Deputies vote pro-choice on 3 paths to end pregnancy

Santo Domingo.- After hours-long debates on the three exceptions that allow terminating a pregnancy, and with a narrow difference between pro-choice and pro-life, the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday rejected the Justice Commission’s unfavorable report and approved the Penal Code.

Representatives from pro-choice organizations immediately celebrated the failure of a Code which in their view, would’ve violated the lives and rights of women.

“The sensibility and rationality reigned over the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate proposal was rejected,” tweeted social activist Sergia Galván.

Opposition PRM part deputy Faride Raful also weight in and express her joy following the rejection of a Penal Code that didn’t include the three exceptions to allow the interruption of pregnancy: when the mother’s life is in danger, when a fetus’s congenital malformation is incompatible with life and when Is a result of rape or incest.

President Danilo Medina had already vetoed the bill without the three exceptions, whereas vice president Margarita Cedeño had also sided with pro-choice.