From South America to the American South, Abortion Bans Devastate Latinas

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More than one year after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, local governments banned abortion in 14 states — and according to a study by the National Partnership for Women & Families and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, Latine people with uteri are negatively impacted by these bans more than any other racial or ethnic group. In fact, 42% of Latinas live in the 26 states that have banned or restricted abortions, including Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina, states where Latine populations are abundant and/or rapidly growing.

The reality of Latines’ lack of access to reproductive rights is something that follows many of us across the border when we arrive in the US. Latin America is home to some of the most restrictive abortion rights laws in the world, which severely impacts our control over our own bodily autonomy and, by extension, our own lives. Although the myth of the American dream and the façade of American freedom is alive and well, many Latines arrive in the US only to find out there isn’t a better life for us — and in many of the communities we settle in, there aren’t many more reproductive rights to enjoy on this side of the border.

“Latines arrive in the US only to find out there isn’t a better life for us — and in many of the communities we settle in, there aren’t many more reproductive rights to enjoy on this side of the border. “

“So much of what we know about the impact of the abortion bans on the Latinx community has to do with existing obstacles that the community had already faced even before the abortion bans went into effect,” Lupe M. Rodríguez, the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, tells Refinery29 Somos. She says Latines are more severely affected by abortion bans not only because we tend to live in states where the healthcare procedure is outlawed or restricted but also because we tend to be lower income and have fewer resources within these states. “The Latinx community still has the highest rates of uninsured populations in the U.S., and, as a result, we don’t have a regular healthcare provider.”

The situation was already dire for Latines seeking healthcare: Very few providers know how to deliver culturally sensitive care or provide care in languages that we can understand, like Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. Now, as abortion bans have forced affordable family planning and community clinics to shut down, we are struggling to access healthcare — reproductive or otherwise.

“Many of our communities have depended on community healthcare providers that provide low-cost or free care, places like Planned Parenthood, and because of these bans, many of those places are now not able to provide care in those communities,” Rodríguez says. For instance, nearly half of the U.S. abortion clinics that have closed down have been in Texas, where even Planned Parenthood has been forced to turn patients away. “And the first place where many Latinx folks ever got any kind of healthcare was through an OBGYN appointment at some of these reproductive healthcare clinics, and these have been very largely impacted by the bans.”

“So much of what we know about the impact of the abortion bans on the Latinx community has to do with existing obstacles that the community had already faced even before the abortion bans went into effect.”

For a population that is majority low-income, rarely finds healthcare practitioners that speak our language, and are probably dealing with the hurdles and fear of being undocumented, the consequences of the abortion bans go beyond abortion access, Rodríguez says. Many health conditions are probably not being treated due to the closing of these clinics.

This is what’s happening in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where family planning clinics were forced to close, leaving thousands of low-income patients without care — reproductive or otherwise. Rodríguez describes the already existing healthcare access issues of the Latine community and the abortion bans as the perfect storm that puts Latine bodies in peril due to lack of care.

“In the last couple of years, we have seen a really frightening rise in maternal deaths among Latinas,” Rodríguez says. “This increase started in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, and of course that’s connected to a lack of access to care during the pandemic. What public health experts are saying is that there could be an even larger increase in healthcare disparities because of these abortion bans.”

Lack of access to reproductive care also means that we are vulnerable to misinformation about abortion. Latinas, in fact, are more likely to be targeted by abortion misinformation, which is disseminated in both English and Spanish and range from false news about abortion criminalization in the US to misleading information about the physical and mental health risks of the procedure.

“Latinas, in fact, are more likely to be targeted by abortion misinformation, which is disseminated in both English and Spanish.”

“Lack of healthcare access means the community is disconnected from correct information,” Rodríguez says. “Regular access to medical care can provide people with correct information. There still are these organizations that call themselves crisis pregnancy centers, where they give out misinformation, saying that abortion causes bad health outcomes, which is not true.”

Rodríguez adds that crisis pregnancy centers have recognized and targeted the vulnerability of the Latine community when it comes to misinformation. Many Latines are navigating a culture and a country we are not wholly familiar with, so we are likely to believe what we are told or what we read on social media.

“A lot of folks don’t actually know that in some large parts of the country abortion is legal,” Rodríguez says. “So when people tell you abortion is illegal, you’re going to believe them because it’s been illegal in your experience [back home] as well. That’s one thing that we see that follows folks across borders.”

“A lot of folks don’t actually know that in some large parts of the country abortion is legal, so when people tell you abortion is illegal, you’re going to believe them because it’s been illegal in your experience [back home] as well.”

In feminist Latin American and Caribbean movements, there’s a chant that goes: “Las mujeres ricas abortan, las pobres se mueren” (“Rich women get abortions, poor women die trying”). This sentence has been written countless times on feminist protest signs — both in Spanish and in Portuguese — that demand reproductive rights in Latin America, thus recognizing that abortion is a class issue. It isn’t so different in the US: Here, those with more financial resources can travel to states where abortion is legal — paying for travel and accommodation costs as well as the procedure, if necessary — while those who are low-income are forced to go without reproductive care because they simply cannot afford it.

“The practical reality is that if you’re lower income, you don’t have access to many things in many countries in Latin America, and that doesn’t change when you come to the US. Our healthcare system is so expensive, especially if you don’t have insurance coverage, and the majority of folks can’t afford that,” Rodriguez says. “It’s about a failing system of healthcare in this country that doesn’t actually provide care for everyone.”

“The lack of reproductive rights that persists in the lives of the Latine community — both in the US and in Latin American and Caribbean countries — is an urgent issue that requires the building of a transnational movement. “

The lack of reproductive rights that persists in the lives of the Latine community — both in the US and in Latin American and Caribbean countries — is an urgent issue that requires the building of a transnational movement. The violence, poverty, and scarcity that drives us to leave our home countries in the first place is connected, compounded, and re-experienced through the discrimination and inequality of the Latine community in the US. Many of us, especially those who come from racially marginalized backgrounds as well, arrive only to find another kind of oppression and suffering across the border.

Another common feminist rallying cry heard throughout Latin American and the Caribbean is “aborto seguro, legal y gratuito” (safe, legal and free abortions for all). This chant, once again, recognizes the importance of free access to reproductive healthcare, something that everyone should have, regardless of how much money we have in the bank. This must be demanded for Latine people in the US and in our home countries — none of us are free until all of us are free.