Global Comment

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Abortion regulations in Latin America: legality, restrictions and prohibitions

Demonstration in support of legal, free and safe abortion in Argentina

Women’s rights have been widely debated in recent weeks around the world, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its own 1973 ruling, known as Roe v. Wade. The landmark decision puts the spotlight on the consequences of the illegality of abortion, not only in the United States but in all countries in the region.

Latin America has a more conservative history on this issue. There are few countries with broader laws, some of them have achieved recent rulings that expand access to abortion, however, most maintain strong restrictions that turn the right into a privilege.

Abortion rights in legislation

The countries that allow abortion through their legislation are Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Guyana and French Guiana. Mexico is one of the countries where abortion has recently been decriminalized throughout its territory.

In 2020 Argentina approved the decriminalization law. The country now allows termination of pregnancy for all women over 16 years old up to 14 weeks of gestation. For minors under 13 years of age, an affidavit before a court is not required.

Colombia has a similar situation, where it is specified that the termination of conception is allowed up to 24 weeks; in cases of rape, unviability of the fetus or danger to the mother, the time limit is not applicable.

Prohibitions without exceptions

In contrast to the countries that have regulated abortion with broader laws, there are a number of places where abortion is absolutely prohibited, including Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

A report for El Faro includes stories about abortion in El Salvador, one of the nations in the world with the most restrictive abortion laws. There, many maternal deaths, although preventable, become statistics because of the ban on abortion under a 1998 law. According to human rights advocates, women with high-risk pregnancies there seem to have only two options: death or jail.

Strong restrictions

Other Latin American countries allow abortion under particular conditions. Some have lesser conditions and others have more restrictive legislation, as is the case of Guatemala, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Peru, where abortion is only permitted if it is demonstrated that the life of the pregnant woman is in danger; however, in many cases this condition is difficult to comply due to bureaucracy and for that reason it becomes a prohibition.

Women who do not comply run the risk of ending up in jail.

Other countries such as Brazil, Panama and Chile include in their legislation the grounds of non-viability of the fetus or rape. Meanwhile in Bolivia the variable of incest is included to allow the termination of pregnancy. Depending on the country, there are institutions or persons who must approve the abortion according to the law, who may be judges, doctors, police or psychologists. For their part, women who do not comply with the conditions of each country run the risk of ending up in jail.

In Venezuela, a women’s rights advocate was imprisoned after being accused of helping a minor to have an abortion. The 13-year-old girl was raped and, when she found out that she was pregnant, she decided to take abortion pills accompanied by her mother to terminate the pregnancy. Meanwhile, the man accused of rape is free on the streets.

Extreme decisions

Tight restrictions lead some women to make difficult decisions. In many of these countries, clandestine abortions are practiced, putting the woman’s life at risk. If they are accused of having had an abortion, they are prosecuted and detained in prisons, some of them charged with aggravated homicide, as in the case of El Salvador, where some women are serving sentences of up to 30 years.

A moving report published in El País of Spain tells the story of a 13-year-old girl and her mother, who had to leave Venezuela in order to have an abortion after the girl was raped. The minor was accompanied by psychologists in Colombia due to the process of termination of pregnancy, a necessary therapy after having gone through hard times, which began with the rape, but were followed by an unwanted pregnancy, stigmatization in the town where she lived, and the abandonment of her studies due to the pregnancy and migration.

Image: Protoplasma K