Peru: Three female state ministers (health, women’s affairs, and justice) stated that the morning-after pill is not an abortifacient.

The Pan American Health Organization issued the document “Zika Ethics Consultation: Ethics Guidance on Key Issues Raised by the Outbreak,” which states that women have a right to decide to continue with their pregnancies in the context of the Zika outbreak, pointing out that governments have an ethical responsibility to allow women to decide among all relevant reproductive options, including access to contraception and abortion.

El Salvador: Flor Arely González was acquitted of aggravated homicide by the Trial Court of Sonsonate, an offense that she had been charged with after suffering an obstetric emergency in mid-2015.

El Salvador: In an extraordinary hearing, the Third Tribunal of Sentences recognized that there was not enough evidence to prove that María Teresa Rivera had performed a crime. It thus ruled that her 2012 sentence was a judicial error, and she was freed from prison.

UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: General Comment No. 22 on the Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health – “States parties are under immediate obligation to eliminate discrimination against individuals and groups and to guarantee their equal right to sexual and reproductive health. This requires States to repeal or reform laws and policies that nullify or impair the ability of certain individuals and groups to realize their right to sexual and reproductive health. There exists a wide range of laws, policies and practices that undermine autonomy and right to equality and non-discrimination in the full enjoyment of the right to sexual and reproductive health, for example criminalization of abortion or restrictive abortion laws.”

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: The Center for Reproductive Rights, along with Peruvian organizations Promsex, DEMUS, and Paz y Esperanza, filed a lawsuit challenging Peru’s ban on the distribution of emergency contraception in public hospitals. The lawsuit claimed that the ban denies rape survivors’ access to essential medical treatment following their assault. The case was filed on behalf of Maria, an adolescent who was knocked unconscious, gang raped, and later denied emergency contraception from the public hospital where she was treated. The petition seeks justice and reparations for Maria, as well as an order for the Peruvian government to lift the ban on distribution of emergency contraception in public hospitals.

Peru: Presentation of a bill to reform the Penal Code. The bill increases punishment for women who have an abortion. It also requires that rape victims who become pregnant and who decide to have abortions to do community work. Finally, it penalizes doctors who involuntarily cause an abortion when performing a medical intervention to preserve a pregnant woman’s health. Peru: Presentation of a bill to reform the Penal Code. The bill increases punishment for women who have an abortion. It also requires that rape victims who become pregnant and who decide to have abortions to do community work. Finally, it penalizes doctors who involuntarily cause an abortion when performing a medical intervention to preserve a pregnant woman’s health.

Peru: Congress’s Constitutional Affairs Commission rejected a reevaluation of the bill presented by the Collective Déjala Decidir seeking to allow legal abortion on the grounds of sexual abuse.

Peru: Presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori signed a commitment with evangelical leader Pedro Santana promising , if elected, to reject same-sex civil unions, adoption by same-sex couples, and abortion (on all grounds).