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BOLIVIA:
Safe Abortion Nearly Impossible
Even in Cases of Rape
By Bernarda
Claure
LA PAZ, (IPS) - Bolivia's
constituent assembly has just
two months left to finishing
rewriting the country's
constitution. In 10 months of
sessions, it has approved a
single article, regarding the
right to hold football matches
at high altitudes, in response
to the International Football
Federation's (FIFA) ban on
high-altitude international
matches.
Among the thorny issues being
debated by the 255 assembly
members, 134 of whom belong to
the leftwing governing Movement
Towards Socialism (MAS), is the
question of the right to life,
linked to the subject of the
legalisation of abortion.
A proposal set forth by the
assembly's Committee on Rights,
Duties and Guarantees to
enshrine the right to life from
conception in the new
constitution has triggered
heated debate on the right of
women, and especially rape
victims, to interrupt an
unwanted pregnancy.
The study "Breaking the Silence"
by the Ombudsman's Office and
the non-governmental
Coordinadora de la Mujer reports
that rapes account for 64
percent of all documented
physical attacks on women, and
that underage girls are the
victims in over half of all
cases of rape.
Around 200 complaints of sexual
abuse of girls are filed
annually in this South American
country, according to statistics
provided to IPS by Julia
Velasco, coordinator of the
National News Agency for the
Rights of the Child (ANNI).
Girls who become pregnant as a
result of rape have little
chance of actually obtaining a
safe, legal abortion, even
though abortion is permitted in
Bolivia to save the life of the
woman, to preserve her physical
health, and in cases of rape or
incest.
In overwhelmingly Catholic Latin
America, abortion on demand is
only legal in Cuba, Guyana and
Mexico City.
And although therapeutic
abortion is legal in cases of
rape in all countries in the
region except Nicaragua, women
in such circumstances usually
find themselves caught up in a
lengthy, complex administrative
and legal process to achieve
authorisation from the courts
and then find a provider willing
to carry out the abortion in
safe conditions.
In many cases, they end up
resorting to clandestine
abortions, which are often
practiced in unsanitary
conditions.
The rightwing opposition Podemos
coalition triggered a heated
debate in the constituent
assembly with its motion to
guarantee the right to life from
the moment of conception. The
clause was approved in the
Committee on Rights, in which
the coalition holds a majority
of seats, over the objections of
three of the committee members,
including Loyola Guzmán of the
MAS.
The question will be resolved in
a plenary session of the
assembly, since the rules
establish that clauses on which
unanimous approval is not
achieved in committee must be
put up to debate and a vote by
the entire assembly.
Any proposed articles not
approved by the plenary assembly
will be decided directly by
voters in a constitutional
referendum.
"The right to life starting at
conception should be preserved
in the constitution, to prevent
the passage of other laws that
might run counter to it," said
Miguel Manzanera, director of
the Institute of Bioethics at
the San Pablo Catholic
University of Bolivia.
Guzmán argues that the new
constitution should reflect the
language used in the American
Convention on Human Rights, to
which the Bolivian state is a
signatory since 1979.
Article four of the Convention
states that "Every person has
the right to have his life
respected. This right shall be
protected by law and, in
general, from the moment of
conception. No one shall be
arbitrarily deprived of his
life."
It is the phrase "in general"
that Guzmán emphasises. "Stating
that the right to life is
recognised in general terms
shows that special circumstances
are also recognised," such as
pregnancies that result from
rape, she told IPS.
A similar focus was taken by the
non-governmental Women and
Constituent Assembly Project,
which drew up a document that
proposes respect for the right
to life and for sexual and
reproductive rights as well.
"We believe the question of
abortion should be addressed in
the context of debating and
drafting a national law, rather
than as part of the process of
rewriting the constitution,"
Katia Uriona, coordinator of the
Project, explained to IPS.
Women's groups recently held a
protest march in the eastern
city of Santa Cruz, carrying
signs that read "a girl who is
the victim of rape does not want
to be a mother."
Red-Ada, a local women's rights
group, documented 250 rapes of
minors in Santa Cruz alone from
January to August 2006. In 248
cases, the victims were girls
between the ages of 13 and 15,
according to figures from the
Defensoría de la Niñez
(Children's Ombudsman's Office)
in that eastern province.
Católicas por el Derecho a
Decidir (CDD), a partner
organisation of the
international Catholics for a
Free Choice, estimates that only
10 percent of all rapes are
reported in Bolivia.
"That is because when a woman,
adolescent or girl files a
complaint, the judges and
doctors and other hospital staff
take an inquisitorial approach,"
CDD/Bolivia coordinator Teresa
Lanza told IPS.
A 10-year-old pregnant rape
victim went from one courtroom
to another last year in the
central province of Cochabamba
seeking judicial authorisation
for an abortion, without any
luck despite a certificate from
the Bolivian Society of
Gynecology and Obstetrics that
clearly established that the
pregnancy posed a risk to her
life.
But a legal ruling is no
guarantee either. In 2002,
doctors in the Viedma public
hospital, also in Cochabamba,
refused to perform an abortion
in the case of a 12-year-old
girl who had been raped by her
stepfather, even after a judge
authorised an abortion. In the
end, the girl underwent an
illegal clandestine abortion.
Lawyer Samuel Zenteno told IPS
that if the constituent assembly
approves the clause on the right
to life from the moment of
conception, the law making
abortion legal in case of rape
or threats to the health or life
of the pregnant woman would have
to be codified.
"The lack of codification of the
law creates a legal vacuum,
giving rise to interpretations
that vary from judge to judge.
Under these circumstances, a
woman who is raped is doubly
victimised, because besides the
sexual abuse she has suffered,
she has to face distressing
administrative and legal
procedures, as occurred in
Cochabamba," he added.
Women's rights activists argue,
however, that a clearly codified
law would not be a solution in
and of itself.
"Bolivian women have little
access to legal protection, not
only because of the difficulties
in the administration of justice
but also, fundamentally, due to
a cultural and social reality in
which sexual violence is seen as
normal," said Uriona.
In Bolivia, South America's
poorest country, the maternal
mortality rate is 420 per
100,000 live births, and
complications arising from
clandestine abortions are the
third cause of maternal death.
According to CDD and Red-Ada, an
estimated 115 clandestine
abortions a day are performed in
this country of nine million
people.
The abortion debate has also
flared up in several other Latin
American countries. In April,
the Mexico City legislature
legalised abortion in that city;
in late May, 250 NGOs in
Argentina presented a proposed
draft law that would legalise
abortion; and authorities in
Brazil are considering putting
the question to a referendum,
following the example of
Portugal, where voters decided
in February that parliament
could legalise abortion. (
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