Dominican Republic activists fear total abortion ban banishes women to the dark ages

Scores of Dominican women die each year from botched attempts to end unwanted pregnancies

Michelle Del Rey in Santo Domingo
Mon 18 Jan 2021

As Argentina becomes the first major Latin American country to fully legalize abortion, activists in the Dominican Republic fear their own government is banishing its women to the dark ages by upholding a total ban first implemented in 1884.

The Dominican Republic is one of four countries in Latin America – along with Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador – where abortion is illegal in all circumstances.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jan/18/dominican-republic-total-abortion-ban

Total abortion ban fueling teenage pregnancy and unsafe terminations in Dominican Republic, report finds

Total abortion ban fueling teenage pregnancy and unsafe terminations in Dominican Republic, report finds
'I felt like the world was falling down on me. I was going crazy, thinking I can’t have a kid,' says young woman

Maya Oppenheim, Women's Correspondent @mayaoppenheim
June 18, 2019

The total abortion ban, wholly inadequate sex education in schools and obstacles to accessing contraception are fuelling teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion in the Dominican Republic, a new report has found.

The Dominican Republic has a deeply machismo culture and is one of the few countries in the world which has a complete ban on abortion - the procedure is illegal in all cases, including when the life of the woman or girl is at risk.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/abortion-ban-dominican-republic-teenage-pregnancy-human-rights-watch-report-a8963436.html

18.06.2019

Rosaura Almonte Hernández

Dominican Republic: Abortion Ban Endangers Health

Dominican Republic: Abortion Ban Endangers Health
Criminal Penalties Violate Rights

November 19, 2018

(Santo Domingo) – The Dominican Republic’s total ban on abortion threatens women's health and lives and violates their rights, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Abortion is illegal in the Dominican Republic in all circumstances, even when a pregnancy is life-threatening, unviable, or the result of rape.

The 78-page report, “‘It’s Your Decision, It’s Your Life’: The Total Criminalization of Abortion in the Dominican Republic,” documents that women and girls facing unwanted pregnancies have clandestine abortions, often at great risk to their health and lives. Many experience health complications from unsafe abortions, and some die. Some women and girls face abuse, neglect, or mistreatment by healthcare providers. The ban does not stop abortion but drives it underground and makes it less safe. As a starting place toward meeting the country’s human rights obligations, Congress should decriminalize abortion in three circumstances.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/11/19/dominican-republic-abortion-ban-endangers-health

New report explores what total abortion ban means in the Dominican Republic

By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
Mon November 19, 2018

(CNN) A woman spoke of her 16-year-old daughter who died after being denied chemotherapy for leukemia because she was in the early weeks of pregnancy. A nurse described how a woman who was experiencing heavy bleeding after self-inducing an abortion was forced by medical providers to wait for treatment as "punishment" -- only to lose too much blood to be saved. An outreach worker remembered the mentally disabled 14-year-old girl who became pregnant at 12, probably by her father, and received no care.

Stories like these are revealed in a new Human Rights Watch report, released Monday, that focuses on the effect of a total government ban on abortions in the Dominican Republic.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/19/health/dominican-republic-abortion-ban-report-intl/index.html