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
Italy–Latin America Conference leading state of the European Union, Italy plays a particularly active role in strengthening the partnership between Latin America and Europe. The Italian linguistic, juridical, architectural and musical traditions have become an integral part of the national identity of many Latin American countries. Two nations, Colombia and Venezuela, are named after the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and the Italian city Venice respectively, while Latin America itself is indirectly named after the Italic language Latin and the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The "Latin America" term was coined in the 19th century to emphasize the common heritage of the three Romance-speaking areas