The Ecuadorian Congress approved on February 17 the depenalization of abortion for victims of rape. The Catholic Church had made several efforts to avoid such outcome, with a broad pro-life campaign organized in several dioceses of the South American country. Now, Catholics hope that President Guillermo Lasso will veto the bill till the end of March.
The Ecuadorian Constitutional Court had approved the measure in April of 2021, after the interposition of several petitions over the previous years by women’s rights movements. Till then, abortion was only legal if the pregnancy represented a risk for the mother’s life or in cases of rape of mentally disabled women. With the Court’s decision, it was precisely the limitation to mentally disabled women that was taken out of the Ecuadorian penal code.
