This two-page fact sheet is adapted from a 2013 Ipas report investigating the impact of criminal abortion laws on women, their families and health-care providers in three South American countries—Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.
Region: Caribbean
Betraying women: Provider duty to report
The longstanding provider-patient confidentiality relationship is quietly eroding as an alarming number of medical staff across Latin America are reporting women and girls to the police for having abortions. Many countries now require, protect or encourage medical providers to breach their confidentiality duties when they treat women seeking postabortion care. This publication covers the three main ways health-care providers are compelled to breach confidentiality, based on the varying Latin American laws governing provider obligations on the issue of abortion. It also details how such laws impact both providers and women, and lists the many international bodies, declarations, consensus documents, etc. that establish standards for protecting patient confidentiality. Finally, the publication provides recommendations for international human rights bodies, governments and health-care professionals to protect women’s right to confidentiality as well as providers’ ethical obligation to uphold that right.
Zika underscores need for reproductive justice for all women
In Latin America, government responses to the Zika virus have been weak, disregarding the best interests of pregnant women and those who may become pregnant. This brief outlines Ipas’s stance on governments’ responses to the Zika crisis and women’s sexual and reproductive health needs. The brief also lists measures states can take to protect women’s health and rights during the Zika outbreak.
Who presents past the gestational age limit for first trimester abortion in the public sector in Mexico City?
This study sought to identify socio-demographic factors associated with presenting for abortion services past the gestational age limit (12 weeks), and thus not receiving services, in Mexico City’s public sector first-trimester abortion program. We found that women living in Mexico City and with higher levels of education had lower odds of presenting past the gestational age limit. Adolescents at every level of education have significantly higher probabilities of not receiving an abortion due to presenting past the gestational age limit compared with adults.
Implementing international human rights recommendations to improve obstetric care in Brazil
In 2011, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) issued a groundbreaking decision in the case of Alyne da Silva Pimentel Teixeira versus Brazil involving the maternal death of a young Afro‐Brazilian woman.
Constitutional court issues decision on abortion restrictions in Bolivia
In a ruling that marks a significant step forward for women’s rights in the region, Bolivia’s highest court, the Plurinational Constitutional Court, issued a decision ending the requirement for judicial authorization for women seeking legal abortion in Bolivia.
Advocacy for access to safe legal abortion: Similarities in the impact of abortion’s illegality on women’s health and health care in Pernambuco, Bahia, Paraíba, Mato Grosso do Sul e Rio de Janeiro
This document gives a summary analysis of primary and secondary data documenting unsafe abortion and the impact of the criminalization of abortion on women’s lives and health and on health services in 5 Brazilian states: Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Bahía, Pernambuco, and Paraíba.
Y Usted que piensa
Esto es parte de una campaña de videos que busca desafiar la prohibición del aborto terapéutico en Nicaragua.
Pienselo bien
La campaña Vai pensando aí de Ipas Brasil cuestiona las opiniones del público sobre la ley del aborto restrictiva en Brasil.
Vai pensando ai
No Brasil, o abortamento é muito restringido, permitido apenas em casos de estupro ou para salvar a vida ou a saúde da mãe. As mulheres que desrespeitam a lei podem ser encarceradas por até tres anos. Ainda assim, a cada ano mais de um milhão de mulheres correm este risco; mais de 200 morrem e quase 250.000 são hospitalizadas com complicações. É justo? Vai pensando ai.
https://www.ipas.org.br
Using the reproductive justice framework for message development in the Latin and Central America Region
This publication defines reproductive justice (RJ) and its strategies, and identifies organizations using the RJ framework in the United States as well as documents and tools developed by those organizations. In addition, this publication summarizes opportunities for Ipas to use the RJ framework in the LAC region
Experiences of women victims/survivors of sexual violence with health services in Guatemala
Sexual violence can have devastating effects on individuals, families, communities and societies. The findings from the study presented in this report are part of a regional collaboration in Central America to prevent sexual violence and to ensure that victims and survivors have access to all the services provided by the health and justice systems that they may need.
Sauld sexual y reproductiva en adolescentes de comunidades rurales e indígenas
This is a fact sheet with statistical information on the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents in the Mexican state of Guerrero. It is meant to provide relevant information on sexual and reproductive health indicators to health and policy makers as well as recommendation for improving sexual and reproductive health services and access.
Atrévete a pensar diferente: Anticonceptivos
Elaborados después de una investigación realizada con jóvenes en la Ciudad de México y en Tlaxcala, Atrévete a pensar diferente es una serie de tres historietas —Embarazo, Anticonceptivos, y Relaciones afectivas—que ofrecen información a jóvenes de cómo prevenir un embarazo, cómo utilizar y negociar el uso anticonceptivos y cómo mantener un relación afectiva con equidad de género. Las historietas invitan a las y los jóvenes a pensar diferente sobre su sexualidad, su salud y sus derechos.
Atrévete a pensar diferente: Embarazo
Elaborados después de una investigación realizada con jóvenes en la Ciudad de México y en Tlaxcala, Atrévete a pensar diferente es una serie de tres historietas —Embarazo, Anticonceptivos, y Relaciones afectivas—que ofrecen información a jóvenes de cómo prevenir un embarazo, cómo utilizar y negociar el uso anticonceptivos y cómo mantener un relación afectiva con equidad de género. Las historietas invitan a las y los jóvenes a pensar diferente sobre su sexualidad, su salud y sus derechos.
Atrévete a pensar diferente: Relaciones afectivas
Elaborados después de una investigación realizada con jóvenes en la Ciudad de México y en Tlaxcala, Atrévete a pensar diferente es una serie de tres historietas —Embarazo, Anticonceptivos, y Relaciones afectivas—que ofrecen información a jóvenes de cómo prevenir un embarazo, cómo utilizar y negociar el uso anticonceptivos y cómo mantener un relación afectiva con equidad de género. Las historietas invitan a las y los jóvenes a pensar diferente sobre su sexualidad, su salud y sus derechos.
Atención a mujeres que requieren una interrupción legal del embarazo después de 13 semanas de gestación: Opiniones, prácticas y brechas de los profesionales de la salud
Esta ficha informativa describe un estudio realizado por Ipas y CEDES en Argentina, en el año 2017, acerca del estado de la situación de los servicios de aborto después de las 13 semanas de gestación en el país desde el punto de vista de personal de salud.
Zika virus is a matter of reproductive justice
From a public health and human rights perspective, what would be most helpful to women and communities significantly affected by the Zika outbreak is accurate and comprehensive information, and access to rapid diagnosis and counseling on the health risks. Furthermore, there needs to be a massive overhaul in national policies: Safe abortion should be a legal option for women.
Threats of retrocession in sexual and reproductive health policies during the Zika epidemic
The Zika virus epidemic has reached more than 20 countries in the Americas and is the potential cause, with circumstantial evidence, for thousands of cases of microcephaly, in addition to other neurological consequences. This calls for a public debate on women’s right to interrupt the pregnancy if they so desire, as an issue of reproductive social justice.
Using a human rights accountability framework to respond to Zika
It is time for accountability and for concerted action. Millions of women in Brazil and throughout Latin America have already been living with constrained choices regarding their reproductive lives—Zika has further aggravated their situations.
