An overwhelming majority of Dominican Republic lawmakers voted 167-32 to modify the Constitution to guarantee the right to life from conception to natural death. The vote was held last Tuesday at the instigation of President Leonel Fernández. “The right to life is inviolable from conception to death. The death penalty shall not be established, given as a sentence or applied in any case,” the measure read. By establishing the right to life from conception, the measure outlaws all forms of abortion.
On Friday Amnesty International issued a statement expressing the organization’s concern with the constitutional and legal reforms, which they fear “could lead to violations of women’s human rights. The measures, they argue, “may be used as justification for criminalizing abortion in all circumstances, including where the life or health of the woman is at risk or where the pregnancy is the result of rape.” There is further cause for concern in a proposed amendment to the penal code which would increase the penalties for anyone involved in carrying out an abortion. It explicitly provides for the imprisonment any woman who seeks to terminate a pregnancy that resulted from rape, incest or involuntary assisted fertilization. Amnesty International is calling on the Dominican Republic to fulfill its obligations under international human rights law “to ensure that women and girls are not subject to criminal sanctions for seeking or obtaining an abortion under any circumstances.”
”Amnesty International,” the statement concludes, “regrets to note that the proposed reform of Article 30 does not follow the human rights-affirmative approach taken by the Constitutional Court of Colombia in its 2006 judgment invalidating the complete ban of abortion, an approach which distinguished the right to life of the woman from the state’s duty to protect prenatal life in international human rights and constitutional law.”
For the full statement go to http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGAMR270032009&lang=e
