Manodiversa is an organization based in Santa Cruz de la Sierra which advocates for the rights and needs of all people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, promoting empowerment and effective participation in decision-making spaces.

Manodiversa's project will address the reproductive healthcare needs of lesbian and bisexual women and trans men, especially those who are indigenous, Afro-descendent, and/or living in rural and peri-urban areas. Access by these populations to sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion services, is limited, despite an evidenced need. The SAAF-funded work will generate evidence for planning state/civil society policies and programs, empower the target population, provide skills and equipment to providers and health centres to generate LGBT friendly spaces, and disseminate the evidence produced with the women's movement, LGBT activists and legislators in Bolivia.

Visit the Manodiversa website.

Public debate on abortion in Brazil has been historically limited by religious based political conservatism. Anis works to counteract anti-choice claims, not by denying them, but by introducing a counter-frame on abortion rights, in legal and communication terms, with a clear moral and narrative stance against the reproductive coercion of women. This new frame facilitates collaboration with a diverse range of human rights organizations, beyond those of the traditional feminist movement, in the advocacy struggle to decriminalise abortion in Brazil.

Visit the Anis – Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights and Gender website.

Bloco A is a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating social injustice for women and girls in Brazil by increasing access to high quality essential health services including contraception, abortion and post-abortion care.

In Brazil, abortion is both criminalized (except in cases of rape, fetal anencephaly and risk to the life of the woman) and heavily stigmatized. A 2019 study showed that fewer than half of the hospitals the Brazilian Ministry of Health identified as providing legal abortion actually provide care.

Bloco A works with healthcare providers to deliver compassionate, high-quality care for women seeking abortion and post-abortion care in Brazil, and promotes a harm-reduction approach to mitigate the harmful effects of unsafe abortion. This includes piloting a training course for nursing and medical students, the findings of which will be used to strengthen efforts to change clinical attitudes towards abortion by advocating for the adoption of a harm-reduction policy in Brazil.

Visit the Bloco A website.

Instituto Patrícia Galvão (IPG) is a leading feminist organization in the fields of women's rights and communication. IPG's SAAF-funded work aims to influence the public debate in Brazil on the right to safe abortion in the case of rape, in order to prevent setbacks in the current legislation and to stimulate advances in guaranteeing the rights of access to information and services for girls and women who have experienced sexual violence.

Witnessing increasing threats to women's rights and abortion access from a far-right conservative Government, and an increased conservatism amongst the public, IPG is conducting research and awareness raising to ensure greater public understanding of reproductive rights, especially the right to access abortion in the case of rape.

Visit the Instituto Patrícia Galvão – Mídia e Direitos website.

Despite a 2006 Constitutional Court ruling in Colombia that decriminalised abortion in three exceptions (including when the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s health), informal estimates suggest that less than 10% of abortions are carried out legally. Si Mujer's project addresses the lack of knowledge and incorrect information that persists on abortion among poor marginalised communities, while also challenging the gender inequalities which act as barriers to abortion, particularly among young marginalised women in Cali (the largest city in the southwest of Colombia and home to the largest number of internally displaced people in the region).

The project mobilises, trains and supports adolescents and young people to act as sexual and reproductive health and rights activists in their communities. The young people sensitise, raise awareness, educate on sexual health and rights, with a focus on abortion legislation, as well as identify and refer women in need of abortions to the organisations' own clinics where they will receive care free-of-charge.

Read stories from Si Mujer staff and volunteers here, and visit the Si Mujer website here.

The eastern region of Guatemala has high rates of unwanted early pregnancies and access to reproductive health programs is limited, especially to emergency contraception and contraceptive methods for adolescents and youth.

Colectivo Joven is a youth centered organisation which, with SAAF funding, aims to work directly with adolescents and young people in the municipality of Jalapa, providing comprehensive sexuality education focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights. They also work with public health personnel, to educate them on the taboos that exist in relation to abortion, and to reduce barriers to providing therapeutic abortion, which is legally permissible.

Visit the Asociación Civil, Colectivo para la Participación de la Infancia y Juventud (COPIJ) website.

This project is focussed on advocating for access to safe abortion for women in the Mexican state of Campeche. Through strategic litigation for the promotion of sexual and reproductive rights of women, training health professionals and public servants in abortion as a right and ensuring access to safe abortion for ethnic minority women from the border region of Campeche and Quintana Roo by providing accompaniment to safe abortion providers.

Balance Promoción para el Desarrollo y Juventud, A.C. (Balance A.C.) is a progressive feminist organization that aims to transform policies, programs and actions to promote sexual and reproductive justice for women, adolescents and youth. Balance A.C. offers support through the MARIA Fund for Abortion and Social Justice, which is the only fund in Latin America and the Caribbean that functions on a national scale, supporting women all over the country so that they can access safe abortion. It strives for a legal and social context in Mexico that would allow, respect, and promote the right to abortion as a legitimate outcome of an unwanted or unviable pregnancy, using the legal framework that exists in Mexico City.

Aside from granting financial and logistical support for those seeking abortions, the MARIA Fund trains and works with voluntary abortion doulas who provide comprehensive accompaniment to women throughout their abortion experience. It also engages on research focused on stigma-reduction, and strengthens the skills of those working for safe abortion in their states.

Visit the Balance Promoción para el Desarrollo y Juventud AC website.

Equifonia is an organization based in the State of Veracruz in Mexico, with a mission to design and establish innovative strategies in health, security and justice for the recognition, enjoyment and exercise of women's rights.

In Mexico, Veracruz has the second highest number of child pregnancies in the country; health service providers and public prosecutors are unaware of the regulations in force regarding the services they must provide to pregnant girls under 15. There is also a lack of information in the general population about the rights of these girls.

Equifonia promotes an inter-institutional coordination mechanism that guarantees access to justice and health, including legal abortion; this requires training of health and justice personnel, budget allocation and the implementation of improvement processes for adequate care in all cases.

Visit the Equifonía website.

The Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women is a space for the empowerment of women of African descent for democratic, equitable, just, multicultural societies, free from racial discrimination, sexism and exclusion, and for the promotion of interculturality.

Their SAAF funded work strengthens the capacities of a network of young volunteers from the communities of Bilwi, Bonanza, Rosita and Waspan on the northern Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. The aim is to combat negative social norms and attitudes with respect to the right to decide about one's body. This is done through educational activities in communities such as informative talks, fairs and meetings between young people, which contribute to and motivate social changes in behaviour, creating awareness and autonomy, transforming ideas, beliefs, values and practices that cement the right to decide.

Visit the Asociación Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora (RMAAD) website.

This organisation provides comprehensive reproductive health services in northern Peru, with a focus on young people and women from indigenous communities.

Flora Tristán has a vision of their country as a democratic society without discrimination or exclusion of any kind, where women fully exercise their rights and citizenship. Despite recent successes from previous SAAF-funded activity to get the issue of abortion rights more discussed in political discourse, the law in Peru is still highly restrictive.

Flora Tristán hold public actions and work with opinion and political leaders to advance the campaign to legalise abortion in cases of rape and foetal abnormalities. They do this by working directly with smaller advocacy and youth groups in Lima and Cusco, supporting them to promote sexual and reproductive rights and strengthening their campaigns on the decriminalization of abortion.

Visit the Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán website.

CLACAI is a network of activists, researchers, health care providers and professionals that works towards the reduction of unsafe abortion in Latin America. It promotes access to information and to modern and safe technologies within the framework of full respect for sexual and reproductive rights from a gender and equity perspective.

With SAAF funding, CLACAI seeks to strengthen the capacity of its members in defending, promoting and expanding access to safe abortion by confronting opposition groups that have accentuated their presence in the Region, activating human rights mechanisms. One of the main objectives of this work is to strengthen legal defense actions of member organizations in the face of threats from anti-choice groups.

Visit the Consorcio Latinoamericano Contra el Aborto Inseguro (CLACAI) website.