Temps de lecture : 4 minutes

Young women, young girls and abortion in Latin America

28.03.2020

Written by Julia Heres Garcia
Translated by Aurélie Bugnard

Specificities related to girls and young women’s condition regarding the right to abortion in Latin America can only be apprehended through an analysis of the global state of all of their reproductive and sexual health rights (RSHR). Indeed, the harmful consequences of the criminalization of abortion on the life, health, and dignity of girls and young women in Latin America are exacerbated by the poor level of sex education and the extreme prevalence of sexual violence, of which many victims are minors.

It is almost impossible for girls and young women to access abortion.

First of all, the taboo surrounding sexuality in Latin America limitates the development of comprehensive sex education among girls as well as among boys. The lack of sex education deprives young people of reliable information on their sexual and reproductive rights and health: among other things, they cannot prevent an unwanted pregnancy if they don’t know and have no access to contraception. In addition, while gender-based and sexual violence is rooted in the unequal social relationships of the sexes in our societies, the lack of education on gender equality is one of the factors explaining the high number of rapes, in particular.

In theory, the right to abortion is authorized in cases of rape in most of the countries of the continent. However, the constraints particularly strong on underage girls and young women often make this right null and void. It is sometimes necessary to ask for parental authorization or to file a complaint in order to be able to have an abortion, while living in a context where teenagers’ sexuality is taboo. young girls who are victims of rape were often  attacked in the family context, making the denunciation is almost impossible ^[1]FIDH, Avortement au Chili : les femmes face à d’innombrables obstacles, 20.08.2018.. In Chile, for example, parental consent is required to abort in the three cases provided for by law (rape and / or incest, malformation of the fetus and danger to the life of the pregnant woman). In case of refusal, the authorization may be given by a judge who rules on the basis of information provided by the medical staff, thereby breaking the principle of confidentiality ^[2]FIDH, Avortement au Chili : les femmes face à d’innombrables obstacles, 20.08.2018..

Finally, the financial dependence of girls and young women prevents them from having access to abortion on two levels. On the one hand, they often do not have the resources to abort in a discreet and fast way – abroad when abortion is completely illegal in their country or in a private clinic in their country when it is legal. On the other hand, they may not be able to ask financial assistance from their families, especially when the latter are against abortion and could deprive them from this right. They also may not be able to report an incest or a rape if it puts them at risk to lose their main financial support.

The denial of the right to abortion is a full-blown sexual violence and a factor increasing gender inequalities.

The rate of early pregnancies in Latin America and the Caribbean remains very high to this day. The region is even the only one in the world where this figure continues to increase ^[3]Par exemple, en Argentine, une fille de 10 à 14 ans donne naissance à un enfant toutes les trois heures. Voir : Erika Guevara-Rosas,  “L’Amérique latine doit cesser de contraindre des … Continue reading. Early pregnancies impact the mental health (causing including suicide ^[4] Anne Proenza, ” Salvador : « Nous n’avons pas d’autre choix que de mettre au monde»”, Libération ,04.01.2018. ) as well as physical health (obstetric complications, etc.) of young women and reduce their chances of going to school and their socio-economic integration. The denial of the right to abortion of young girls is therefore a factor increasing socio-economic inequalities based to gender. For example, out of ten pregnant girls in Argentina, six of them drop out of ^[5]Erika Guevara-Rosas,  “L’Amérique latine doit cesser de contraindre des filles enceintes à se retrouver dans une situation de danger de mort”, Amnesty International, 05.03.2019..

In addition, pregnancies resulting from rape can also lead to early and forced marriage, particularly to “save family honor”. It is the case in Nicaragua where many young girls, sometimes only as young as 12, are forced to marry their attacker ^[6]Human Rights Watch, “Nicaragua: Prohibición del aborto supone riesgo para la salud y la vida”, 31.07.2017..

The use of unsafe abortions by young girls under the age of 18 (3 million of the 25 million unsafe abortions) is the second leading cause of maternal mortality among young women aged from 15 to 19 ^[7]Ann M. Starrs,Alex Ezeh,Gary Barker,Alaka Basu,Jane T. Bertrand,Robert W. Blum,Awa M. Coll-Seck,Anand Grover,Laura Laski,Monica Roa,Zeba A. Sathar,Lale Say,Gamal I. Serour,Susheela Singh,Karin … Continue reading. Denial of the right to abortion is therefore sexual violence as such, sometimes preceded or followed by other sexual violence such as rape and early and forced marriage.

A “girls’ revolution” ?

While they are the first victims of the restriction of the right to abortion, girls and young women are also leading the fight for its liberalization. In Argentina, for example, students are the ones who put the right to abortion at the center of the concerns in the wide and intergenerational movement “Ni Una Menos”, making it the core of their revendications. Mobilizations for the right to abortion are often presented there as “a girls’ revolution” (also known as the “pibas movement”) ^[8]Catherine Gouëset, “Argentine : l’avortement et la “révolution des filles”, L’Express, 13.06.2018..

To quote this article : Julia Heres Garcia, ”Young women, young girls and abortion in Latin America”, for the project ¡BASTA YA! – a documentary about the collective fight for abortion rights in Latin America.
Check ¡BASTA YA! website and their Instagram et Facebook pages.