Article 30 passed

[NewsWhore]

Article 30, a controversial piece of legislation that establishes the right to life "from conception until natural death" was passed by the Constitutional Reform Revisory Assembly yesterday, with a vote of 167 in favor to 32 against. The article has drawn staunch criticism from doctors, social groups and women's organizations, which argued it excluded exceptions to the total ban on abortions that had been allowed in the case of pregnancies resulting from rape and incest and when the mother's life was at risk. The approved wording had the strong support of the Catholic Church. Listin Diario says the DR is now the first country to have the issue of abortion mentioned in its Constitution and this could mean that the issue could be blocked from going to Congress or the Penal Code to be overturned. The PRSC and PRD voting blocks backed the proposal while the PLD's voting block was divided on the issue. Listin Diario writes that 32 members of the PLD have voiced their support for abortion in exceptional circumstances, and some legislators believed the issue should be addressed in the Penal Code.
Former Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch said the congressional approval of Art. 30 as proposed by President Leonel Fernandez is a setback for the country. She said politics prevailed in the congressional vote. "The parties think they will gain votes where they have never gotten them. It is representing the people how power should be exercised," she said. She says that a more modern wording should have been drafted in tune with the present times.

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