The Communist Labor Party, the Caamanista Movement, the Dominican People’s Movement, the Homeland for All Party, the Force of the Revolution, and the Dominican Left Party argued that the text reinforces impunity for corruption and violates the rights of children.

They also maintain that it violates women’s right to decide about their bodies and fails to guarantee their lives and dignity by excluding the three grounds for terminating a pregnancy, including when the pregnancy poses a danger to the life of the pregnant woman.

The organizations affirmed that the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party, given its majority in Congress, has every opportunity to advance the Penal Code; however, they warned that the text approved in the Senate’s first reading shows that it does not represent the people’s will, expressed in the public hearings held last year.

The protesters, who advocate for a modern Penal Code that is the result of consensus among different social and political sectors, called on President Luis Abinader to prevent the approval of a code that, they warned, keeps the country among the most backward in the region.

jdt/oda/mpv