Economic Minister Miguel Ceara Hatton openly backed the inclusion of the three grounds for abortion among the Penal Code amendments. He said the executive board of the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party had decided in this regard. The PRM is the majority party in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
Ceara Hatton said the three exceptions for the suspending of a pregnancy are a public health problem. He said the total abortion ban is a perverse source of social segregation.
Ceara Hatton said: “A woman without means gets the worst health assistance when deciding to interrupt a pregnancy, while a woman of means can access the best care.”
He stressed: “If someone considers that it is a sin to suspend the pregnancy for the three causes, that person has all the right to think that way. However, those that oppose the three exceptions do not have the right to prevent the solution of a public health problem that puts at risk the lives of women and deepens the social inequality that has characterized this country. To continue a pregnancy until the end putting at risk her own life (the woman) is neither fair nor humane.”
Alfredo Pacheco (National District-PRM) has submitted a new Penal Code bill excluding the decriminalizing of abortion when the woman’s life is at risk, there has been rape or incest, and there is a fetal malformation incompatible with life.
The Dominican Republic is only one of five countries left globally that continues to penalize women for interrupting a pregnancy in one of those three circumstances.
The Catholic and Evangelic churches are behind the movement to impede the passing of the three exceptions. The Penal Code had passed on two occasions in Congress only to be vetoed by then President Danilo Medina because the three exceptions were excluded.
National District senator Faride Raful of the PRM defeated her leading opponent Rafael Paz of the then ruling Dominican Liberation Party who strongly opposed abortion in any form and had the churches’ full support for his campaign. The 15 point difference Raful secured over the ruling party senator candidate is a clear indication that the influence of the church in this case among the Dominican population is not what the churches would like to make people believe.
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Hoy
16 September 2020