La Paz, Bolivia (Prensa Latina) The Bolivian Health Minister, Ariana Campero, has highlighted the approval of Article-153 of the Penal System Code that allows women to have an abortion until eight weeks, with no penalty.
‘The new article is an important advance in the historic claim of many women who have striven for avoiding death by illegal abortions,’ she said.
Campero reiterated that abortion is Bolivia´s third cause of death, most of them carried out amid unhealthy conditions.
The Bolivian Chamber of Deputies has passed an article in the Penal System Code referring to abortion, which now adds three grounds to prevent this practice from being penalized, and eliminates the argument of poverty.
According to regulations, during the first eight weeks of pregnancy, women will be eligible for unpunished abortion when they are responsible for senior citizens with disabilities or for minors.
As to a press release from the Chamber, abortion will not constitute a criminal offense if women´s health condition and life are at risk, when fetal malformations are detected; as well as in case pregnancy was a consequence of rape, and pregnant woman is a girl or teenager.
