, which has just elected the leftist Gabriel Boric, the practice was completely prohibited until 2017, when Congress approved the right to it in cases of rape, risk of death of the mother and malformation of the fetus.
The Constituent Convention, elected to draft a new Charter, however, has already included the right to abortion as one of the articles in the final text. This one, however, still has a way to go: after being finalized by the first week of July, it will be presented for approval to the population in a plebiscite (still no date set, but which should take place in the second semester). The consultation has mandatory voting and is binding.
A vanguard in the region, Uruguay instituted the right to abortion in 2012, under the administration of leftist José “Pepe” Mujica, of Frente Ampla — also responsible for other advances in civil rights legislation, such as regulating the production and distribution of marijuana. .
In countries such as Paraguay, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela, the procedure remains limited to the causes of rape, risk to the mother’s life and fetal malformation, and often bureaucratic issues and legal obstacles end up delaying the procedure so much that they prevent it even in these cases. In Belize and Bolivia, the demonstration of financial impossibility in raising the baby is also accepted as a requirement for an abortion.
In Ecuador, the process is underway. Congress passed legislation that defined the right to abortion up to one period of pregnancy for women in the city and another for those in the countryside – citing the difficulty of access to medical centers – but the president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, vetoed the text. He is personally against the practice, as a Catholic, but has pledged to respect the legislative decision if the text is reformed.
Elsewhere, the winds are with the US, despite pressure from feminists and human rights bodies. Haiti, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Suriname totally veto the practice, with the company of Nicaragua and El Salvador (which are, along with Poland, the only cases since 1994 of hardening and reversal of the law).
Nayib Bukele’s country is known for having the most draconian laws, with women subject to punishment even for miscarriages and sentences that can reach 40 years – doctors who do not report attempts of the procedure are also targets of prosecution and convictions.
This obscurantist group has just been joined by Guatemala, which approved the Law for the Protection of Life and Family, increasing the penalties for the voluntary termination of pregnancy and eliminating any possibility of it being accepted in the three circumstances permitted in other countries.
