– Without sexual and reproductive rights, there is no equality.
– To force a girl to become a mother is torture. /Amnesty International
Thousands rallied across Peru for International Safe Abortion Day on September 28, demanding the right to safe, accessible abortions. Hundreds marched through the capital, Lima, under the banner of “The Right to Decide”.
Abortion is illegal in Peru, even in cases of rape. While abortion is technically allowed in cases where the pregnant person’s health or life is at risk, in practice it is difficult to access a safe abortion. The penalties for getting an abortion can be up to five years in prison, with up to four years for anyone who performs, or assists in, an abortion. Access to abortion is further complicated in rural and remote areas, where healthcare is generally poorer and people have to travel long distances to access medical services.
By law, doctors are required to report women seeking an abortion to the police, where they often face harassment and fines.
While Peru’s punitive laws stigmatise and deny the right to an abortion, they haven’t prevented the numbers of people in need from getting them. Unsafe abortion is the fourth-leading cause of maternal death, with 50–70 people dying from abortion complications each year. The lack of access to abortion amplifies Peru’s crisis of rape of underage girls leading to pregnancies. Women’s Emergency Centres attended to 7,614 cases of rape against girls and adolescents in 2022, while the Health Ministry recorded 1,624 births to mothers younger than 15 years old.
Elga Prado, organiser in the feminist organisation Movimiento Manuela Ramos, told Open Democracy that: “Women with resources can access places where their lives are not at risk, but women, girls and adolescents without money are forced to risk their lives in clandestine spaces.”
One of the main obstacles to attaining abortion rights is Congress and the executive branch of government, which are controlled by conservative religious fundamentalists who believe an abortion is a “sin against God”. Despite an Ipsos poll last year finding that 65% support the legalisation of abortion in the case of rape, ultraconservatives continue passing laws restricting abortion rights.
Congress passed a law in November last year codifying the “rights of the conceived”, granting embryos and fetuses the right to “life”, “identity” and “free development” from conception, further denying the rights of those seeking an abortion.
One of the main obstacles to attaining abortion rights is Congress and the executive branch of government, which are controlled by conservative religious fundamentalists who believe an abortion is a “sin against God”. Despite an Ipsos poll last year finding that 65% support the legalisation of abortion in the case of rape, ultraconservatives continue passing laws restricting abortion rights.
SOURCE: Greenleft.org.au, No. 1016, by Ben Radford, 30 September 2024