The problem of the total criminalization of abortion in the reform of the Dominican Criminal Code “returns to force and leads to deeper reflections with the case of the 16-year-old adolescent who died” pregnant by a teacher, allegedly, after performing a clandestine abortion on her in the city of Higüey, in a context where the piece was approved in the Senate with the exclusion of two of the three causes.
At least that is the opinion of the representative of the National District and vice president of the Democratic Option party, José Horacio Rodríguez, who also argues that in all developed Western countries a woman is allowed to have an abortion under certain circumstances and within pre-established deadlines. .
“And I wonder: Are those countries pro-death? They are not. These are countries to which Dominicans emigrate and we want to be like them because they have a better quality of life than us. None are promoters, but they have understood that admitting the possibility of accessing a safe abortion saves lives, and the best case is the one we are seeing in the adolescent who died in Santiago, ”she commented. And, she continued: “If she could have agreed to a safe abortion, she would be alive today.”
Case of the adolescent Emely Peguero
The legislator also referred to the case of the 16-year-old teenager Emely Peguero Polanco, who was murdered when she was five months pregnant during a clandestine abortion process, being one of the femicides that has most impacted the country.
“She also bled to death and they ended up hitting her on the head, because she was dying after performing a subhuman abortion on her in an apartment. If Emely Peguero had been able to access a safe abortion, she would be alive. Today she was 20-something years old, perhaps she was already a mother by choice in conditions that allowed her with a father who also wanted to have that child, ”she argued.
In this sense, he reflected that if one wants to fight and defend life, it must be done through sexual education and offer alternatives to the mother who is in a complex situation to carry the pregnancy to term.
“We are going to offer contraceptive methods to prevent these situations. The last facility to access a safe abortion is what allows many women to save lives, always poor and very young women, because the upper class can go to other countries ”, she concluded.
