Hundreds march in Caracas on International Safe Abortion Day

Hundreds of people marched in Caracas to demand sexual and reproductive rights including safe, legal and free abortion.

Women’s rights groups joined by a number of allied grassroots collectives marched across Caracas’ main avenues all the way to the National Assembly (AN), where they introduced a document demanding the abolition of the country’s over 100-year old penal code that criminalizes abortion.

“The criminalization of abortion is a form of gender-based violence prevailing in Venezuela’s laws and it violates the rights to life, health as well as the right of girls, women and pregnant people to live a life free of torture and patriarchal violence,”

Several representatives from Ruta Verde were received by deputies from the AN’s Permanent Commission for Integral and Social Development to discuss their demands for sexual and reproductive rights. Lifelong feminist activist, former women’s affairs minister and current AN deputy María León participated in the meeting and expressed support for “women’s right to decide.”

Venezuela’s anti-abortion legislation is one of the most restrictive on the continent banning abortion in all contexts, including rape, incest, and fetus inviability.

The country’s Penal Code establishes six months to two-year prison sentences against people who interrupt their pregnancies while doctors or anyone who performs or facilitates the procedure face one to three years in jail.

Criminalizing abortion has also resulted in an increased maternal mortality rate.