“Right to health and life,” “Penal Code that respects rights,” “Causes save lives,” read the signs that accompanied dozens of women in a protest outside the National Congress.

They described as an “aberration” the document that excludes the three reasons for which a pregnancy can be terminated in the country without criminal consequences: when there is danger to the mother, fetal malformation, and when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

The Penal Code approved by the senators is “synonymous with shame,” affirmed Dominican Women’s Movement, which described the text as “a significant setback in human rights, especially with regard to the rights of women and vulnerable groups.” It is “a disguise for modernization,” they emphasized in a statement demanding the decriminalization of abortion for extreme reasons and the criminalization of marital rape.

The second reading of the bill is expected to take place on July 15 in the Senate, and then the bill will move on to the Chamber of Deputies.

Of the 195 countries that make up the United Nations (UN), five maintain the criminalization of abortion regardless of the reason, including the Dominican Republic.

jdt/mem/mpv