The Justice Commission of the National Assembly, this Saturday, March 19, will begin the analysis of the partial veto of the bill that guarantees the voluntary interruption of pregnancy for girls, adolescents and women in case of rape, which includes 61 objections to the 63 items contained in the proposal.
The meeting is convened for 3:00 p.m., and what the legislators are analyzing is the possibility of previously requesting a pronouncement from the Constitutional Court on the text proposed by the Executive, due to the detection of unconstitutionalities, but that will depend on the debate carried out internally by the members of the the court table.
The objections cover the title of the law and the clarification of the object of the law, since the Government considers that abortion after rape is not a right, but an exception. The deadline for the Assembly to process the project will expire on April 15.
There are deadlines for the National Assembly to process the Executive’s veto of the law on abortion for rape
For this Saturday, the commission is expected to receive four constitutional experts and university professors: Stalin Raza, Soledad Angus, Angélica Porras and Ximena Ron Erráez, who will refer to the constitutionalities in the presidential veto and the procedure that the Assembly should follow.
The president of the legislative table, Alejandro Jaramillo (ID), ratified that the Executive’s veto of the project under construction contains personal positions, convictions and religious aspects of the president.
He defended what the Assembly approved in two debates, as he said that it is the result of a broad debate of more than 60 specialists, lawyers, experts, doctors at a national and international level, and that the text was in accordance with the reality that the country is experiencing.
What is striking, he added, is that it is insisted that the victim have a criminal complaint to access the interruption of pregnancy for rape, when that is already stated in the Comprehensive Organic Penal Code; or to go to a notary’s office to make a sworn statement and report everything that happened, which falls on the re-victimization of girls and women, without counting the notary costs. That is to ignore the reality that women live in rural areas.
He also questioned that in the veto conscientious objection is proposed to be institutional for hospitals and private clinics, which does not give options to redirect a doctor to perform the procedure.
Regarding the term, Jaramillo commented that equaling twelve weeks for the interruption of pregnancy due to rape is ignoring the reality of the country.
The president of the legislative table stated that they are analyzing with the technicians of the commission to determine some alternatives, such as directing a request to the Constitutional Court for a prior pronouncement against an unconstitutional veto. The table hopes to have the report ready until next week.
The constitutionalist Stalin Raza said that the President of the Republic in vetoing this bill assures that there are unconstitutionalities, and if he detected that, what he should have done is send it to the Constitutional Court, but not return the text to the National Assembly.
He stated that the Assembly does not have the power to send the veto to the Constitutional Court, but only to process the objections, in which it can be ratified or acquiesced, and went ahead to point out that it will be difficult for Parliament to find the 92 votes to ratify the which was initially approved.
The fact that the Executive did not send this project to the Constitutional Court due to unconstitutionalities detected can be declared a breach of the sentence that it initially issued, in which it ordered that a law be made.
Ricardo Vanegas, Pachakutik’s delegate before the Justice Commission, anticipated that the veto will be acquiesced and rejected the warnings made by legislators regarding alleged unconstitutionalities committed by the president when he objected to the project. He considered that what the Executive has done is correct; therefore, he will support the text.
According to the president of the Justice table, the report on the Executive’s partial veto of the bill would be ready during the next week. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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