The vote that the bill that guarantees the voluntary interruption of pregnancy due to rape in Ecuador would obtain is still uncertain, since the political forces are awaiting the final text on the temporality that the Justice Commission will present to the plenary session.
The announcement made by the Democratic Left (ID) to divide the maximum term for the interruption of pregnancy into three groups was echoed by a sector of the Unión por la Esperanza (UNES) caucus, since its coordinator, Paola Cabezas, pointed out that she was who raised in the second debate that a differentiation between girls up to 14 years of age, girls between 14 and 18 years of age and those over 18 years of age should be considered.
The Democratic Left proposes segmenting the terms for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy due to rape
That even that age difference was already made by the Constitutional Court in a ruling on consent to have sexual relations, understanding that people between 14 and 18 years of age have the possibility to decide under certain criteria. The same could happen in the case of termination of pregnancy, it is well possible to access the free and informed decision of adolescents, he pointed out.
The majority of legislators from the Democratic Left (ID), in a press conference, proposed that it be established in the law that girls under 14 years of age could interrupt their pregnancy for rape up to 20 weeks; adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age, up to 18 weeks of gestation; and, for women over 18 years of age, the interruption could be given up to 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Cabezas stressed that the ID had accepted a suggestion from a sector of UNES, since he said that this should be the way to find consensus around temporality, since this possibility of segmenting the interruption of pregnancy due to rape by groups gives room for maneuver to obtain the votes of many undecided assembly members.
The Justice Commission expects to meet on Friday, February 11 in the morning to learn about the changes that the rapporteur legislator, Johanna Moreira (ID), picked up during the second debate, and that text will be presented to the plenary session of the legislature.
In the Pachakutik sector, according to its coordinator Rafael Lucero, they remain in their initial position of leaving the block’s assembly members free to decide their vote according to their conscience and convictions.
The Social Christian caucus has also not changed its position, its legislators are freed from partisan discipline on this issue, according to its coordinator, Esteban Torres, who argued that it is not recommended for the legislature to submit to a kind of Bargaining weeks of gestation to make abortion viable. Personally, he said, he will vote against any proposal that encourages abortion.
The ruling party, through legislator Nathalie Arias (CREO), warned that in this last stage of the law’s process, additional changes to those proposed in the debate cannot be applied, if the segmentation suggested by the ID was not proposed in the full, could not be incorporated in the final document.
This political sector hopes to know the definitive text to resolve its position, and Arias does not rule out the option of supporting the minority report where terms of less than twelve weeks of gestation are established for the interruption of pregnancy due to rape.
The first vice president of the legislature, Virgilio Saquicela (BAN), said that the ruling of the Constitutional Court regarding abortion for rape requires the establishment of a kind of table for the interruption, but does not say that it must be done up to six months of gestation.
Here it is also important that the law establishes the need for a complaint to punish the aggressor, in order to prevent him from continuing to abuse the victim, he said.
The term for the interruption of pregnancy should not go beyond five weeks of gestation, because it is understood that it is a reasonable time, he said. Likewise, he spoke of the possibility of reconciling with other political forces around the minority report. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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