The final text on the bill that guarantees the voluntary interruption of pregnancy for girls, adolescents and women in case of rape is under construction, but changes are announced regarding the timing. Until Friday, the Justice Commission expects to deliver the report for the knowledge of the plenary session.
The National Assembly has been discussing since August 2021 the project that guarantees the interruption of pregnancy due to rape, which was initially presented by the Ombudsman’s Office after the ruling of the Constitutional Court that decriminalized abortion due to rape in Ecuador and ordered the legislature to approve a rule that guarantees access.
On February 3, the plenary session of the Parliament closed the second and definitive debate on the project, and the legislator rapporteur for the report, Johanna Moreira (ID), asked for eight days to present the report for the vote in which the changes proposed by the assembly members in plenary.
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Temporality is the main critical point of this bill, where legislators speak of 22, 20, 16, 12 and 6 weeks of gestation as the maximum period in which an abortion can be performed in the event of rape. The discussion of the project started from the approach of the majority report that established 22 weeks of gestation for girls under 18 years of age and up to 20 weeks of gestation for women of legal age, but it did not find sufficient political support.
New deadlines
The rapporteur legislator, Johanna Moreira, at the moment systematizes the observations presented in the second debate, but anticipates that the issue of temporality will change, although she does not reveal the number of weeks that will remain as the maximum term to interrupt the pregnancy.
According to Moreira, there are still members of the Assembly undecided about what was stated in the majority report, for which he asked all the caucus chiefs and some members of the legislative table to collect everyone’s comments to assess their inclusion.
Until Wednesday, February 9, he hopes to have the matrix of the text with all the observations and then submit it to a vote at the Justice table, and later deliver it to the presidency of the legislature so that it is included in the plenary agenda.
The changes announced by Assemblywoman Moreira will focus on the way rape victims are segmented.
There will be a segment of girls and adolescents under 14 years of age, rural women, women from towns and nationalities and disabled, in order to incorporate those people who are most vulnerable into a single group.
In another group would be adolescents over 14 years of age and women over 18 years of age. The legislator for now prefers not to talk about the weeks of gestation.
It is also intended to clarify and improve the wording regarding the texts on informed consent so that it is understood that a minor when she goes to a health center for an interruption will have institutional support with teams of doctors, social workers, psychologists and delegates. of the Ombudsman.
The informed consent must mention the procedure to be carried out and not an intimidating subject, and even know if they are being forced to undergo the procedure, assures the ID representative in the province of El Oro.
Regarding the complaint, as a requirement for the interruption, Moreira stated that there would be no changes, but that the wording would be improved because the complaint constitutes a form of victimization.
no votes
Ricardo Vanegas, legislator of Pachakutik, assured that the majority report that proposes a term of 22 weeks of gestation for the interruption of pregnancy does not have the votes, and that neither as proponent of the minority report that suggests up to 12 weeks of gestation to interrupt pregnancy will change.
He said that he will remain in his report, as will three other legislators who make up the Justice table, and pointed out that in the other sector that supports the majority report, there are assembly members who are waiting for support so that the term for having an abortion for rape is place between 16 and 18 weeks of gestation.
According to Vanegas, it is known that the proponents of the majority report intend to enter into a kind of “bargain” of the term for the interruption of pregnancy due to rape with the sole purpose of finding votes, and not necessarily based on technical and scientific criteria.
He stated that the majority of the Assembly considers that if the final text does not satisfy them, they will deny the text, and after that they will ask that the minority report be considered.
The president of the Justice Commission, Alejandro Jaramillo (ID), indicated that they are seeking, based on consensus, to pass a bill with a text that is reparative. “That does not mean that we are going to sacrifice girls, adolescents and women.”
He said that the term included in the report of the majority of 22 weeks of gestation for girls and adolescents under 18 years of age is not set in stone. “It will be through the dialogues that a balanced text is agreed upon that collects all the observations in order to establish a temporality that may be in accordance with the reality of the country,” she stressed. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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