Dominican Republic Protest against Attempt to Legalize Abortion

Citizens of the Dominican Republic protested both inside and outside of the country's Chamber of Deputies (lower house of congress) against an attempt to legalize "therapeutic abortion" in the island nation last Wednesday.

Protesters outside of the building held signs that included statements such as, "Yes to life, no to abortion," "We are in favor of life," and "Abortion is murder." "If the legalization of abortion is approved, the Dominican Republic will be seen at the international level as the slaughterhouse of the Caribbean," said Gene Castillo, a spokesman for Catholic and protestant groups opposing the changes.

"We know that abortion is a crime because it is a violation of life, it is the elimination of the life that is forming in the womb of the mother. Some feminist positions say that to preserve the life of the woman and defend her rights it is necessary to kill the baby. But this argument is self-contradictory because more than 50 percent of those babies that are going to be born are women," said Father Luis Rosario of the Catholic Church's youth ministry "Pastoral Juvenil" in a separate interview.

The proposed alterations to the law are part of an ongoing project by legislators to overhaul the Dominican Republic's Penal Code.  The existing code bans abortion without exception, although the law is not interpreted as penalizing abortions that occur in the process of saving the mother's life.

Commenting on the proposed changes earlier this month, Alejandro Pérez Gerónimo y Carlos Mateo of the Evangelical Council of the Assemblies of God, stated that "this would be a clear violation of one of the vital commandments dictated by God that one must not kill. The most troubling aspect of this is that the door could be opened to businesses that would have human lives as their principal merchandise."

Inside the Congress, duriing a public hearing, individuals and representatives of numerous groups expressed their opinions about the law change. Abortion advocates suggested legalizing the practice in cases of rape, incest, fetal deformities, and "health" concerns, and even abortion on demand.

The president of the Dominican Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Adrian Almonte, stated his firm opposition to any change in the law, while Lilian Fondeur, who was representing the Dominican Medical College, advocated allowing abortions in cases of fatal abnormalities or incest.

Rafael Mena, president of the National Association of Private Clinics (ANDECLIP), which has a direct profit motive for supporting abortion, took the most extreme stance at the hearings, asking for abortion on demand.

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