Ecuadorian President partially rejects law that regulates access to abortion for rape

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has partially rejected a law that regulates voluntary abortion for rape victims, reducing abortion for abused girls to 12 weeks.

In a letter posted on Twitter, the Conservative President wrote that he “decided to comment on the bill to ensure full compliance with the Constitutional Court's decision.”

The opposing majority legislator must decide whether to accept the 30-day government amendment or approve the original document on February 18.

The National Assembly states in the law that women under 18 who live in raped rural areas can have an abortion within 18 weeks of pregnancy, and adults and people in urban areas can abort within 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The lasso was enacted as the only veto period during the 12 weeks of pregnancy, and before the Constitution it was argued that “we are all equal” and that “discriminate against citizens based on the conditions of their place of birth or origin”. principles.

Last April, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador expanded access to abortion in a rape case; until this decision was made, only women with disabilities or at risk of death they could voluntarily terminate the pregnancy.

In Ecuador, women who stop for unacceptable reasons are sentenced to up to two years in prison.

- “Painful reality” -

Johanna Morella, a member of the Democratic Left Party that announced the bill, tweeted that the short deadline “will only affect the poorest and most forgotten, causing illegal death of our women.”

“President @LassoGuillermo exercised a partial veto, but he didn't understand the painful reality that our girls live every day.”

According to official figures, Ecuador has the third highest teenage pregnancy rate among girls and adolescents in Latin America, and seven children under the age of 14 give birth every day.

Rulers who disagreed with the law left 61 comments on the document, which included honest opposition from health workers and the need to have an abortion in the event of rape.

“The Constitutional Court explicitly ordered the legislature to request an abortion in a rape case, but Congress actually withdrew it,” former right-wing banker Lasso said in a letter .

For example, the sovereign said in a document sent to the National Assembly that the law “does not provide for an obligation to conduct medical examinations of victims and protect their health, and does not collect evidence for criminal investigations”.

One of the lasso's demands was to file a rape report.

The Surkuna feminist group claims that, according to prosecutors, there were about 42,000 reports of rape between August 2014 and November 2021.

If the rape case didn't change last week, the US House of Representatives asked the lasso to enact an abortion law. Through this rule, Tamara Tarasik Bronner, director of the US Human Rights Watch organization, said that the president had the opportunity and responsibility to “keep the promise of a campaign to respect the rule of law.”

PLD/CJC