A promise made on the marketing campaign path and never saved has now sparked a month of every day protests within the Dominican Republic, one in all two dozen nations on this planet with a ban on abortions underneath all circumstances — even when a girl’s life is in danger.
Hundreds of girls and reproductive-rights advocates started gathering on daily basis outdoors the manager mansion of President Luis Abinader in mid-March, after Dominican lawmakers didn’t decriminalize abortion when a girl’s life is at risk, the being pregnant isn’t viable or in instances of rape or incest.
The protests unfold internationally to New York City, the place advocates organized solidarity protests, together with one Friday that introduced greater than a dozen individuals bearing green-and-white indicators championing “the right to life of pregnant people” and “their right to dignity.”
Abinader, who took workplace final 12 months, pledged his assist of decriminalizing abortion underneath these circumstances when he was campaigning — successfully escalating tensions across the subject.
The president had doubled down on his assist to conditionally decriminalize abortion throughout an interview with Spanish newspaper El País in December. The ensuing backlash from varied Dominican anti-abortion teams, together with representatives of the Catholic Church, led him to melt his stance, saying he was “not going to impose his personal opinion” on different lawmakers.
The Dominican Republic is amongst El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua because the Latin American and Caribbean nations that prohibit abortions underneath all circumstances, Amnesty International mentioned in a report revealed April 7.
“What bothers me is seeing how everybody wants to legislate our bodies, women’s bodies. It’s like the first thing in their agenda is to control women. That’s not right. We need to change that — who tells a man when to get a vasectomy? Nobody,” Zenaida Méndez, who has been mobilizing Dominicans in New York City across the subject, mentioned.
A complete ban on abortions is constantly placing the lives of Dominican girls in danger, mentioned Méndez, who can also be a founding father of the nonpartisan group National Dominican Women’s Caucus.
Few selections, dire penalties
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights admitted for assessment the case of Rosaura Almonte, 16, often known as Esperancita, who died of leukemia in 2012 after docs denied her the chemotherapy she wanted to avoid wasting her life as a result of she was pregnant.
Rosa Hernández, Esperancita’s mom and an avid abortion-rights advocate, is without doubt one of the many ladies who’ve been gathering in a camp simply outdoors Abinader’s govt mansion, saying they won’t go away till their calls for are met and officers cease violating their constitutional rights to life and well being.
The “laws in my country put the value of her pregnancy above the value of her life,” Hernández wrote in an op-ed for Ms. magazine published April 7.
Leaders of the movement #LasCausalesVan, which refers to the three circumstances in which they believe abortion should be decriminalized in the Dominican Republic, have been garnering support from multiple groups. One of these groups is Articulación Nacional Campesina (National Peasant Articulation), a network of 100,000 small agricultural businesses.
“To decriminalize abortion is to end injustices,” Yova Sánchez of Articulación Nacional Campesina said in a press conference Tuesday morning.
Women and girls facing unplanned or unwanted pregnancies are often forced to choose between clandestine abortions or continuing their pregnancies. While some can afford to travel to another country where abortion is legal, others — especially women from poor and rural communities — risk their health and lives to have clandestine abortions.
“Some endure critical well being problems, and even loss of life, from unsafe abortion,” international nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch wrote in a 2018 report. “An estimated 25,000 girls and women are handled for problems from miscarriage or abortion within the public well being system within the Dominican Republic every year.”
Unsafe abortions are the fourth-leading cause of maternal death in the country, and about 22 percent of such abortion interventions are carried out on adolescents, according to the Center for Gender Studies at INTEC, a private university in Santo Domingo.
Developed countries have an average maternal mortality rate of 21 per 100,000 live births. The Dominican Republic’s average rate is 96 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to INTEC’s Center for Gender Studies. Complications from abortion or miscarriage account for at least 8 percent of maternal deaths, according to Human Rights Watch.
A woman forced to remain pregnant under life-threatening circumstances has a 90 percent chance of dying, Dr. Waldo Ariel Suero, president of the Association of Dominican Physicians, said during a press conference Friday alongside the country’s National Nurses Association.
Both teams argued towards criminalizing abortions as a result of it’s “causing an increase in maternal mortality and morbidity, which places us as one of the countries with the worst health indicators in the region and the world,” Suero said.
“It’s practically impossible for a woman to survive a life-threatening pregnancy. When you don’t do anything, not only will the baby die, but the mother will also die as well. It is totally illogical to take away a woman’s right to life due to a pregnancy,” Suero mentioned.
Medical professionals on the press convention additionally mentioned they’re asking for the power to terminate a being pregnant underneath the said excessive circumstances “without the fear of being legally convicted.”
The Dominican Republic’s 19th-century penal code currently imposes prison sentences of up to two years on women and girls who induce abortions and up to 20 years for medical professionals who provide them, according to Human Rights Watch.
Amid international support, a growing movement
The United Nations Development Program on Monday urged the Dominican Republic to decriminalize abortion when a woman’s life is in danger, the pregnancy is not viable or in cases of rape or incest.
A group of presidential advisers had already issued the same recommendations back on March 16, when lawmakers were discussing updating the nation’s penal code. But Dominican legislators at the justice commission rejected such recommendations, instead proposing that the penal code allow abortion only when the mother’s life is threatened.
On Sunday, #LasCausalesVan camp organizers commemorated their monthlong fight with a rally and musical performances outside the executive mansion. Hundreds attended.
Activist Fátima Lorenzo told international news agency Agencia EFE that the group started their movement with just a few camping tents. A month later, it’s become a social movement, earning the support of individuals who visit their camp or make donations.
“We couldn’t be more grateful for the support,” Lorenzo mentioned. The group is planning extra rallies and protests forward of public hearings on the difficulty set to begin April 26.
The activists posted a video wherein they requested a girl why she had stopped by their tent.
“I’m here because I believe in what you’re demanding,” said Mireya Cruz, who was wearing a #LasCausales face mask. “We’re fighting for the life and health of our women.”
Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
