Ecuadorian President opposes abortion law

Quito (AP) — Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso Tuesday partially vetoed and opposed laws passed by Congress that allow abortion due to rape, including unifying deadlines for termination of pregnancy and setting requirements for accessing those rights.

In a message posted on his Twitter account, the President said, “My decision will always be constituted within the limits defined in the constitutional function; that is why I decided to include comments on the draft law to ensure that it absolutely fits the judgment of the Constitutional Court.”

It also called for the doctor's decision on conscientious opposition to be extended to the requirement for abortion. The ruler declares himself a defender of life since pregnancy, but in a campaign for the presidency he proposed to respect decisions that did not correspond to his own ideas. The appeal was made two days before the deadline for legal pronunciation, and legislators now have to rule for 30 days.

In mid-February, Congress passed a law in April last year on the so-called Interruption of Rape Pregnancy to regulate the decision of the Constitutional Court to decriminalize abortion in pregnancy as its cause.

Thousands of cases of rape and abortion crimes have been reported each year in the country, and they can be punished with 5 to 7 years of imprisonment for mothers for other reasons, and 1 to 3 years in prison for those who help to carry them out.

The Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office registered more than 27,000 rape complaints between 2016 and 2020.There were 4,884 cases in 2016, 5,045 in 2017, 5,667 reported in 2018, and 6,034 cases in 2019. In 2020, it was reduced to 5,450, but the decline was not due to a reduction in crime, but due to policies facing the coronavirus pandemic, it is due to the fact that victims cannot leave.

According to figures from the Office of Human Rights, more than 3,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 are pregnant each year, and 12% of young people between the ages of 10 and 19 have been pregnant at least once.

Among the countries in the United States where pregnancy can be terminated without conditions are Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba, although the United States and Canada also allow it, but in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru it is possible in cases of rape or incest. On the contrary, in Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Venezuela, some Mexican states have added other causes, but abortion is prohibited except in cases that threaten the health of the mother.

El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic prohibit the termination of pregnancy without exception.