From the International Women Media Foundation (IWMF). 

“IWMF is proud to support reporting of untold stories surrounding Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice in the Americas. This initiative funds reporting on issues that impact people’s daily lives in the region, including abortion and contraception access, maternal health, reproductive health policy and abortion bans.

Up until 2020, 97 percent of Latin American women lived in countries with severe abortion restrictions. That changed in December 2020, when Argentina legalized abortion following a years-long, grassroots movement for expanded abortion rights. The effects of the historic vote rippled across Latin America – Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled to decriminalize abortion in September 2021, and Colombia’s Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion for up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in February 2022. While abortion is now decriminalized in three of the largest countries in Latin America, countries like El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republican continue to have a total ban on abortions.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed Roe v. Wade after nearly a half-century, rolling back abortion rights in roughly half the states. The United States is one of only two countries (along with the Dominican Republic) that reported a significant increase in the maternal mortality rate from 1990 to 2015, and Black women in the U.S. are nearly three times more likely than white women to die during pregnancy and childbirth as a result of racial disparities in health care. Within this regional context, it is critical to bring attention to these issues.

Through the Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice in the Americas program, the IWMF is funding reporting grants for women and nonbinary journalists and is leading international reporting trips to support and encourage quality reporting on these issues.”