Latin America joins world march for women rights

Thousands of people across several Latin American countries gathered in their respective cities yesterday to protest in favour of decriminalising abortion

The global day of action had protestors pushing countries to allow access to safe and legal termination of pregnancy.

People marched across Mexico, Colombia, Chile and El Salvador in support of the thousands of Latin American women who die from unsafe abortions each year, exacerbated by the increase in teenage pregnancies and sexual violence in the region.

Earlier this month Mexico’s Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to criminalize abortion.

In Colombia, 800 women marched towards the capital with the country only allowing abortions for life-threatening cases, cases of rape or birth defects.

A march was also held in Chile, where the lower house of Congress agreed to debate a bill to decriminalize abortion for up to 14 weeks after pregnancy.

And El Salvador saw a crowd of people waving green flags demanding an ease in the strict abortion laws.

A leader of the Colombian demonstration says women “have the right to abort, to voluntarily interrupt pregnancy, to decide about our bodies, about our lives, and about our maternity wards”