Abortion in Venezuela is currently illegal except in some specific cases outlined in the Venezuelan Constitution,[1] and the country has one of Latin America's most restrictive laws.
[citation needed] Venezuela's policy on abortion follows the "indications model", meaning that it is permissible only when the pregnancy is a threat to the health of the pregnant woman, it is a result of rape, or the fetus cannot live outside of the womb.
[10] Venezuela approved a law in 1926 banning abortion that was left unmodified up to 2000, when a reform allowed the procedure if the woman's life was in danger.
A clause of the Venezuelan Penal Code reduces the sentence "if the author of the abortion commits it to save his or his mother, wife or children's honour".
[2] Article 340 of the Penal Code states that "a women who intentionally aborts, using means employed by herself or by a third party with their consent, shall be punished with prison for six months to two years.
Article 433 offers an exception: "a person carrying out an abortion will not incur any penalty if it is an indispensable measure to save the life of the mother."
[citation needed] The crisis has also led to a decrease in access to contraceptives, and has caused many women to resort to sterilization and abortion as a family planning method.
[12][13] Many anti-abortion non-governmental organizations in the country stopped offering support or disappeared after the detention in October 2020, Vannesa Rosales, an activist from Mérida state, after helping an underage rape victim to abort.
[15][16] Due to abortion's legal status, Venezuelans often obtain misoprostol through the black market, which is expensive and puts the mother at risk.