News, January 2010

New abortion law in Congress

December. In November a new abortion law went before the Congress. This has been long months in the planning stage and finally comes to full political debate. With the Roman Catholic influenced Partido Popular on the opposition benches, the law faces a narrow victory. Main items are the closing of a clause which has allowed almost any woman to abort at any stage of pregnancy, but it now gives full freedom to abort up to 14 weeks.

The clause which has been increasingly abused over recent years says that if the woman's physical or psychological condition requires it, a 'termination' can be done at any moment. The original idea was to allow life-threatening situations to be resolved, but the psychological issues are now usually just personal momentary convenience. Despite closing this clause, doctors remain unconvinced that similar interpretations would not allow such practices to continue. Most abortions have been carried out in private clinics. Again, the bill allows for abortion to be performed regularly in public hospitals.

Evangelicals are evidently in the main against the new bill, but can hardly call for retention of the old one with a clear conscience. The time is now coming for evangelicals to stand up and offer practical help, not just join with other groups on barricades. One such help project is possibly about to get under way under the auspices of a recently established NGO, MasQueSalud.