Living in Peru : your everyday companion

LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

The controversy on abortion in Peru fires up everyday, confronting pro-choice and pro-life supporters, and state ministers as well.

While Congress has approved a bill which proposes an amendment to Peru's Penal Code to allow eugenesic abortion “under certain conditions,” local feminist organizations are calling for mobilizations, arguing that therapeutic abortion is contemplated by Peruvian laws since 1924, but its medical protocol has not been setup yet, which means that the doctors cannot perform them in their daily practice.

Peru's Justice Minister, Aurelio Pastor, told the media that his sector is officially against any kind of deliberate abortion since it would harm the fetuses' civil rights, while the Health Minister has declared that “therapeutic abortion would save mothers, who are important in society.”

The public debate has increased, reaching a critical point after the intervention of the Catholic Church, whose highest authority in Peru, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, reminded all that the Catholic Church is against any kind of deliberate abortion, saying in a radio interview that the Church will take care of unwanted babies, like Mother Theresa of Calcutta did.

"Since we've done away with the death penalty in Peru for even the worst criminals, how can we accept the death penalty for an embryo that hasn't even had the time to commit a mistake and cannot even defend itself?" he said to Radio Programas del Perú.

The bill, which was approved by a parliamentary committee a week ago, is to be debated by the full Congress within the next few weeks.

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