Constance Malleret
Aug 14, 2024

In July, demonstrators sporting the green bandannas of Latin America’s pro-choice movement filled the streets of Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, to protest against a new penal code under consideration by Congress. If passed, the code would keep in place the Dominican Republic’s total ban on abortion, despite decades of campaigning by women’s rights activists to include “las tres causales”—or three exceptions—to allow women to terminate their pregnancies in cases of rape or incest, if the mother’s life is at risk or if the pregnancy is nonviable.

They came close to succeeding in 2014, when then-President Danilo Medina approved a new penal code that would have decriminalized abortion in those three situations. But just before the changes came into force, they were blocked on constitutional grounds by the Supreme Court, leaving the current code, which dates from 1884, in place. The country’s incumbent president, Luis Abinader—who starts serving his second consecutive term this month—made the approval of “las tres causales” a pillar of his 2020 election campaign, only to disappoint the abortion rights movement by letting the issue fall by the wayside after taking office.

Continued: https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/latin-america-abortion-rights/