Reproductive Rights Groups to Challenge Criminalization of Abortion in El Salvador

The Overbrook Foundation’s longtime grantee, the Center for Reproductive Rights and its Salvadoran partner, Colectiva de Mujeres para el Desarollo Local, have filed a new case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to challenge the absolute abortion ban in El Salvador. The case will use tragic experience of one Salvadoran woman to demonstrate how the criminalization of abortion has unjustly harmed women. In a press release on the new case, the Center for Reproductive Rights explains:

“From the moment Manuela, arrived at the hospital seeking emergency health care, slipping in and out of consciousness and hemorrhaging, doctors treated her as if she had attempted an abortion and immediately called the police. She was shackled to her hospital bed and accused of murder. Manuela was sentenced to 30 years in prison without ever having a chance to meet with her lawyer, without an opportunity to speak in her own defense, and without the right to appeal the decision. Shockingly, the judge overseeing her case said that “her maternal instinct should have prevailed” and “she should have protected her child.”

After several months in prison, it was discovered that the visible tumors Manuela had on her neck for which she sought medical care several times without being accurately diagnosed, was advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma — a disease that likely lead to the severe obstetric emergency she suffered. Tragically, Manuela did not receive the appropriate treatment for her disease and died in prison in 2010, leaving behind her two young children.”

After reading this devastating account, The Overbrook Foundation is pleased that these organizations will look to human rights mechanisms at the international level in an effort to pursue justice for Manuela and other women at risk as a result of this ban. The case will be the first of its kind before the IACHR challenging the imprisonment of women for suspected abortion due to an unsafe focus on abortion rather than the protection of several human rights and the provision of appropriate medical care. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has a strong record for defending gender and human rights, as well as the power to increase international pressure on states ignoring their human rights obligations through the publicity of the commission’s decisions. Hopefully, a successful case at this level will encourage El Salvador, and maybe even other countries in the region with similar policies, to recognize the danger of its strict abortion laws and to ensure they are being held accountable for their record on human rights.

For more information, please see the press release from the Center for Reproductive Rights or a related article on the RH Reality Check.

Honduras Upholds Ban on Emergency Contraception

After its Supreme Court ruled to uphold an absolute ban on emergency contraception, Honduras will have the strictest ban on emergency contraception in the world. The law will criminalize the sale, use and distribution of the emergency contraception, commonly known as “the morning after pill”. The penalties could be as extreme as the punishments for abortion in Honduras, three to six years in prison for those seeking abortion and three to ten years imprisonment for those performing them. In a country where it is extremely difficult for many to procure birth control for regular use and where those seeking and providing abortions face harsh penalties, this decision to deny reproductive rights to women is particularly devastating.

Since the law was passed by the Honduran Congress in 2009, the Center for Reproductive Rights (an Overbrook Grantee) has fought this legal ban in Honduran courts in partnership with other local and international women’s rights groups. This decision leads us to reaffirm The Overbrook Foundation's commitment to advancing reproductive rights and gender rights in Latin America. It also reminds us of the importance of the Center for Reproductive Rights and other organizations as they continue to fight an uphill battle to advance human rights for all women and to overturn policies that harm women’s health and lives.

To learn more about this law and the negative consequences of its implementation, please read the press release from the Center for Reproductive Rights. A blog post on RH Reality Check also builds on this press release to contextualize this decision by explaining how important these services are in Honduras, which has a high poverty rate and the highest adolescent birthrate in Central America.

2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winners and PBS's Women, War & Peace

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has just been awarded to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace–building work”. Congratulations to these women on their well-deserved recognition for important efforts to promote peace, gender rights, and democracy in Africa and the Middle East.

If you want to learn more about two of the prize recipients, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, you can watch their interviews and their stories in the second episode of Overbrook Grantee Thirteen’s upcoming series Women, War & Peace. This episode, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, examines the obstacles that female Liberian peace activists faced as they challenged Liberian warlords and the regime of dictator Charles Taylor during a violent civil war. These women and their partners are incredible leaders, who achieved an enormous victory for peace in 2003. The second episode premieres October 18, 2011.

On Tuesdays between October 11 and November 8, PBS will air its new five-part series, Women, War & Peace, which examines the position of women as influential leaders and activists in peace movements during brutal wars and their aftermaths around the world. The impact of the series will extend beyond initial viewers through the use of these videos and accompanying learning guides in classrooms across the country. Overbrook is proud to support this powerful series that brings stories of international gender rights to the attention of a broad U.S. audience.

Here is the schedule for those interested in viewing this powerful series:

Tuesday, October 11th - I Came to Testify (Bosnia - Narrated by Matt Damon)

Tuesday, October 18th - Pray the Devil Back to Hell (Liberia)

Tuesday, October 25th - Peace Unveiled (Afghanistan - Narrated by Tilda Swinton)

Tuesday, November 1st - The War We Are Living (Colombia - Narrated by Alfre Woodard)

Tuesday, November 8th - War Redefined (Overview - Narrated by Geena Davis)

Times for these broadcasts can be found in local listings. Also, check out the Women,War and Peace website for more information at www.womenwarandpeace.org. Hope you all can tune in on Tuesday!