Reproductive rights in Latin America seen a steady increase of feminist abortion activists, despite religion making the issue taboo. Even when legislation has become more lenient (as has been the case recently with Mexico City and Chile), women often face institutional barriers to gaining access to abortions. When it comes to reporting data on abortions in Latin America, estimated abortion levels are often heterogeneous and highly variable due to legal frameworks and social stigmas. According to the World Health Organization, in 2008, approximately "4.2 million abortions were conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean, almost three-fourths of them in South America. Virtually all these procedures
Education in Latin America was of great significance to the course of higher education in Latin America, and the spirit of the colonial period was interwoven in the Church. "In the 1800's, numerous countries, including Chile, Ecuador, and Colombia, signed contracts with the Catholic Church, or modeled their constitution on Catholic values, declaring themselves Catholic states." As Spanish Christianity was reformed in the 16th century by Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros, the Church was more under Crown control in Spain than any other European monarchy. Higher education in Latin America was heavily affected by the relationship between Church and State. "Spanish America's universities were created