A Call for Action: Legalizing Abortion in Cases of Rape and Incest

The Story of L.C.

L.C. became pregnant when she was 13 years old, the result of suffering multiple rapes by an older man. In desperation, she tried to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of her neighbor’s house but survived, instead sustaining a serious injury to her spinal cord. At the public hospital, to which she was rushed, doctors recommended emergency surgery to prevent her from suffering further damage from the fall. But the surgery was not conducted when it was discovered that she was pregnant, and despite the fact that she formally requested a therapeutic abortion from the hospital’s management. The permission was declined on the grounds that her injury did not pose a “threat to her life,” the only reason for a legal abortion in Peru. It was only after L.C. suffered a spontaneous abortion, nearly three months after having suffered the injury, that she was operated on. She is now a quadriplegic.

Photo credit: Luis Ruiz / Prensa Minedu

Abortions in Peru

According to official statistics, 600,000 new pregnancies occur every year in Peru; 57% of which are unplanned and unwanted, often the result of sexual violence. As a result, more than 370,000 clandestine abortions are carried out every year. Under Article 199 of Peru’s Criminal Code, abortion is legal only in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, known as “therapeutic abortion”. No exceptions are made for cases of sexual violence, such as rape or incest, for which Peru ranks first among all countries in Latin America. Instead, abortions resulting from rape are considered a crime, punishable by three years in prison. The significant risks associated with secret, illegal abortions fall almost solely on the most vulnerable: young, poor, and often illiterate.

Updated data (2016) on induced abortions worldwide. Occurrences and worldwide trends.

*Number of abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 1the difference between periods for 2010-2014 and 1990-1994 is statistically significant. Data via Guttmacher Institute

The United Nations (UN) monitoring committees of the international human rights treaties have repeatedly voiced their concern about the denial of access to legal abortion in Peru in cases of rape and incest. In 2012, they recommended to “modify the general prohibition on abortion in such a way that it allows therapeutic abortion and abortion in cases in which the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, and provides free medical services to the victims of rape.

Photo credit: Luis Ruiz / Prensa Minedu

A Wider Conversation about Women’s Rights is Necessary

In Peru, but also in many other Latin American countries, including Mexico, Bolivia, and Ecuador, abortion is still discussed within a very limited framework, primarily focusing on the question when life begins and whether a fetus is a person under the law, independent of the woman, and entitled to the same independent right to life. While these questions are unquestionably important to many, what the struggle over abortion rights is really about is a woman’s right to privacy, sexual independence and autonomous control over her own body, the area where patriarchy, the power of the state, and the Catholic Church powerfully intersect and inflict irreparable harm on women. According to Susana Chavez, Director of Promsex, “…when we review the justifications given by institutions to oppose abortion, the first one we see is the issue of control over women’s bodies when the pregnancy is considered an indication of adultery, and this is an issue related with concepts of honor, devotion to the virgin Mary, and machismo that are experienced in Latin America. The arguments having to do with defending life, come later.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

There are thousands of women like L. C., women who have become pregnant, and are forced, under the threat of imprisonment, to give birth to and raise a child that resulted from a violent assault. No women should be compelled to do so. And so despite the fact that the law decriminalizing abortions in cases of violence has been shelved by the government, some progress has been made. The debate about abortion rights and a women’s right to control what happens to her body has been taken to the streets by tens of thousands of courageous women and their allies. Alongside the legalization of same-sex marriage, it has evolved from a traditional left-right issue to a complex debate about women’s rights, gender roles and the limits of state power over its citizens. As more and more Latin Americans are reasserting their rights vis-à-vis their authoritarian governments and more women assume positions of political power, the awareness that the establishment of just and peaceful societies requires the full inclusion and participation of women as equal citizens is slowly starting to take hold.

TOP PHOTO CREDIT: Photo credit: Luis Ruiz / Prensa Minedu