Abortion Mobilities: Travel and transport for reproductive rights across Latin America

在适当的环境下实施堕胎是一项常规和安全的医疗程序。然而，法律和其他障碍往往阻碍妇女在她们所在的地方获得安全堕胎。在整个拉丁美洲，这种障碍很常见，这意味着旅行往往是妇女获得堕胎的唯一途径。虽然有些人可以选择前往堕胎合法的国家或城市，但对其他人来说，唯一的选择就是找到非法的、不安全的堕胎方式。还有一种趋势是，直接向妇女运送堕胎药物，以防止她们自己旅行。获得堕胎服务具有深刻的地理意义，几乎所有不安全堕胎都发生在全球南方，拉丁美洲的比例很高。在这个研究项目中，我将研究拉丁美洲妇女的经历，她们被迫跨越国界进行堕胎护理或运送堕胎药物，因为她们无法在离家近的地方接受护理。它将探讨在拉丁美洲三个国家（墨西哥、秘鲁和危地马拉）阻碍妇女接受安全、合法堕胎的障碍，以及它们为克服这些障碍、通过旅行寻求生殖保健而制定的战略。妇女们在旅途中发现堕胎可能并不安全；因此，妇女可能面临死亡、长期健康问题或监禁。但他们往往别无选择。提供堕胎途径和提高认识的战略包括堕胎热线、将妇女送往国际水域的船只，使她们可以逃避本国的法律，以及运送堕胎药物的活动人士网络。这些策略帮助妇女去寻找堕胎或给她们送堕胎药。我将通过在墨西哥、秘鲁和危地马拉进行实地考察来开展这项研究，在那里我将采访生殖健康组织和前往堕胎的妇女，并分析法律和政策文件，以了解现有的“官方”障碍。这项研究很重要，因为我将与拉丁美洲的生殖健康组织一起工作，我的发现将被他们用来指导他们在生殖健康方面的工作。虽然在全球北方对堕胎旅行现象进行了研究，但在全球南方对这一现象的研究明显不足，尽管大多数不安全堕胎旅行发生在南半球。因此，我将提供拉丁美洲堕胎旅行现象的证据，为被迫前往堕胎的妇女的经历提供见证，探索堕胎药物的运输如何运作，并询问安全堕胎障碍的存在原因和方式。这样做的明确目的是努力消除这些障碍。我将为学术读者写作，但我也将与妇女和活动人士合作，撰写有关堕胎旅行现象的政策简报，制作一部关于妇女旅行经历的短片，并撰写一篇生动的中篇小说，以提高人们对拉丁美洲堕胎机会的认识。

Abortion is a routine and safe medical procedure when administered in the correct environment. However, all too often, the law and other barriers prevent women from accessing safe abortions where they are. Across Latin America such barriers are common and this means that travel is often the only way for women to access abortions. While some have the option of travelling to a country or city where the procedure is legal, for others the only option is to find an illegal, unsafe abortion. There is also a growing trend of transporting abortion medication to women directly in order to prevent them from traveling themselves. Access is profoundly geographical with almost all unsafe abortions occurring in the Global South, and with a high proportion in Latin America. In this research project I will be examining the experiences of Latin American women who are forced to travel across borders for abortion care or transport abortion medication due to barriers preventing them from receiving care close to home. It will be exploring the barriers that prevent women from receiving safe, legal abortions in three countries in Latin America (Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala) and the strategies they devise to resist these barriers to seek reproductive healthcare through travel. The abortions women find on their travels may not be safe; women can face death, long-term health issues, or imprisonment as a result. But they often have no other option. The strategies to provide abortion access and to raise awareness include abortion hotlines, boats that sail women into international waters where they can escape the national law of their country, and activist networks that transport abortion medication. These tactics help women to travel to find an abortion or deliver the abortion pills to them. I will conduct this research by undertaking fieldwork in Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala where I will interview reproductive health organisations and women who have travelled for abortions and analyse legal and policy documents to understand the 'official' barriers in place.This research is important because I will be working alongside reproductive health organisations in Latin America and my findings will be used by them to inform their work on reproductive health. While the phenomenon of abortion travel has been studied in the Global North, it is significantly under-researched in the Global South, despite this being where the majority of unsafe abortion travel occurs. I will therefore provide evidence of the phenomenon of abortion travel in Latin America, provide witness to the experiences of the women who are forced to travel for abortions, explore how the transportation of abortion medication works, and interrogate why and how barriers to safe abortion exist. This is for the clear purpose of working towards the removal of these barriers. I will write for academic audiences but I will also be working with women and activists to write policy briefs about the phenomenon of abortion travel, make a short film about women's experiences of travel, and a graphic novella to raise awareness of abortion access in Latin America.