Latin American abortion rights activists warn against draconian US laws: ‘I have seen what is it like to live with a total ban’

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Campaigners in Honduras, one of five nations in Latin America with complete bans on abortion, and which also prohibits emergency contraception, have urged the government of president Juan Orlando Hernández to make it legal for women to obtain “the day after pill”, and known by the acronym PAE. “The emergency contraceptive pill is essential to avoid a pregnancy when you have unprotected sex, when condoms fail or in cases of rape,” said Ana Fálope, a Honduran women’s rights activist and leader of “Hablemos lo que es”, the name of the legalisation campaign, and a commonly used phrase that translates as “let’s call it what it is”. This has been indicated by the World Health Organisation, which also believes that PAE should be available to all women.” Activists say they have been dispirited by recent events in the US, where a succession of states have passed laws banning or restricting abortion, part of a campaign to try and force the Supreme Court to reconsider 1973’s Roe v Wade ruling that gave women the right to a safe and legal abortion. Paula Avila Guillen, director of Latin America initiatives at the New York-based Women’s Equality Centre, told The Independent she had spent years working in countries with either total or partial bans on abortion.