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In early July, three women were stabbed as they peacefully protested for reproductive rights in Santiago, Chile. Twitter commentators and journalists noted the hypocrisy<\/a> of their stabbing by self-described \u201cpro-lifers.\u201d Over the course of the summer, various countries in the region witnessed protests for increased access to abortion in response to moves by national governments to either refuse to legalize or increasingly criminalize the procedure, which is already heavily stigmatized and difficult to obtain in Latin America. The threats<\/a> and physical violence<\/a>faced by advocates for abortion access occur in a broader context of female insecurity in the region. Latin America, and particularly Central America, has one of the highest rates of gender-based sexual violence and femicide in the world<\/a>, and the restrictions on reproductive rights pose another significant\u2014state-sanctioned\u2014health and life risk, particularly for poorer women.<\/p>\n In most countries in Latin America, abortion is only legal when the mother\u2019s life is at risk or in cases of rape or incest; some countries also allow it if the fetus is not viable or for the health of the mother. Punishment for assisting in or obtaining an abortion is severe: in Argentina, the penal code sentences<\/a> the woman receiving an abortion to one to four years in prison, and an assisting practitioner up to ten years. In 2014, an Argentinian court sentenced a woman to eight years in prison<\/a> for aggravated homicide for having a \u201cspontaneous abortion\u201d\u2014a miscarriage. Six countries in Latin America\u2013 and three of seven countries in Central America\u2014prohibit abortion in all cases (with a fourth, Guatemala, considering a total ban<\/a>). According to a 2017 UN report,<\/a> 2 out of every 3 women killed in Central America are victims of femicide, or the murder of a woman because of her gender. According to Medicins sans Frontiers, Honduras, another country with a total ban, sees the most women raped<\/a> \u2013 200 per month \u2014 in the region; considering that rape is a chronically underreported crime, the real number is probably much higher. <\/em>In El Salvador, getting an abortion carries a maximum sentence of 8 years in prison, but depending on the stage of the pregnancy, women can face a charge of aggravated homicide, punishable by 20 to 30 years in prison<\/a>. Women who have miscarriages from pregnancy complications have been accused of homicide and sentenced to decades in prison.<\/a><\/p>\n The Guatemalan Congress is currently considering a \u201cLaw for the Protection of Life and Family\u201d (Initiative 5272) that would totally ban abortion and even impose a penalty of four years in prison for women who have a miscarriage, even though by some estimates around 30% of pregnancies<\/a> might end in miscarriage through no fault of the mother. There is no male equivalent for incarcerating women in some cases for involuntary acts of her body. <\/p>\n Denying women access to abortion increases the already elevated risk of death or injury for women in Latin America, especially poorer women. Lack of access to safe abortion procedures<\/a> caused at least 900 deaths in Latin America in 2014, although statistics vary widely because of the illegality and stigma associated with the process. According to the Guttmacher Institute, from 2010 to 2014, only 23.6% of abortions performed in the region were deemed safe. Many, if not most, of these clandestine abortions are performed by poor or rural women who, unlike their wealthier counterparts, lack the means<\/a> to access safe procedures in their own countries or elsewhere. It is very important to note the class distinctions that characterize the variable fates of women who abort illegally. According to Human Rights Watch, poorer women \u201csuffer the most\u201d<\/a> from restrictions on abortion because they do not have the resources to access safe abortion procedures, and face increased risk of sexual violence and stigma within their communities. In this regard, the recent failure of Congressional efforts in Argentina to legalize abortion served a particular blow to Argentina\u2019s poorer women, many of whom will continue to die as a result of abortion-related complications. Argentine Senators urging passage of the law paid tribute to some of these women during the debate<\/a>.<\/p>\n Uruguay, Guyana, Mexico City, and Cuba have legalized abortion, and advances have been made in the past decade to allow for more abortion access: a 2012 decision<\/a> by the Argentine Supreme Court legalized abortions in cases of rape or incest, and in September 2017 Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed into law the \u201cTres Causales\u201d reform, which decriminalized abortion<\/a> to save the life of the mother, in cases of rape, and when the fetus is unlikely to survive (President Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era modified the protocol<\/a> in March 2018 to allow hospitals which refused to perform abortions for religious reasons to continue to receive government funding.) But progress has been slow, and recent developments in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala (whose Congressional Women\u2019s Commission also recently rejected a bill<\/a> to decriminalize abortions for rape victims under the age of fourteen), and Brazil (whose Congress is considering a bill, PEC 181<\/a>, which would make abortion totally illegal) show the region has a long way to go in terms of ensuring protection for women\u2019s health, safety, and equality before the law. <\/p>\n Tamar Ziff, Program Assistant, Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program, Inter-American Dialogue<\/em> In early July, three women were stabbed as they peacefully protested for reproductive rights in Santiago, Chile. Twitter commentators and journalists noted the hypocrisy of their stabbing by self-described \u201cpro-lifers.\u201d Over the course of the summer, various countries in the region witnessed protests for increased access to abortion in response to moves by national governments to either…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.girlsglobe.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/cifor1-1140x600.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6633,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions\/6633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAnna Egas<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"