The current status of abortion laws in Latin America: prospects and strategies for change

Abstract

In order to explore ways of dealing with this phenomenon of illegal abortions and restrictive abortion laws in Latin America, several special sessions were held at last summer's international conference in Toronto, sponsored by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. The sessions brought together lawyers, health professionals, and reproductive rights advocates from a number of Latin American countries; their counterparts in the developed world; and representatives of non-governmental agencies concerned with this issue, including Catholics for a Free Choice. The goal of the sessions was to share information on the status of abortion in various countries and to try to devise strategies to make abortion law reform more palatable to Latin American governments and public opinion. One major component of the sessions was a series of papers prepared by some of the Latin American representatives describing and analyzing the situations in their countries. The papers illustrate some of the issues facing women in this part of the world.