Law on the Unborn Child and Legal Abortion in Latin American Countries: Where is Peru?

The Plenary, during yesterday's session, voted on the 1992 motion for agenda, proposing that the Congress of the Republic declare of national importance and interest the commemoration of the Day of the Unborn Child. The proposal was adopted with 77 votes in favour, 7 against and 20 abstentions.

On the other hand, the one who proposed this motion was the parliamentarian for Popular Renewal, Alejandro Muñante, who was proud of this measure approved through his social networks.

“#PlenoDelCongreso approved with 77 votes in favor the 1992 Motion of my authorship declaring of importance and national interest the commemoration of the “Day of the Unborn Child”, meaning 'Unborn child' to every human being from the moment of his conception. #SíALaVida,” he commented.

The Day of the Unborn Child is celebrated internationally every March 25 to commemorate, promote and defend human life since it has been conceived in the womb from mother to natural death.

In response to this motion, the NGO communications officer Manuela Ramos, Andrea Pardo, mentioned to Infobae that women's rights are mainly being attacked and that “we are going backwards in the little progress we had made.”

“With this motion, what Congress is doing is attacking the rights that we as women have achieved and those that we can try to win, it is really worrying that there are 77 congressmen in parliament who are in favor of a motion that is not as important given the current situation of violence against women,” she said.

Peru has a law that supports therapeutic abortion as long as the mother is in danger and on the grounds that a girl is sexually violated.

“That woman is forced to be a mother even though we have that law in force, we have to put pressure, because it is not complied with, although there are many health workers who, according to their religious beliefs, should not enter for the application of a law, try to ensure that this is not enforced, we are in a continuous struggle to ensure that this is not enforced. is fulfilled”, he assured.

Although the Congress has a large number of women, the Cabinet of Ministers, led by Aníbal Torres, has only three of them present, before it , Andrea Pardo added that we are facing a very conservative Congress.

“We are in a very conservative country where congressmen are totally alien to the reality that women live, despite the large numbers of violence that occur every day. These are alarming and in which sexual violence against girls, adolescents and adult women stand out, they are sincerely not interested legislate in that regard,” said Pardo.

For her part, Ayesha Davila, social communicator and gender specialist, said that the Congress “is practically normalizing forced pregnancy against girls in situations of sexual violence.”

“In 2020, the Ombudsman's Office reported that 1,155 girls between 11 and 14 years old gave birth as a result of sexual rape. Given this, Congress, on the contrary, is normalizing it, disregarding these figures and proposing a day to celebrate the unborn child. It is also alarming because they do not place as an urgency or as a priority the situation faced by children who have already been born. There are many of them in our country that are in a situation of abandonment and vulnerability. However, Congress is not doing or legislating anything in favor of this problem, but is prioritizing itself in positioning its religious positions,” he added.

It should be noted that the parliamentarian of Juntos for Peru, Ruth Luque proposed Bill 954, which is being tried to be debated in plenary.

“This is so that abortion is at least approved in cases of rape; however, we want to raise a law to protect the unborn. So if we see it is by 77 votes, we can't even think that the law we want to lift will finally be passed.” , ended Pardo.

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