“Do you think that’s a right?” asked the Panamanian immigration officer who checked my passport. “Yes. I think so,” I replied. “I have my doubts,” he said while taking my fingerprints. He stamped my document and let me pass with a menacing look. This is how Panama welcomed the people, who took part in the VII Conference on Abortion Rights organized by the Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI), a meeting that brought together hundreds of organizations, health professionals, lawyers, journalists and activists to discuss the situation of the To speak, debate and share the rights of women to a safe, public and free abortion across the region.
Although the advances are notorious and very important. For example, there are the laws of Argentina, Mexico or Colombia, the threats are constant and the anti-rights groups do not rest. It is important not to take our eyes off other realities that are bringing us back to most countries in what is still an insecure, violent and unequal region of abortion. In the words of activist Morena Herrera from El Salvador: “Everyone has to push so that nobody is left behind.” That means achieving better conditions in the most restrictive places, following the example of those who have achieved decriminalization.
In Latin America there are still countries where a woman cannot have an abortion, even if she has been raped, her life is in danger, or the fetus is deformed. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, these are Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Suriname and Jamaica.
But it’s not the only thing. During the conference, more than 26 organizations presented the Laws and Shadows report. Regulation of abortion in Latin America, showing that in many countries that allow abortion for certain reasons, there is a whole range of gray areas that end up preventing it. If we have learned anything about the laws in the region, it is that there is a great gap between their drafting and their application. A barrier for women to access their sexual and reproductive rights. This is the case in Guatemala, Peru or Costa Rica. This is also happening in Venezuela, where the laws are more restrictive and only decriminalize abortion when the life or health of the pregnant woman is in danger. Paraguay is another country hit hard by these restrictions, where women are subjected to forced pregnancy.
This is also happening in Panama, the country of skyscrapers and economic development that continues to lag behind on this issue. In Panama, women must go through a multidisciplinary commission to have an abortion. I just want to give you one more piece of information: Since 2018, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended Panama to decriminalize abortion to protect the rights of girls and young people precisely. According to the Panama Family Planning Association (APLAFA), in 2021, 14% of births were to girls. In addition, more than 6,000 sex crimes were committed that year, most of them against girls and young people.
Other countries such as Chile, Ecuador or Brazil include the variables of rape or fetal incapacitation in their penal codes. However, the report points out that no country, not even those that have decriminalized abortion up to a certain number of weeks, fully recognizes the will of women according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), regardless of women’s and feminist movements the prejudices of conservative and religious groups. “We live in democracies that are too fragile, ruled by arbitrariness, and this is breeding ground for ultra groups to impose a particular perspective on this problem,” says Susana Chávez, director of CLACAI.
In the face of such challenges, the advancement of telemedicine and drug-based home abortion support groups is becoming an alternative for thousands of women living far from a hospital or in very restrictive locations. This is not only said by feminists, but also by the WHO in its “Guidelines for Abortion Care”. “Medical abortion has revolutionized access to quality abortion care around the world. Medications to induce abortion can be safely and effectively administered in a healthcare facility or self-administered elsewhere (e.g., at home) when an accurate source of information and quality-assured medications are available.
It is important to remove the stigma surrounding abortion and to talk about it from other perspectives such as public health, autonomy and human rights. On the same day that a year has passed since the reversal of the Roe v. Wade judgment in the United States, which guaranteed abortion rights since 1973, hundreds of women in Central America gathered to continue the same struggle. In the words of Salvadoran activist Morena Herrera: “We are in a difficult situation in several countries, but I see a force moving forward, providing information, scientific evidence and confirmation that working and fighting for reproductive justice is the best Possibility for a good future. “Be for everyone”.
I prefer a different sentence from her: “Not everything happens by law. Decriminalizing conscience, information and access to support networks also saves women’s lives.”
📝 Our recommendations of the week:
Honduras identifies the 46 inmates murdered after a riot at a women’s prison: ‘It’s like something out of a horror movie’. Authorities have revealed that several female members of a gang broke into the cells with guns and “selectively killed” the bodies and set them on fire.
Laws protecting women to fight world hunger. About 200 parliamentarians from 64 countries met in Chile to promote legislation and public policies in their national parliaments in the face of the food crisis and the spread of junk food that is spreading around the world, affecting women in particular
An army of 800 women to protect the Páramos and take care of the water in Ecuador. In the Cotopaxi province of Ecuador’s central Sierra, a peasant organization is taking on the machismo in their homes and fighting to protect water sources
Mozambican women fight back against gender-based violence. Only 2.8% of Mozambican women have access to further education in the African country. A lack of education and economic dependency are reasons why the victims of abuse are trapped
“Moustached gentlemen teach me how to make french fries” by María Nicolau. At that moment I was paralyzed. Today, before he gets up and leaves, I would ask him to take his disrespect with him if he wants a small bag
Najat Kaanache: “Why do white chefs always have to tell the story?”. The Basque-Moroccan chef joins forces with the Lezama Group to open her first restaurant in Spain, Ziryab, in Seville, confirming the Andalusian origins of our cuisine
📚And to end a story: “Clandestine Happiness” by Clarice Lispector
MOREIRA SALLES INSTITUTE
By Erika Rosette
As Clarice Lispector learned to read and write, she also began making up endless little stories. That was before she was seven, and just a year after her birth, her family had a history of exile and struggle as she fled Ukraine to the other end of the world, to Brazil. It was always clear to him that he wanted to write and that this childhood dream was nourished by his travels, his reading and his own life experiences. It would therefore not be surprising that the story “Clandestine Happiness” describes a large part of what she was and felt in this chapter of her life: an unbounded love of books.
The protagonist of Clandestine Happiness has a classmate at school whose father owns a bookstore. He describes her physically as someone who is “favoured” in the eyes of others but has little interest in this treasure to which she can have unlimited access. “But what a talent for cruelty she had,” she says at the beginning of the story, when it turns out that the girl has recognized the narrator’s desire to acquire a certain book to read. He quotes her day after day at her house and promises her the precious item without eventually getting his hands on her. This story, like most of Lispector’s works, describes emotions so intimate and everyday that they become windows through which to observe one’s nostalgia. It’s hard not to get bogged down in certain personal memories when reading something that analyzes human emotions so much. Following an interesting path, the protagonist finally gets what she has been waiting for the most, thinking: “I know that she held the thick book with both hands and pressed it to her chest. It doesn’t matter how long it took to get home. His chest was warm, his heart thoughtful.
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