New York, NY, May 4, 2021.- There were positive news in Dominican Republic and Ecuador regarding efforts to decriminalize abortion. PGA members Diputada Magda Rodríguez and Asambleísta Esther Cuesta, respectively, have shared their reactions.
In Dominican Republic, on April 28, the Chamber of Deputies voted to decriminalize abortion in case the life of the mother is at risk. In an impassioned speech, Diputada Magda Rodríguez, a long-standing PGA member, called for decriminalization of abortion in three circumstances: when a pregnancy is life-threatening, unviable, or the result of rape or incest. She urged colleagues to vote in line with their conscience and to take into consideration the thousands of women and girls that die during unsafe abortions or are subjected to unwanted pregnancies. Dominican Republic is one of four countries (El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) in the Americas with a total abortion ban.
The bill will now be discussed by the Senate and, if amended, will come back to the Chamber of Deputies.
Watch the powerful intervention of Dip. Magda Rodriguez from Dominican Republic:
On April 29, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador voted 7-2 to declare the unconstitutionality of two articles of the penal code. Ecuador’s current legislation allows abortion only when the mother’s life is in danger or after the rape of a woman with a mental disability. With the court ruling, abortion in all cases of pregnancy resulted from rape has been decriminalized.
Asambleísta Esther Cuesta, Chair of PGA’s National Group in Ecuador, reacted to the news:
"The State must guarantee that girls and women, victims of rape, who voluntarily decide to stop their pregnancy have access to legal abortions in safe and dignified conditions and to increase the efforts to ensure that all women have access to adequate sexual and reproductive health services in all the country."
"Those of us who are members of the National Assembly for the next term
(2021-2025), have a historic commitment to build a juridical framework that
guarantees, with dignity, the life projects of thousands of girls and women.
This demands re-constructing the social and cultural fabric and thus, facing
the structural lags of the patriarchal, sexist and discriminatory society that
we live in."
