And that is how a group of pro-abortion activists reached the ultimate consequences (being arrested) when they demonstrated outside the Dominican consulate in New York.
“We need to pass a penal code that respects the dignity of Dominican women,” said Marisol Alcántara, a former New York state senator.
Following the criminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy in the recent approval in first reading of the draft Penal Code in the Dominican Republic, the fact has raised great concern among the diaspora.
Activists demand that President Luis Abinader fulfill his promise to protect the reproductive rights of Dominican women.
Alcantara.
“She should fulfill her campaign promise to pass the three causes, which include and give a Dominican woman the right to have an abortion under the three conditions: if the pregnancy is a result of sexual harassment or incest, if the pregnancy is a risk for her, for her life, and if the fetus will not survive the pregnancy,” said Maria Lizardo.
The Caribbean country is one of the few in the world that completely bans abortion, even in cases of pregnancies caused by rape.
“Right now, under the Criminal Code, a woman who receives an abortion is punished with up to three years in prison and the doctor who performs the procedure can spend up to 20 years in prison. That is an injustice,” said Amanda Séptimo, a state assemblywoman from the Bronx.
According to the United Nations, unsafe abortion is the third cause of maternal mortality in the Caribbean country.
“We are number one in the number of girls who get pregnant. We are number one in femicide, in killing women, and luckily, we are number one in women who, even though they are sick, can imagine their daughter with cancer, who between her life and that of a one-month-old fetus, decides that she should die. Imagine that your daughter is raped. And the Dominican government says that it doesn’t matter in this birth because we are Catholics,” added Alcántara.
Another activist said there is an urgent need for legislation to guarantee women’s human rights.
“Mr. President, remember that women are an important part of this process,” said Evangelina Fermín.
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