- Title: Mexican activists demand greater abortion rights across Latin America
- Date: 29th September 2016
- Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 28, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PRO-ABORTION RIGHTS PROTESTERS DANCING AND CHANTING WHILST WEARING COLOURFUL RAINCOATS VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS DANCING AND CHANTING WHILST WEARING RAINCOAT PAINTED TO SYMBOLISE PRISON CELL (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ABORTION LEGALISATION ACTIVIST, DAFNE CUEVAS, SAYING: "Women have come out to demand our governments to decriminalise abortions. We are convinced that women are dying due to criminalisation and penalisation of something that does not protect lives. On the contrary woman are going to jail, they are persecuted or they are obliged to continue with unwanted pregnancies or to have underground abortions which are a risk to their health, and which sometimes result in death." BANNER THAT READS "ABORTION: DECRIMINALISATION NOW" VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS WEARING RAINCOATS PAINTED TO SYMBOLISE PRISON CELL (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PROTESTER FOR ABORTION LEGALISATION, MAYRA SAMANIEGO, SAYING: "There are other risks like for example those concerning life decisions. We can't make decisions about our bodies, we can't make decisions about our lives, when we want to be a mother or not, we can't explore our sexuality because this implies restrictions in all respects." GENERAL VIEW OF RAINED OUT PROTEST VARIOUS OF ARTWORK RELATING TO INCARCERATION ON BANNERS AT ZOCALO SQUARE GENERAL VIEW OF PROTESTERS AT SQUARE MORE OF ARTWORK AT PROTEST PROMOTING WOMEN'S RIGHTS TIMELINE PLACARDS AT PROTEST ON HISTORY OF ABORTION RIGHTS IN LATIN AMERICA
- Embargoed: 14th October 2016 02:29
- Keywords: abortion women's rights Mexico Latin America Mexico City
- Location: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
- City: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA00151HDUF7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Activists marked the Global Day of Action for Legal, Safe and Free Abortions in Mexico City on Wednesday (September 28) by calling on nations across Latin America to decriminalise the practice.
Braving heavy rain in Zocalo square, protesters wore raincoats with jail cells drawn on them to symbolise the criminal ban on abortion in much of Latin America, home to about half the world's Roman Catholics.
Although legal in Mexico City since 2007, much of the country has criminalised abortions.
Women seeking abortions in Mexico steal away to the country's liberal capital, escaping their home states where the practice is condemned and illegal.
Authorities in almost all of Mexico's conservative states have fought back against Mexico City's abortion policies by making examples of specific women and tightening laws and activists say this is forcing women underground.
Officials estimate that of the more than 40,000 abortions performed in Mexico City since 2007, 24 percent were performed on women from surrounding states, according to city government data.
"We women have come out to demand our governments to decriminalise abortions. We are convinced that women are dying due to criminalisation and penalisation of something that does not protect lives. On the contrary woman are going to jail, they are persecuted or they are obliged to continue with unwanted pregnancies or to have underground abortions which are a risk to their health, and which sometimes result in death," said activist, Dafne Cuevas.
Similar protests were also planned across Latin America, including in Argentina where abortions are only legal in the case of rape or when the woman's health or life is in danger.
Pro-abortion protester Mayra Samaniego told Reuters that criminalising the practice is affecting the life decisions of women.
"There are other risks like for example those concerning life decisions. We can't make decisions about our bodies, we can't make decisions about our lives, when we want to be a mother or not, we can't explore our sexuality because this implies restrictions in all respects," she said.
Macro statistics on abortions are hard to come by. In 2011, the World Health Organisation carried out an extensive global study which found there were an estimated 21,600,000 total abortions carried out that year throughout the world. Of those, 98 percent were performed in developing countries where abortions are often illegal and performed underground. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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