Last month, a 20-year-old woman in Uruguay went to a public hospital after suffering complications from an illegal abortion. Under Uruguay's strict 1938 law against abortion, she left facing up to nine months (!) in prison. Three women involved in performing the procedure are in jail awaiting trial.
While illegal abortion is presumed to be common in Uruguay, Reuters reports that this particular case has galvanized an Internet campaign to legalize abortion in the country. Over 4,000 people -- including writers, musicians and two female government ministers -- have signed the petition at www.despenalizar.blogspot.com, which reads: "Those of us signing this have violated the law ... either by having an abortion or financing one, by accompanying a woman to have one, (or) knowing the identity of many women who have had one and keeping quiet. Either we are all criminals or the law is unjust."
It's unclear what effect the petition itself has had or will have. But it appears to be part of a slowly growing call in Latin America -- where illegal abortion is said to kill thousands of women every year -- for easing some of the restrictions on the procedure. According to a New York Times/International Herald Tribune editorial, "Latin Americans are beginning to look at abortion as an issue of maternal mortality, not just maternal morality."
The abortion doctor
Susan Wicklund has received death threats and worn a bulletproof vest to work. But what really scares her, she writes in "This Common Secret," is the war on reproductive rights.
By Eryn Loeb, Salon
How abortion changed the world
From a sketchy underground doctor to the American fight against communism, a look at the unlikely forces that helped spread global family planning.
By Michelle Goldberg, Salon
What's wrong with the new pro-lifers
The progressive anti-abortion movement still doesn't truly value the life and identity of the mother.
By Frances Kissling, Salon
Is there a next generation of abortion providers?
As if the threat of violence and divisive politics weren't enough, getting trained is almost impossible.
By Kate Harding, Salon
When abortion was a crime
Reagan, an assistant professor of history, medicine and women's studies at the University of Illinois, dedicates her disturbing work on abortion in America before Roe v. Wade to "the lives of... women who died trying to control their reproduction."
The abortion debate
An incredibly interesting debate that looks at both the pros and cons of abortion from a secularist viewpoint.
“Egg-as-a-Person” Initiative on the 2010 Ballot in Colorado
My Saturday at the abortion clinic
Secular Sunday School: Blasphemy Laws
Weed: Shall Ye Be California's Savior? 