Strasbourg, 11/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament said on Thursday 11 June that the general ban on therapeutic abortion and termination of pregnancy after rape or incest and the refusal to provide free health cover in cases of rape “amounts to torture”.
In a joint resolution tabled by the S&D, ALDE, Greens, GUE and EFDD on legal aspects of child pregnancy, adopted by Parliament, MEPs call on Paraguay “to ensure that women and girls have access to safe and legal abortion, at a minimum, when their health and life are in danger, where there is severe foetal impairment and in cases of rape and incest”.
This resolution comes after a 10-year old girl, five months pregnant after being raped by her step-father, was prevented from having an abortion. In their resolution, MEPs press the Paraguayan authorities to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into this rape and to bring the perpetrator to justice. Parliament also stresses its deep concern at the high number of child pregnancies in Paraguay.
With the voting on this resolution coinciding with the EU-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit, MEPs seized the opportunity to ask heads of state and government to include in the chapter on gender-based violence of the EU-CELAC Action Plan 2013-2015 a timetable for implementing concrete measures. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)