:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/42MQ6VOFL5EMZFIIUQ52SA2EDU.jpg "PJ Confirms Therapeutic Abortion Protocol Is Constitutional, Dismisses Lawsuit Seeking To Overturn It 1")
The Supreme Court of the Judiciary (PJ) ratified this Tuesday the validity of the therapeutic abortion protocol (legal since 1924), which regulates the right of women to terminate a pregnancy up to 22 weeks, when it is the only way to save their life or avoid permanent damage to their health.
In this way, he confirmed that it is constitutional and declared the lawsuit filed by the Thomas More Association who wanted to cancel it. “There is no room for any dissent,” said the Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (Promsex), a passive litigator in defense of the guide.
The Chamber also decided that the protocol be corrected to take into account the consent of girls and adolescents, to change the term from incapable to “relative capacity” and to regulate conscientious objection in this technical standard.
This is “good news in the face of attempts by anti-rights groups to undermine the rights of women and girls to access therapeutic abortion to secure their lives and their health. The 2014 guide makes this forensic procedure effective since 1924,” the attorney said. Josefina Miro Quesada.
Almost a century later, the obstacles that girls, adolescents and women still face in accessing this right, which translates into forced maternity.
Peru’s Therapeutic Abortion Law, in force and intact for almost a century, penalizes voluntary termination of pregnancy in cases of congenital malformations or sexual violence and only allows it to save life or prevent serious and permanent damage to the health of the pregnant woman
Although this last variable includes the pregnancy of minors, the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (Cladem) has recorded since 2016 a daily average of five girls under the age of 14 forced to take on forced motherhood in the country, where one in five girls under the age of 15 have experienced sexual violence, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
In December 2021, from the Juntos por el Perú store, a bill to decriminalize abortion for reasons of rape was presented to Congress, although to date the initiative remains paralyzed. Promsex also collected signatures to showcase a related project.
Last month, a 10-year-old child victim of sexual abuse gave birth prematurely in a hospital in Piura, where she also underwent a Caesarean section. The baby died.
The minor had not consented to a therapeutic abortion, despite the fact that the pregnancy was life-threatening and termination of the pregnancy in these circumstances was permitted.