Without votes and without a clear position, the 137 legislators that make up the National Assembly will try to agree on whether the voluntary interruption of pregnancy due to rape, for girls and adolescents, is allowed at 22 or 12 weeks of gestation.
The debate on the subject will be reactivated this February 3, at 10:00, in Parliament, in the midst of a wave of protests for and against feminist organizations and pro-life groups, which announce mobilization to Piedrahíta street, where the Legislative Function is located, to raise their voice and demand a definition from the assembly members.
Of the five political forces and groups that act in the legislature, at least four resolved to free their legislators so that in the law that guarantees the voluntary interruption of pregnancy for girls, adolescents and women in the event of rape, they vote in accordance with their ideological, religious and political convictions.
The number of assembly members who are freed from partisan discipline amounts to 107 legislators, who will be able to decide on their own account their speech and vote in plenary.
More than a hundred legislators are free to vote according to their convictions in the law of abortion for rape
two reports
There are two reports on the interruption of pregnancy in the event of rape and they differ in terms of the terms they set.
The majority proposes that the interruption in the case of girls and adolescents should be given up to 22 weeks of gestation (5 and a half months), and in the case of women over 18 years of age, up to 20 weeks (5 months).
The minority report recommends a period of up to twelve weeks (three months), the interruption of pregnancy due to rape for girls, adolescents and women living in rural areas; and six weeks (one and a half months) for women over 18 years of age.
The president of the Justice Commission that prepared the majority report, Alejandro Jaramillo, clarifies that the text is not binding and could be adjusted in the terms and consensus that can be reached with the various political forces. It is expected to listen to the presentations and then define the final texts.
He considers that if observations are presented in the debate, surely the assembly member rapporteur of the project, Johanna Moreira (ID), will ask for more time to collect the texts and later submit it to a vote in plenary. The organic law of the Legislative Function allows to request up to eight days of term.
On the other hand, Assemblyman Ricardo Vanegas (PK), who presented the minority report, assures that the text presented as a majority report does not have the votes, and those who are in favor of that report intend to appeal that the term be reduced from 22 weeks gestation to 16 weeks.
Likewise, he spoke of the possibility that the rapporteur legislator request eight more days to present the final texts, but he considers that it is unnecessary because they are not going to change the positions of the legislators, since, according to what he said, there are enough votes to approve the report of minority.
Vanegas also announces that there will be at least six legislators who will not vote for either of the two reports, due to their very personal convictions.
Seedlings in the Assembly
The pro-life and feminist organizations are preparing a march of blue and green scarves, respectively, towards the National Assembly and hope to keep an eye on the positions that the 137 legislators will assume. The two sectors hope to be in Piedrahíta street, where the Legislative Palace is located, starting at 10:00. They will also activate messages on social networks.
Martha Cecilia Villafuerte, director of Familia Ecuador, points out that buses will leave from the cities of Guayaquil and Portoviejo to Quito, whose people will go to the Assembly to publicize their position on the bill. There will also be sit-ins in the main cities of the country.
Villafuerte says that they reject the two reports presented around the interruption of pregnancy due to rape, since in the opinion of this group of people both violate the constitutional rights of unborn Ecuadorians. They will also present their support to the assembly members who have presented their position in defense of life.
This group will request that the legislature adopt a firm position this Thursday, February 3, and not grant more extensions and that the project be voted on.
He insisted that pro-life organizations do not support either of the two reports, because both establish abortion; the majority proposes up to five and a half months of pregnancy, and the other up to three months of gestation, but both promote abortion.
Villafuerte deciphers that there are three scenarios regarding the bill under debate: The first, that there are not enough votes; the second, that it be archived; and, the third, that if they reach the votes, the pro-life groups will appeal to a presidential veto.
The feminist sector, represented by Ana Cristina Vera, hopes to fill the area surrounding the legislature with the green tide, women with scarves, green garments and more symbols that represent them. They are convened from 09:00.
Vera questions that none of the five legislative blocs has taken seriously enough the debate on the law of abortion for rape within each caucus, and decided to free the vote with the sole purpose of avoiding internal conflicts in political parties and movements.
Consider that there are blocs like Pachakutik, Izquierda Democrática and Unión por la Esperanza, which claim to be progressive, but do not have a position in defense of women’s human rights. The feminist sector of Ecuador, adds Vera, expected these three political movements to support a more just and restorative law to guarantee abortion for rape in accordance with the ideological foundations of those parties, but “there is no real commitment and rather wash your hands”.
Regarding the deadlines proposed in the two reports for the interruption of pregnancy due to rape, the activist points out that it is technically inappropriate to set deadlines for such an extreme cause as rape.and that setting deadlines implies excluding girls, adolescents, women and pregnant people who are in conditions of vulnerability from access to health services.
The activist insists that the Constitutional Court ordered that it be legislated based on international standards, from that point of view the 12 weeks that are proposed in a minority report are not contemplated by the standards. It is not a question of setting a term to taste and political convenience, but of making an analysis as ordered by the Constitutional Court. If the law that would come out of the Assembly does not meet the standards, the path will be a lawsuit for unconstitutional, she warns. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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