The hearing in the Chamber of Deputies regarding abortion issues got a lot hotter yesterday when Magaly Caram and Magaly Pineda, representatives of NGOs defending women’s rights, spoke out in favor of abortion in special cases, and called for its legalization. Monsignor Benito Angeles, representing the Dominican Council of Bishops, together with other representatives from the Youth Pastoral groups, the Family Institute and other religious groups, called for the inclusion of abortion within the chapter of Attempts against Life within the Penal Code. Women from the Christian movements accused those who favored abortion of committing a premeditated crime, and others railed against the sexual exploitation of children, family violence and the expulsion of pregnant girls from public and private classrooms. The Coalition of NGOs for a Modern and Consensual Penal Code, composed of 37 different organizations, proposed the decriminalization of abortion if carried out during the first 90 days of the pregnancy when the mother’s life is in danger, when there is evidence of congenital malformation or when the pregnancy is the result of non-consensual sex. The Coalition asked that a special section of the law be dedicated to gender violence, family violence, rape and incest, and the complete removal of the concept of a “crime of passion”. Other organizations asked that experiments on human embryos or human beings be sanctioned.