The bench leaders asked for more time for internal consultations on the project and for the debate to be in person.
On the first day of processing the bill that guarantees the voluntary interruption of pregnancy for girls, adolescents and women in the event of rape, the National Assembly devoted itself to listening to representatives of organizations and individuals for and against the legislative initiative.
The plenary session started around 10:00 and was suspended at 16:00 after the reading of the report. The president of the National Assembly, Guadalupe Llori, revealed that the heads of the benches requested that session 758 be suspended because they require more time for internal consultations, for the analysis and preparation of proposals that improve the report prepared by the legislative table. There is no date for the reinstatement of the session, but the request is that it be in person.
With seedlings, the National Assembly begins the process of the project that guarantees abortion for rape in Ecuador
The beginning of the process of the second debate of the project of the interruption of pregnancy was nuanced by the presence of women’s organizations that belong to the country’s feminist group, who, dressed in drums, flags, posters and shouts, asked the legislators to approve a law fair and restorative.
On the other shore, the pro-life organizations issued pronouncements to reject the report prepared by the Justice Commission, this sector also intervened in the general commission of the plenary session.
Temporality, requirements and conscientious objection were the issues of greatest concern among representatives of organizations, doctors, professors, feminists and pro-lifers. Faced with this, they asked the legislature to move away from dogmas and ideologies in its final decision. There were also pronouncements rejecting the announcement made by the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, to veto the project if it exceeds the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
In April 2021, the Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion for rape for girls, adolescents, women and pregnant people in the event of rape, and granted deadlines to both the Ombudsman and the National Assembly to approve regulations that guarantee access to the voluntary termination of pregnancy in the event of rape.
After the debate of more than a year, the Legislative Commission of Justice presented a report to the plenary where it proposes that girls and adolescents under 18 years of age, victims of rape, can freely and voluntarily interrupt pregnancy up to 22 weeks of gestation , that is, five and a half months; while women over 18 years of age can terminate pregnancy by rape at 20 weeks, which means five months of gestation; In the case of people with disabilities who are victims of rape, the Clinical Practice Guide called Therapeutic Abortion Care will be observed.
general commission
In the general committee, Óscar Cabrera, associate director of the Healthy Families initiative of the O’Neill Institute, assured that the ruling of the Constitutional Court is an important step and that the Assembly has to guarantee access, and affirmed that there is no mandate for the legislator to establish terms or deadlines, what the Court says is that the legislator can determine if there is a need to establish a gestational limit; therefore, the assemblyman can perfectly well determine that there is no such need.
However, María de Lourdes Maldonado, representative of the Dignity and Rights organization, commented that the project under debate changed the spirit and scope of the sentence issued by the Constitutional Court violating the right to life of the unborn and other rights enshrined in the Constitution such as access to information, freedom of conscience and the right of girls to care for their families.
He assured that it is not true that the Court has not established the temporality, because in paragraph 194 the Court clearly indicates that legislation is required to set the objective and technical limits, which includes the need to set a maximum term of gestation allowed (weeks). If the bill contained in the report is approved, Maldonado warned, the Court’s provision would be contravened.
Esteban Ortiz, an expert researcher in public health, assured that 99% of abortions are performed before 20 weeks, he is in favor of not limiting access to girls, adolescents and women to the interruption of pregnancy due to rape; that there are no obstacles such as temporality, conscientious objection and requirements.
He said that no one in their right mind is going to want a woman to abort at 28 weeks of gestation, because that does not happen anywhere; the only people who enter the health system late are those with the most vulnerability.
Pablo Andrés Proaño, a lawyer from the San Francisco de Quito University, spoke in favor of establishing requirements to be able to access the interruption of pregnancy due to rape, because without them, they will cause several legal problems such as recognizing the factual facts for the configuration of the criminal sanction and brings consequences on the health of girls, adolescents and women, the prosecution of crimes. Abortion for rape in Ecuador is an exception.
The Human Rights Watch researcher, Ximena Casas, revealed that in Ecuador women are being prosecuted for having an abortion, including cases of obstetric emergencies; therefore, he said that all obstacles to access to the termination of pregnancy for rape must be removed.
Teresa Arboleda, representative of the House of Life, affirmed that the project as it is presented promotes abortion as a right, because it literally says that the voluntary interruption of pregnancy as a result of rape carried out according to the approaches and principles of this law constitutes a repair measure. This law focuses solely on the consequences, and leaves out the horrific causes that generate the tragedy of many girls, adolescents, and women who are the object of abuse, incest, domestic violence, and rape.
What the law must do, by constitutional mandate, is to regulate free access to voluntary termination of pregnancy for those who have been victims of rape.
Arboleda indicated that although this is not a law to punish the crime of rape, it undoubtedly helps to cover up the rapist., because in article 20 of the project it is determined that under no circumstances is the complaint or prior declaration required, which implies total silence and concealment for the rapist and the perpetrator of incest. It leaves the victim in the same place, in the same environment of violence, his misfortune and the person responsible for this crime in impunity.
Before concluding the general commission, Estefany Altamirano, a survivor of sexual violence, pointed out that the project under discussion is not fair or reparative, because if the National Assembly sets deadlines for access to abortion, the safest thing is that many girls , adolescents and women are condemned to the torture of forced maternity. (I)
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