Medical abortion drugs are also accessed through providers in informal settings or on the Internet. Local and international women’s groups and NGOs also disseminate information on medical abortion through the Internet, printed materials and hotlines that provide instructions on how https://absolute-woman.com/latin-women/ to self-perform a medical abortion. “Women on web”, an international digital community, provides on-line medical abortion services in different languages to women living in countries where there are no safe abortion services. Activism became institutionalized and the feminist movement grew in various directions. As the 90s came to a close, what started out as a spontaneous social movement with radical ideas about patriarchy, militarism, and democratization found its way into the halls of institutions and organizations that stifled feminist activism. The institutionalization of feminism was so profound that its political promise seemed lost.
- Despite this difficult panorama, I am confident we can reverse this scenario just as we were doing before the pandemic, when countries in the region were making significant progress in narrowing stubborn gender gaps.
- Many women, but particularly those who undergo the process with no counseling or supervision, have emotionally draining experiences marked by fear of negative consequences, anxiety and concern.
- To support a research and advocacy project to document and educate appropriate sectors about the socioeconomic status of Latinas in Chicago.
- “To believe in our potential as women is important and urgent in order to transform our society,’’ states Segura and this will be possible in countries that guarantee frameworks that protect women in various spheres, including in the working environment.
- Their ideas for social change were molded into general claims about access to education and transformation of laboring material conditions.
Latin Women’s Initiative has blossomed into one of Houston’s top Hispanic fundraising organizations that provides financial donations and volunteers to nonprofits that primarily assist Hispanic women and children. Since its inception, Latin Women’s Initiative has donated over $2 million to local nonprofit organizations, making a significant difference in the lives of thousands. The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice is endeavoring to comply with all applicable laws and regulations to the best of its understanding and ability, including the changes to Texas law made effective September 1, 2021. Nothing in this communication is intended to encourage, assist, aid, or abet any violation of those changes or any other law.
As misoprostol became more widely used the use of highly unsafe and invasive abortion methods gradually became less frequent. Women value the safety and effectiveness of MA as well as the privacy that it allows and the possibility of having their partner, a friend or a person of their choice nearby during the process.
Sixty-third meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean
Some women seek medical care shortly after bleeding starts, either because they are afraid that something bad will happen to them, or because they were told to do so by the person who instructed them on how to use the medication. In many Latin American countries pharmacies are widely used as a source of medical advice, especially by lower income populations, and women have traditionally resorted to pharmacies in search for drugs to bring on menstruation when they have a delayed menstrual period. Misoprostol is purchased at retail pharmacies either as the entire package or by the pill, usually without prescription despite the fact that government regulations require sale under prescription[11, 20–22, 34]. Pharmacy staff often recommend misoprostol for pregnancy termination but their knowledge about dosage, route of administration, side effects complications and effectiveness is often poor in quality. In these cases, we only selected the information which could shed light on the experience of undergoing a medical abortion.
One important change is that men are participating more than before in household and unpaid care work, initially as a result of lockdowns, but subsequently during the pandemic. At the same time that the world was grappling with COVID-19, another “shadow pandemic” brought death and suffering to many parts of Latin America. Both gender-based violence and femicide—killing a woman simply because of her gender—increased dramatically. From Naya Rivera’s role asSantana LopezonGleeto Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s somewhat infamous music videos toshameless advertisements, it’s not hard to find examples of thesexualization of Latina womenin pop culture. But there’s a more insidious side to this kind of stereotyping — besides being inaccurate, these types of depictions have been used to blame high rates of teen pregnancies in the community on the “spicy Latina.” Though theCenter for American Progressreports that the level of educational attainment for Latinas has risen in the past few years, graduation rates for Latinas, at 31.3% in 2008, are still significantly lower than graduation rates for white women, at 45.8%.
Table A-3. Employment status of the Hispanic or Latino population by sex and age
Women perceive MA as less painful, easier, safer, more practical, less expensive, more natural and less traumatic than other abortion methods. The fact that it is self-induced and that it avoids surgery are also pointed out as advantages.
Only a minority of studies include women who completed the MA process alone, without preabortion counseling and/or postabortion care. Adolescent women are underrepresented in the available studies and the experience of those under age 15 is completely absent. We know nothing about women who had failed medical abortions and continued on with their pregnancy, and very little about those who had a legal abortion within the health care system or those who received misoprostol for postabortion care. In addition, most literature comes from large urban settings, and few studies include rural or indigenous women. More and updated scientific evidence on medical abortion in Latin American is needed in order for researchers, activists, policy makers and health care providers to have a better and more comprehensive understanding of its impact on women’s lives and health. The idea that class is a key dimension of women’s lives is one that is rooted in Latin American feminist activisms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As previously noted in Section 1 , women’s fights for equality of this time were framed in terms of equitable access to social goods (e.g., education).
Women who have legal medical abortions in a medically controlled setting are less concerned about bleeding. Mujeres Latinas en Acción empowers Latinas through a variety of initiatives that promote non-violence, reproductive health, and leadership development. This award supports registration fees for six people to attend Community Organizing & Family Issues training. That women writers, in particular, would be the ones to traverse the more shadowy corners of current Latin American fiction is perhaps no surprise, as a groundswell of frustration against restrictions on women’s rights and rising gender violence gathers force. Across the region, protest movements driven by women have become fixtures of the political landscape in recent years. FIn 2008 Gomperts et al. published a study based on 484 women from 33 different countries who contacted Women on Web and received a medical abortion kit (mifepristone + misprostol) by postal mail.
Violence against women in Latin America and the Caribbean : a comparative analysis of population-based data from 12 countries
If you were to accept everything you heard about Latinas, you might think they were scheming and hypersexual, yet socially conservative women whose “equal educational opportunities” and “competitive purchasing power” signify their “arrival.” Santos, who is the co-CEO of #WeAllGrow Latina, a lifestyle brand and online community that connects Latinas with career resources, didn’t realize she was being paid unfairly until another woman of color saw Santos’ pay stub on her desk and alerted her of the discrepancy. Bleeding usually starts few hours after the first dose and is most abundant at 6 to 12 hours after insertion but can also take much longer.
The safety of a clandestine procedure depends on the conditions under which it is performed which are primarily determined by the woman’s socioeconomic status. Women living in vulnerable social conditions who cannot afford safe clandestine abortions often turn to risky methods like the insertion of foreign bodies into the uterus, drinking toxic solutions, or procedures performed by unskilled providers. Social and cultural beliefs against abortion as well as stigma are other barriers to safe abortion that make women turn to unsafe methods. In addition, fear of ill treatment and legal reprisals might prevent women from seeking prompt medical care after an abortion. This article summarizes the findings of a literature review on women’s experiences with medical abortion in Latin American countries where voluntary abortion is illegal.