RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Thousands of Dominicans marched today in a massive demonstration through the center of Santo Domingo to demand the decriminalization of abortion on three grounds, at a time when the Legislative is debating the issue.
The green-clad demonstrators, mostly women, marched past the National Palace, the Executive seat, where feminists have been in an encampment for more than two months to defend the three grounds.
The feminists are demanding that the Penal Code of the tourist paradise eliminate prison sentences for women in three case: where the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s life, if the fetus cannot live outside the uterus, or in the case of rape or incest.
“A law that forces to die or violates the human rights of girls and adolescents is not revolutionary, it is unacceptable,” said a manifesto read by the conveners at the end of the march.
Last April 28, the Chamber of Deputies approved in first reading the draft of the new Penal Code, which would allow abortion in only one case, the risk of life for the mother, but only in the circumstance that “all available scientific and technical means have been exhausted to the extent possible”.
Feminists claim that this wording is a “manipulation” and understand that it does not allow women to decide for themselves.
Read also: Dominican Parliament begins debate on abortion amidst protests
Before entering into force, the Penal Code must be approved in the second reading in the Chamber of Deputies. It will pass to the Senate, and finally, it must be sanctioned by President Luis Abinader, who has hinted that he will not veto the law.
In the first vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the legislators, mostly wearing light blue handkerchiefs in support of the theses of the Catholic Church, resoundingly rejected a report proposing to eliminate prison sentences in the three circumstances advocated by the feminists.
A commission of deputies has also begun to debate a specific bill on the three grounds for legal abortion. In contrast, Abinader has announced that he intends to submit the issue to a referendum, which the feminists reject as a human rights issue.
In the manifesto, the feminists affirmed that the approval of the grounds “is a minimum demand among so many debts that the Dominican Government has with women.”
The feminists announced that after this Sunday’s march, they would close the camp installed in front of the National Palace since March 11, and advised that they would carry out other activities in cities in the interior of the country to promote their struggle in favor of the rights of women and adolescents.
Clandestine abortions are one of the causes that place the Dominican Republic among the countries with the highest rate of maternal deaths in Latin America, with 127 deaths per 100,000 live births.