Photo: RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP / Getty Images
For: EFE Updated 30 Apr 2022, : 10 am EDT
The law that regulates abortion in cases of rape in Ecuador, entered into force with the partial veto that imposed by the country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, who introduced a series of changes that have caused discomfort and disagreement in the feminist organizations that achieved its decriminalization.
The rule was published by the Official Registry of Ecuador, just one day after the first anniversary of the historic ruling of the Constitutional Court that decriminalized abortion for cases of rape and ordered the elaboration of a law that would regulate this procedure .
President Lasso, trendy conservative and Catholic, promised to respect the ruling of the Constitutional Court despite the fact that he considers himself a “defender of life from conception to death “, but modified the original text approved by the Asa National Assembly (Parliament) considering that it went beyond the terms of the sentence.
A) Yes, the head of state changed 60 from the 63 articles initially approved by the Legislature , that if well then he had the possibility of ratifying the original text, he let the term to do it pass, so that the law that was published was the president’s version.
Among the most substantial changes introduced by Guillermo Lasso is consider abortion in cases of rape as an exception to the criminalization of the interruption of pregnancy and not as a right of women.
Likewise, established the term of access to abortion in cases of rape in the first 12 gestation weeks for all women and removed the exception of 18 weeks that existed in the original text for girls, adolescents, indigenous people and women from rural areas.
It also established a series of requirements, including the obligation of the applicant to file a complaint for violation, an affidavit or the results of a medical examination that testify that sexual assault has occurred.
Likewise, the president developed the chapter on conscientious objection to give doctors the freedom to refuse to perform the procedure if it goes against their convictions and introduced the concept of “infanticide”, a figure that is not contemplated as a specific crime in the Ecuadorian penal code.
From the feminist organizations, such as Fundación Desafío, promoters of the lawsuit that gave rise to decriminalization by the Constitutional Court, have already announced that will file appeals against this rule.
These groups have already announced the presentation before the same Court Constitutional appeal of unconstitutionality and non-compliance with the sentence, understanding that the law supposes a series of obstacles for access to interruption tion of pregnancy and goes against the Constitution.
“We have already announced that this law will not be in force for a long time, because we are going to fight for it to change and really respond to the spirit of the sentence“, Virginia Gómez De la Torre, executive director of the Desafío Foundation, anticipated on Thursday to EFE.
Since the ruling of the Constitutional Court there are at least 25 women who requested termination of their pregnancies as a result of rape, and until now 19, they succeeded and 4 gave up , according to data from the Ministry of Public Health , although in three cases the health personnel initially refused to perform the abortion.
Among the requests made in the second half of 2021, twelve were girls between 10 Y 14 years, three adolescents between 04 and 15 years, three of women between 20 Y 29 years and two more than 30 years. EFE
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