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Ana Cristina Vera can tell the stories of countless women. She helped her escape from Ecuador’s strict anti-abortion laws, but this lawyer and feminist organizer always starts with one: Carla of.
In 2014, on the way to work in the city of Esmeralds, Carla — her lawyer Vera used the name to protect her identity — fell down the stairs. She got up, only to find that she was bleeding. Vera told Al Jazeera that she thought it was her menstruation, delayed for two weeks, and got painkillers from a friend.
But a few days later, when Kara went to the hospital still feeling pain and fever, a doctor called the police after learning what had happened. “She told them that she didn’t even know that she was pregnant, but the police kept pressing her and pressing her,” Vera said.
Kara was eventually imprisoned and accused of taking misoprostol, a drug used to induce medical abortion. She was accused of abortion and was detained for four months before trial until Surkuna, a feminist group in Ecuador, discovered her case and sought her release.
Vera said the accusation was eventually rejected due to lack of evidence. “This is constant: poor women, they are asking for help, they have encountered a completely machismo (“male chauvinism”) and discriminatory health and justice system,” said Vera, who is also an executive director. Surkuna.
On September 28, 2019, after lawmakers in Quito, Ecuador vetoed the abortion law, activists took part in protests demanding approval of the abortion law [File: Daniel Tapia/Reuters]Abortion is prohibited
Kara’s story reflects many of them A report released last week Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed the impact of the abortion ban in Ecuador, one of the strictest abortion bans in Latin America.
“The criminalization of abortion has a devastating impact on the lives and health of women and girls,” said Ximena Casas, a researcher for the Americas at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.
Casas said that, as seen in many other countries where abortion is illegal, prohibiting termination of pregnancy does not prevent abortion from happening. On the contrary, it makes it more dangerous, mainly for low-income women living in rural areas.
In Ecuador, this procedure is only allowed if the mother’s life or health is at risk or the pregnancy is due to rape.The latter exemption is after the Constitutional Court in April Legalize abortion in all rape casesAccording to Human Rights Watch, in a country where 7 girls under the age of 14 become mothers every day, this decision is hailed as historically significant.
But in Ecuador, a conservative and predominantly Catholic country, a woman convicted of illegal abortion may still be sentenced to six months to two years in prison. Medical professionals who perform abortions face up to three years in prison.
Outside the National Assembly of Quito, Ecuador, anti-abortion rights demonstrators asked lawmakers not to pass a law that would legalize abortion in rape cases [File: Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo]Dozens of cases
Human Rights Watch reviewed 148 abortion-related court cases in Ecuador from 2009 to 2019 and found that the vast majority (81%) were prosecutions against women. The overwhelming majority of the women indicted are young, overwhelmingly poor, and disproportionately indigenous or African descent. Almost two-thirds of people are between 18 and 24 years old. Approximately 12% are girls under 18 years of age.
Sixty cases involving 70 defendants were found guilty and 38 people were imprisoned. Others were sentenced to probation, including volunteering in orphanages or programs designed to teach them how to be “good mothers.” In 73% of cases, the prosecution started after the doctors reported the women to the police, which Human Rights Watch pointed out violated their confidentiality obligations.
The report also includes several personal stories, including the story of Gladys, an indigenous woman who injected “perroffin” (a poison used to kill stray animals) into her abdomen to end an unintended pregnancy. According to Human Rights Watch, she served two months in prison.
Or Fernanda, a 15-year-old girl who was raped had an abortion and then sentenced to three months of psychotherapy. “I am a suffering person, why should they make me suffer again,” she told her therapist.
“The law is used as a moralized law, so women and girls’ reproductive fate is not their choice,” Vera said. “I have a case where they turned off the camera [in court] And asked us why we should defend the murderer. “
During a march for abortion rights in Quito, Ecuador, a pro-abortion demonstrator held up a sign [File: Daniel Tapia/Reuters]critical moment
The Human Rights Watch report was released at a critical moment for abortion rights in Ecuador.
In the April ruling, the Constitutional Court ordered the National Assembly to pass legislation to ensure that rape survivors have access to abortion. On June 28, the Office of the Ombudsman submitted the bill, and Parliament now has six months to discuss and pass the bill.
Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso is a staunch Catholic, he said In the statement He respects the court’s decision and hopes his government members will do the same. Human Rights Watch and other activists are seizing the opportunity to push for greater reforms and demand that abortion be legalized more broadly.
The struggle for abortion rights is taking place in Latin America. In December, Argentina became the largest country in the region Legitimize the program In any case, until the 14th week of pregnancy.Activists in countries such as Chile and Colombia are working to ease restrictions, while lawmakers in Honduras Hardening reaction It’s completely forbidden.
Ecuador is one of several countries in Latin America where feminist activists are fighting for abortion rights [File: Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo]At the same time, in Ecuador, Dr. Rita Bedoya, Deputy Minister of Health Promotion, Gender and Equality of the Ministry of Health, and others are committed to ensuring that women can get abortions that are now legal. Part of her job is to combat the misinformation and fear that medical professionals still have to be prosecuted for legal abortion.
Dr. Bedoya, an official village doctor, recalled that past ministry orders directed doctors to report women to the police, which she said caused doctors to act “like a detective” in an obstetric emergency. “They want to know if this is something irritated, not the patient’s vital signs,” she told Al Jazeera.
She said that the situation has changed, depending on whether the ministry is clear. She said that since the April ruling, it has intervened in many cases to ensure that rape survivors can have abortions.
“The court’s decision is a huge leap forward,” she said. “We are working hard to spread this achievement, which feminists are fighting for on the streets.” Nevertheless, Dr. Bedoya said that in a medical field full of “anti-abortion” (anti-abortion rights) advocates, this is not easy. “People don’t understand that they work for a secular country, they confuse people, and they believe that their faith and their religion may be above the law.”
Feminist lawyer Annabell Guerrero Pita agrees that the country is at an important moment. She believes that women’s rights activists like her need to “keep vigilant” to ensure that the spirit of court rulings will not be diluted in the legislative process.
“Many members of the Parliament made it clear in their comments that they did not want to abide by the court’s ruling,” she said. “Civil society will have to pay close attention to what the parliament does.”
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