THE SITUATION IN PARAGUAY
Imagine having no say or control over your body; well in Paraguay, young girls and women have no say as to whether they want to proceed with a pregnancy or not.
Paraguay is considered to have “one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Latin America” because it is illegal for girls or women to have an abortion in any circumstance, except for “when the life of the mother is recognised to be in danger”.
It was reported that there were a minimum of 1000 girls aged 14 or younger who gave birth between 2019 and 2020, and approximately 12,000 girls aged between 15 and 19 gave birth in 2019 alone.
Some of these pregnancies occurred as a direct result of sexual abuse they had been subjected to within their family. As stated by Amnesty International within their report, which was released on 1 December 2021, in 2019 there were approximately 12 complaints of sexual violence against children and adolescents reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office each day – that’s 4,380 reports a year. In 2020, the Ministry of Children and Adolescents received 3,809 reports of physical and psychological abuse, and 1,032 of sexual abuse.
To prevent sexual violence, Paraguay adopted Law 6202 specifically to tackle the issue of sexual violence and provide care for child and teenage survivors. However, it has been more than three years since its introduction and there has been no progress as its implementation has not been finalised. The country’s attempt, or lack of, in eliminating sexual violence against children and adolescents provides a clear indication that the welfare and dignity of their citizens is not important.
Compared with pregnant women aged 20-24 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported, that children between the age of 10 – 19 years are at a higher risk of complications if they fall pregnant, and girls under the age of 15 are four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. In 2018, a 14-year-old girl – who was raped by a 37 year old man - died whilst the doctors performed an emergency caesarean section; the young girl had experienced several issues during the course of her pregnancy. The question here is, were these complications considered life-threatening enough to allow an abortion? Evidently, not.
THE DANGERS OF RESTRICTIVE ABORTION LAWS
As reported by the United Nations, draconian abortion laws leads to unsafe abortions as “the average unsafe abortion rate was more than four times greater in countries with restrictive abortion policies in 2011 than in countries with liberal abortion policies”.
There were approximately 25 million unsafe abortions a year between 2010 and 2014. This is around 45% of all abortions. The vast majority of unsafe abortions (97%) occurred in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The risks of such procedures can result in incomplete abortion, haemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, and damage to the genital tract and internal organs.
Human Rights Watch conducted research into abortion laws within Latin America, revealing that due to the harsh abortion laws, women were having to resort to illegal abortions in dangerous conditions. As a result, thousands of women were dying from these unsafe procedures most likely because the procedure was not undertaken in proper medical facilities.
There is clear evidence that legalising abortion reduces the number of deaths due to unsafe abortions. For example, deaths following unsafe abortion procedures fell by 50% in South Africa six years after the introduction of legislation to allow women to obtain an abortion, if they so choose.
Not only does criminalisation of abortion lead to illegal and unsafe abortions, but it also leads to people not seeking medical assistance following the procedure as they are in fear of being caught and imprisoned for breaking the law. In 2002, Nepal legalised abortions and during its implementation of the new regime it opened hundreds of clinics and trained over a thousand clinicians, due to this there was a significant decline of women experiencing serious health complications due to having an abortion.
ACCESS TO ABORTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has rights that should be protected, and being denied access to an abortion violates those rights.
Firstly consider article 3; the right to life, liberty, and security of person. A person’s body and life is theirs and only theirs, and to limit a person from seeking medical assistance to have an abortion, if they so wish, violates this right as they are not in control of how they use their body. It also unjustly interferes with a person’s life and decisions regarding reproduction and family life.
Furthermore, and as identified above, it does not stop someone seeking an abortion illegally, it merely instils fear into a person and poses serious threat to their lives.
Second to be considered is article 5; the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment. Some pregnancies are caused because of rape and to deny an abortion, especially in these circumstances, is a form of punishment to the victim. Forcing a young girl or woman to continue with a pregnancy which occurred from an already traumatic experience, further contributes to the torture they were previously subjected to.
Lastly, article 7; the right not to be discriminated against. Restraining abortion laws only affects those who can get pregnant, so essentially it is gender-based violence. The same is considered by the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women as an act of discrimination. “Criminalisation has a stigmatising impact on women, and deprives women of their privacy, self-determination, and autonomy of decision, [and] offending women’s equal status”.
As said by Amnesty International; “everyone should be free to exercise their bodily autonomy and make their own decisions about their reproductive lives including when and if they have children. It is essential that laws relating to abortion respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of pregnant persons and not force them to seek out unsafe abortions”.
After having completed the Bar Professional Training Course (2018), Safia currently working as a Costs Advisor in a law firm. Her life goal is to make a positive change in the society we live in, no matter how small that change might be.