The fight for the decriminalization of abortion in Latin America is no longer a tide, but a tsunami. Today, Ecuadorian women are the ones who take a step similar to the one that led Colombians, Mexicans and Argentines to achieve progress in access to abortion. This Wednesday, organizations gathered in the National Just Freedom Movement filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador to request the elimination of the crime of abortion that has been in that country's penal code for 152 years.
This is article 149 of that code by which at least 493 people have been criminalized in the last 10 years, who are given sentences of between 6 months and 1 year in prison. In Ecuador, as has happened in other countries in the region, criminalization pushes vulnerable women to unsafe abortions. In accordance with Human Rights Watch, particularly affects the poorest women and women in rural areas. “Low-income women are more likely to be prosecuted for having an abortion, even in cases of miscarriage or in need of post-abortion care,” the human rights organization said in 2021.
The decision to file the lawsuit before the Court united organizations such as Surkuna, Las Comadres, Alianza de DDHH, Amazon Frontlines, Bolena, CEPAM Guayaquil, Fundación Lunita Lunera and Sendas, which have been working on access to women's reproductive rights. in Ecuador. But the demand is also supported by opinion leaders, artists, activists and various entities in the international community. Encouraged by the decriminalization of abortion in Colombia, they began to organize last year and this Tuesday they launched the movement with the presentation of the lawsuit.
“Ecuador is ready”
Ana Vera, lawyer and one of its spokespersons, says that Ecuador is ready for decriminalization. “We have seen a global trend and political processes such as the Latin American green tide in which we are moving towards the elimination of the use of criminal law to regulate women's reproductive decisions. In Ecuador, it is urgent and necessary for this crime to be eliminated,” she says and mentions a 2021 survey from the research and data center, Cedatos, which indicates that 8 out of 10 people are against women being criminalized for having an abortion.
From the Executive, Vera also identifies other factors that allow them to measure what the Government thinks. “Ecuador has received multiple recommendations from human rights committees to eliminate the crime of abortion and recently, in the universal periodic review, countries such as Mexico, Iceland and South Africa recommended the same. Ecuador accepted that recommendation, we see this as an act of good faith on the part of the Ecuadorian State.”
And, on the other hand, the Court, she affirms, has shown commitment to reproductive rights, in addition to the recent ruling that legalized euthanasia. “We hope that she lives up to the historical moment in which she lived and recognizes the serious violation that the criminalization of abortion implies, especially for impoverished women,” says the lawyer.
In Ecuador, abortion is allowed on three grounds: life, health and rape. But criminalization and stigmatization continues to be a barrier that can cost the lives of women who resort to clandestine and unsafe abortions. According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately every hour 7 Ecuadorian women are forced to resort to abortions in unknown and often risky conditions. Furthermore, in 2022, according to figures from the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador, every day 54 girls, adolescents and women were hospitalized for causes related to abortions.
Accompanied by the Just Cause Movement of Colombia, which after long work achieved the decriminalization of abortion, Ecuadorian women begin the legal path to eliminate it. Today, while the lawsuit is filed, there will be symbolic actions before the Constitutional Court in Quito, but also in cities such as Guayaquil, Cuenca, Machala, Esmeraldas, Tulcán and Lago Agrio. “We want access to abortion to stop being a privilege for a few and become a right for all,” says Vera about what they are seeking with the lawsuit.
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