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Related: About this forumThank the Catholic church for terrifying abortion restrictions in Latin America
States have adopted 43 restrictions on access to abortion, the second-highest number ever at the midyear mark and the same number enacted in all of 2012. These numbers are alarming and many American women are rightfully worried. I'm terrified by the trend.
If women in the US aren't careful, we might find ourselves in a similar situation as our southern neighbours in Latin America and the Caribbean, which still have extreme abortion restrictions (pdf). Although most Latin American countries are supposedly secular, the Catholic church continues to insert itself into governments. Abortion is broadly legal in only six countries, which means it's permitted either without restriction as to reason or on socioeconomic grounds. These countries only account for less than 5% of the region's women aged 15 to 44. Because of these limitations, many women resort to "traditional practitioners" who use unsafe methods and purchase abortion-inducing drugs from pharmacists and other vendors.
The World Health Organization estimates that in Latin America and the Caribbean a staggering 12% of all maternal deaths were due to unsafe abortions in 2008. In the name of religion, girls as young as 9 years old have been inhumanely denied abortions though their pregnancies were life- threatening. Their family members and doctors have even been threatened with excommunication.
Why is Latin America so far behind the US and Europe in terms of abortion rights? In her article "The Politics of Abortion in Latin America", Cora Fernandez Anderson points out that while feminist movements were gaining momentum in Europe and North America in the 1960s and '70s, Latin American countries were busy fighting dictatorships and civil wars
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/27/abortion-rights-latin-america
If women in the US aren't careful, we might find ourselves in a similar situation as our southern neighbours in Latin America and the Caribbean, which still have extreme abortion restrictions (pdf). Although most Latin American countries are supposedly secular, the Catholic church continues to insert itself into governments. Abortion is broadly legal in only six countries, which means it's permitted either without restriction as to reason or on socioeconomic grounds. These countries only account for less than 5% of the region's women aged 15 to 44. Because of these limitations, many women resort to "traditional practitioners" who use unsafe methods and purchase abortion-inducing drugs from pharmacists and other vendors.
The World Health Organization estimates that in Latin America and the Caribbean a staggering 12% of all maternal deaths were due to unsafe abortions in 2008. In the name of religion, girls as young as 9 years old have been inhumanely denied abortions though their pregnancies were life- threatening. Their family members and doctors have even been threatened with excommunication.
Why is Latin America so far behind the US and Europe in terms of abortion rights? In her article "The Politics of Abortion in Latin America", Cora Fernandez Anderson points out that while feminist movements were gaining momentum in Europe and North America in the 1960s and '70s, Latin American countries were busy fighting dictatorships and civil wars
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/27/abortion-rights-latin-america
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Thank the Catholic church for terrifying abortion restrictions in Latin America (Original Post)
SecularMotion
Aug 2013
OP
Drale
(7,932 posts)1. South America is the only place the Catholic Church really has influence anymore
of sure there are crazy religious people all over pushing their agenda's but the actual organization that is the Catholic Church really has no power anywhere but South America anymore.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)2. The women's movement is woefully behind in some areas.
I agree with the author that these women need our support whenever we can provide it.
cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)3. Don't forget to thank those that support and enable the church's terrible stance on this and other
Issues, too. It ain't just the church hierarchy that's to blame.