Demanding Safe And Legal Abortion Rights, Women In Latin America Hold Protests

Illustration of demonstrations in support of abortion in Latin America. (Wikimedia Commons/Christiensen)

JAKARTA - Thousands of women demonstrated in several major Latin American cities on Tuesday, marking a global day of action for access to safe and legal abortion, where abortion is only permitted in a handful of countries in the region.

In Mexico City, women marched into the historic center under police surveillance in riot shields and helmets. Authorities have installed protective fences on several large buildings and monuments that have in the past been the target of doodles during rallies.

"I still don't know if I want to be a mother, but I want to have the right to decide," read the caption held by a young woman with a green scarf around her neck.

Earlier this month, Mexico's Supreme Court declared it criminalized unconstitutional abortion, with the government saying it would release those imprisoned for an abortion.

Hundreds of other women marched in other parts of Mexico, including in the cities of Cuernavaca and Veracruz.

Every year, thousands of women in Latin America die from unsafe abortions during teenage pregnancies and sexual violence is on the rise in the region.

In Colombia, where abortion is only allowed in cases of rape, risk to the mother's life, or birth defects, some 800 women marched towards the center of Bogota.

"Women remind the state and society that we are full citizens, not second-class, and that we have the right to abort, voluntarily interfere with pregnancy, to decide about our bodies, about our lives, and about our maternity wards," she said. Ita Maria Diez, a leader of the Bogota demonstrations.

A march was also held in Chile, where the lower house of Congress agreed to debate a bill to decriminalize abortion up to 14 weeks after pregnancy.

Separately, dozens of people in El Salvador waved green flags and marched through San Salvador on their way to Congress, to demand an relaxation of the country's strict abortion laws.

Holding up banners reading 'our right to decide' and 'legal, safe and free abortion', Salvadoran protesters sought to pressure legislators to relax one of the world's strictest abortion laws, which prohibits termination of pregnancy in cases of rape and even if mother's life is in danger.

The proposal brought to the Salvadoran Congress was named the 'Beatriz Reform', in honor of a young woman who in 2013 publicly called for an abortion to save her life, because she was suffering from a chronic illness, which took her life four years later.

"We ask for minimum measures to be added to the Criminal Code to ensure the lives and integrity of women," Morena Herrera, a prominent Salvadoran feminist, told reporters.

"There is no need for constitutional reform. It can be done now and if it is true that there is independence of power, the DPR must respond," he added.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele earlier this month ruled out amending the abortion law, as part of controversial constitutional changes his government is planning.

However, more than 20 Latin American countries still prohibit outright abortion, which has sentenced some women to up to 40 years in prison.