Feminists demand compliance with abortion law in Uruguay

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Wearing orange clothing, the protesters rejected recent statements made by State Health Services Administration (ASSE) president Leonardo Cipriani.

The official stated that abortion procedures would be reviewed to prevent medical service teams from “automatically” authorizing them.

Feminists would deliver a letter to president Luis Lacalle Pou, demanding guarantees for the enforcement of abortion legislation and requesting Cipriani’s removal.

Anthropologist, gender specialist and feminist activist Patricia Totorica, one of the protest’s organizers, said: “We have been aware of certain issues that have changed, and that in our opinion are contrary to the adequate implementation and guaranteed access to this right.”

She added that the first is a misinterpretation of the legal provision, evidenced when Cipriani said that the interdisciplinary teams “authorize” the abortion procedure.

She assured that with this statement the official is “changing what the law states,” because “the regulations are very clear that technical teams accompany the woman’s procedure, but at no time are they to authorize or validate anything.”

According to other complaints, although the IVE law has not been modified or repealed, there have been events in the country that jeopardize the procedural guarantees of this right acquired by women.

They add that among these incidents are the proposal made by nationalist leader Carlos Iafigliola before the ASSE in early October to “discourage abortions,” and the recent nomination of anti-abortion gynecologist Gabriela Fischer as a sexual and reproductive health official.

The call for mobilization was made through social networks, with the hashtags #LaIVESeDefiende y #LaIVENoSeToca.

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