VOXXI: How Latin America's Outdated Abortion Laws Impact Young Women Paloma Corredo - VOXXI
go to original July 10, 2013

Latin America’s “old-fashioned” views on abortion and outdated abortion laws impact this generation of women, particularly Latinas.

... Throughout Latin America, countless cases of pregnancies caused by rape happen every year. But if the victims live in El Salvador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, Nicaragua and Chile, they cannot abort, no matter the threat to their physical or emotional health. In these countries, abortion is absolutely prohibited.

Argentina and Colombia allow abortion in cases of rape and danger to the health of the mother or baby. The same is true in Bolivia, although the permission of a judge is required in case of rape. In Paraguay, abortion is allowed only if it endangers the woman’s life.

Only in Uruguay, Cuba and Mexico City (not in the rest of the country) women may abort freely during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. It is the same in my country, Spain, although the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy is pushing to go back to a law similar to that of Argentina.

The most controversial aspect of this law is dubbed a “rape scholarship” which consists of financial assistance for rape victims who become pregnant and from now on, will be forced to have the baby.

In addition, the state will pay psychologists (committed to Christian doctrine) to persuade women not to abort. As the proposed law’s text says, “If in the future, even if she gets married and has other children, a child born of rape is usually preferred. This has a simple explanation in the psychology of women: mothers cling on to the children who made them suffer more.”

Read the rest at VOXXI

Check out the Hispanically Speaking News infographic covering abortions in Latin America below.

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