By Ana Isabel Martinez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Thousands of women demonstrated in several Latin American cities on Tuesday to commemorate the global day of action for access to safe and legal abortion, in a region where the procedure is fully permitted only in a handful of countries.

Mexico City saw women march to the historic centre under the surveillance of police in riot helmets. Some monuments and buildings that were damaged by protests in the past had been protected with fences.

One sign that a young woman held was “I still haven’t decided if I want be a mother, but I want the right to make my own decision.”

Earlier this month Mexico’s Supreme Court https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-supreme-court-rules-criminalizing-abortion-is-unconstitutional-2021-09-07 declared it unconstitutional to criminalize abortion and, shortly after, the government said that those jailed on accusations of having terminated their pregnancy would be released.

Many other women marched across Mexico in support of abortion, in cities like Veracruz or Cuernavaca.

Unsafe abortions are a leading cause of death for Latin American women every year. This is at a time where teenage pregnancies, sexual violence and unsafe abortions continue to rise in Latin America.

Some 800 Colombian women march towards Bogota, where abortions are only allowed in cases of rape and risks to mother’s life or birth defects.

Ita Maria diez, the leader of the Bogota protest, said, “Women reminding states that we are full citizens, not second class and that we can abort or voluntarily interrupt pregnancy to make decisions about our bodies and lives.”

A march was also held in Chile, where the lower house of Congress agreed to debate a bill to decriminalize abortion https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chile-lawmakers-take-first-step-towards-easing-abortion-rules-2021-09-28 for up to 14 weeks after pregnancy.

STRICT LAWS

Scores of people in El Salvador waved green flags and marched through San Salvador en route to Congress to demand a loosening of the country’s “strict” abortion laws.

Protesters from Salvador raised banners stating “it is our right to choose” and “legal abortion safe and free”. They were trying to get Congress to relax one of the strictest abortion laws worldwide, which bans termination of pregnancy for rape cases and puts the life of the mother at risk.

In honor of Beatriz Reform, a young woman who called for abortion in 2013. She was suffering from chronic illness and had to have it performed.

Morena Herrera an eminent Salvadoran feminist said that they are seeking minimum steps to improve the Penal Code so women can live and be healthy.

It doesn’t require constitutional reform. “It can be done immediately, and if there’s independence of power, the Legislative Assembly should respond,” she said.

The Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele earlier this month rejected any changes to abortion laws in the context of controversial constitutional reforms his government was planning.

However, several of the 20 Latin American nations that ban abortion still have their laws in place, such as El Salvador which has sent women to prison for up to 40 years.