Rafael Correa Confirms Position over Abortion Topic

The Justice Committee of the National Assembly drew up the report, which forms a basis for the first debate of the Integral Criminal Code.

The president, Rafael Correa, reiterated his position on the abortion issue in the Integral Criminal Organic Code draft (COPI for its spanish acronym).

Although the new procedure is on the first debate, the head of state already established his position. “With all due respect to other opinions, I will veto any article on abortion that goes beyond of what already exists in the Penal Code,” Correa wrote on his Twitter account last Friday.

Thus, the opinion of an important faction of Alianza Pais (AP) assembly members that supports the decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape, would not be taken into account when approving the COPI.

Legal abortion

1. If done to avoid danger to life or health of the mother, and if this danger can not be avoided by other means.

2. If the pregnancy resulted from rape.

(MZ)