Santo Domingo. A group of more than 30 jurists, academics, communicators, health professionals, researchers, and other public figures presented a proposal this Tuesday to the Chamber of Deputies to amend Law 74-25, which establishes the new Penal Code, with the purpose of incorporating the three grounds for the interruption of pregnancy and correcting provisions that, in their view, violate fundamental rights.
The initiative proposes modifying articles 110 and 111 of the Penal Code so that women, adolescents, and girls, as well as health personnel, are not subject to criminal prosecution when the termination of pregnancy is performed under three circumstances: to protect the life or health of the woman, when the pregnancy is incompatible with extrauterine life, or when it is the result of sexual assault or incest.
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The signatories maintain that the wording approved by the National Congress maintains a regime of absolute criminalization that does not offer an adequate response to these exceptional situations and generates legal uncertainty for both patients and medical staff.
Likewise, they question the content of Article 111, considering that the requirement to exhaust “all available scientific and technical means” before terminating a pregnancy to save a woman’s life introduces an ambiguous criterion that could delay urgent medical decisions and create legal uncertainty in emergency cases.
The proposal also contemplates guaranteeing the right of women, adolescents, and girls to receive clear, sufficient, timely, scientific, understandable, and coercion-free information so that they can make an informed decision in any of the three circumstances raised.
Proponents pointed out that, because Congress keeps the discussion on amendments to the new Penal Code open, there is an opportunity to review the questioned articles and incorporate the three grounds.
“The Penal Code can still be improved. Incorporating the three grounds not only responds to a social demand sustained for years, but also strengthens the protection of fundamental rights in accordance with the Dominican Constitution,” the signatories expressed in the deposited document.
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The communication was signed by more than 30 personalities, including Magaly Caram, Ivelisse Acosta, Radhive Pérez, Cynthia Teresa Vega, Francisco Álvarez Valdez, Fausto Rosario Adames, Rosario Espinal, Tahira Vargas, Elka Scheker and Millizen Uribe, along with other representatives from different professional and academic sectors.
