Amnesty International (AI) issued an “urgent action” to stop the judicial process against Miranda Ruiz, a doctor from Salta who was denounced for carrying out a legal interruption of pregnancy and is subject to a judicial process.
This is a global initiative with which the international organization seeks to shed light on a case and encourage thousands of people around the world to demand respect for human rights.
This way, AI called the Tartagal Prosecutor to back down with the criminal accusation against Ruizresident doctor at the Juan Domingo Perón Hospital in Tartagal, considering that there is no crime in the actions of the professional.
Ruiz is in charge of the interdisciplinary clinic for voluntary interruption of pregnancy in Tartagal, 365 kilometers north of the capital of Salta, where she is the only one that does not appeal to conscientious objection to perform legal abortions in that town.
In September 2021, the General Prosecutor’s Office for Serious Attacks against Persons, in charge of prosecutor Gonzalo Ariel Vega, launched a criminal investigation and ordered the arrest of Ruiz, who he was deprived of his liberty for a few hours until a judge reversed that decision.
“In the framework of said process, (Ruiz) is still subjected to coercive measures that substitute for prison,” Amnesty said in a statement.
Enough of persecuting my colleague MIRANDA RUIZ, Salta, Argentina, for guaranteeing the health of a patient with an indication for termination of pregnancy. Amnesty International Argentina | We defend human rights https://t.co/8CJAbRTqPf
– Enrique Stola (@Stolae) March 5, 2022
The international organization indicated that “as it appears from the evidence produced in the file, Ruiz acted in accordance with the obligations set forth in Law 27,610 voluntary and legal termination of pregnancy.
“His intervention was accompanied by an interdisciplinary team and supported by the hospital management, which is also recorded in the clinical history. The procedure indicated for the practice was medication and self-administered,” he added.
The doctor intervened in an ILE in a gestational process of 22 weeks and two days, performed on a 21-year-old girl, on August 24, 2021, and the subsequent complaint was made by an aunt of that woman.
The prosecutor considered that the professional did not comply with Law 27610, on the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (IVE), which provides in its article 4 that women and people with other gender identities with the capacity to gestate have the right to decide to access to the interruption of pregnancy up to week 14 inclusive of the gestational process.
Outside the stipulated period, there are exceptions contemplated by the Penal Code, one of which is that the pregnancy was the product of sexual abuse, or that the life or integral health of the pregnant person was in danger. In this case it is an ILE.
“The criminalization against Miranda Ruiz cannot continue because acting within the framework of the law to guarantee rights is not a crime. The right to decide and access an abortion requires that the people who need access to the practice and the health professionals who guarantee it can act without fear of being criminally prosecuted,” said Mariela Belski, executive director of AI Argentina.
