Holding green handkerchiefs and holding signs demanding a “safe abortion,” thousands of people across Latin America protested Wednesday for the legalization of the procedure to celebrate International Safe Abortion Day.
Demonstrations took place in Mexico, where the Supreme Court ruled in September that banning abortion was unconstitutional; as well as Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and El Salvador.
It’s “important” that “every woman … can decide whether or not she wants to be a mother or not,” said Elizabeth Pauline Monsalve, a 23-year-old student who attended the Caracas protests.
Around them, 400 others chanted “Safe and legal abortion now!” or waved signs that read “Choice is not illegal” as they demanded legislation making the procedure a right in Venezuela.
In Latin America, the camp for access to abortion continues to gain ground, with countries like Argentina, Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay legalizing it.
In other countries like El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, abortion is completely banned. In Chile and Brazil it is only allowed in cases of rape, risk to the mother or problems with the fetus.
In Santiago, about 100 demonstrators waved signs with messages like “Motherhood is wanted or not”.
“I have two daughters and I want them to have the future in front of them to make their own decisions,” Gloria Fuentes, 55, told AFP. “I am here to decide everyone’s right.”
In Bolivia. The protesters also called for expanded sexual health education.
In San Salvador, about 300 people demonstrated for the “right to abortion” in specific cases, including rape and maternal or fetal health. El Salvador has banned the trial, which carries a penalty of up to eight years in prison, since 1998.
Some prosecution judges consider abortion, even miscarriage, to be “aggravated murder” punishable by up to 50 years in prison.
East of the capital, in the city of Suchitoto, some protesters set up a caravan of small trucks wrapped in green banners to demonstrate for at least a dozen women jailed in El Salvador for having had abortions.
