Latin America
Related: About this forumUruguay Senate Approves First-Trimester Abortions
Uruguay Senate Approves First-Trimester Abortions
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: October 17, 2012
SÃO PAULO, Brazil Uruguays Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that allows women to have abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy for any reason, opening the way for one of the most sweeping abortion rights laws in Latin America.
The bill, approved by Uruguays 31-member Senate by a 17-to-14 vote, had been narrowly approved in September by the countrys lower house. While some prominent political leaders in Uruguay have opposed the measure, President José Mujica has supported it. Alberto Breccia, a top aide to Mr. Mujica, said Wednesday that the president had no plans to veto the bill, almost ensuring that it would become law by early November.
The abortion measure points to the political changes under way in Uruguay, which has a population of 3.3 million. In another debate closely followed in Latin America, Mr. Mujica, a former guerrilla, is also pushing for the legalization of marijuana.
Other nations, namely Communist-led Cuba and Guyana, the English-speaking South American country with fewer than 1 million people, have also legalized abortion. Elsewhere in the region, Colombia has eased a ban on abortion, allowing it in cases including rape, incest and when a womans life is in danger, while Mexico City legalized abortion in 2007.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/world/americas/uruguay-senate-approves-first-trimester-abortions.html?=&_r=0
Warpy
(111,339 posts)Brazil has managed to lower the poor's birthrate by one novel approach: they've supplied power to the slums so that people now can get TVs to watch. The telenovelas have featured women from all sorts of walks of life, the most successful of them having limited families to three or fewer children. The message is sinking in for women in the slums, and they're much more loath to be baby machines.
Add to this government supported birth control and you have a true revolution going on.
I suppose decriminialized early abortion will eventually be a part of the package. For now, electricity allowing people to watch TV dramas has made an immense impact.
(Read all about it in The Economist last year if you want to find the story)
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)Looks as if having light instead of deep darkness at night also would bring an amazing psychological difference in the way they see their lives, as well.
The idea that there could be such a profound awakening as a by-product (realizing other people choose to have smaller families) is so wonderful. For very poor people it could make all the difference in the quality of their lives.