Costa Rican Government Proposes Spouse Permission for Abortion

Central America, in Brief: As the Inter-American Court prepares for a challenge to El Salvador’s abortion ban that will set a regional precedent, just down the street Rodrigo Chaves is looking to revoke a 2019 decree compelling Costa Rican medical centers to no longer deny certain legal therapeutic abortions. Xiomara Castro headed in the opposite direction last week, approving the sale of morning-after contraceptives in Honduras.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Roman Gressier and Nelson Rauda Zablah


For almost a century, Costa Rica has been the most progressive state in Central America. Its 1949 constitution speaks of the state’s role in the "distribution of wealth" and eliminated the army. The country was on the vanguard of environmental protection when the rest of the continent dreamed of industrialization. In 1970, as the rest of Central America lived under military dictatorships, Costa Rica opened the door for abortion in some cases.

That’s why it was surprising that draft regulations in Costa Rica leaked in late February would curb access to therapeutic abortion to protect carriers’ lives and health. The draft requires the "name, ID number, and signature of the spouse or father of the nasciturus," requires increased medical opinions, and stresses "the ethical consideration of saving both lives, always seeking to carry the fetus to extrauterine viability."

The draft runs afoul of article 121 of the Costa Rican Penal Code, according to human rights litigator Larissa Arroyo Navarrete, as well as the 2012 Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling in Artavia Murillo v Costa Rica in vitro fertilization case that "an embryo cannot be understood as a person." She told El Faro English: "Artavia Murillo clearly determined that there is no equivalence between two lives at risk."

To be clear, in Costa Rica abortion is a criminal offense, including in cases of rape or incest. But the 1970 Penal Code —still on the books— granted a narrow window for "unpunished abortion" to protect the "life or health" of the carrier, after exhausting alternatives, "with the consent of the woman," and performed by "a doctor or authorized obstetrician."

The exception became a wedge-driving issue in recent electoral politics. It’s no coincidence that ultraconservative Evangelical singer Fabricio Alvarado came in second and third in the 2018 and 2022 elections, respectively. After taking office, Chaves promised the Episcopal Conference that he would revise a therapeutic abortion order issued in 2019.

More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202303/centroamerica/26767/Costa-Rican-Government-Proposes-Spouse-Permission-for-Abortion.htm