The Bolivian Government has triggered “lively controversy” by proposing to extend abortion options. The bill in question “proposes that abortion should be available for the first eight weeks of pregnancy for all women of no fixed abode or extreme poverty and for mothers of three or more children who no longer have the resources to raise their offspring”. The bill would also authorise abortion at any point in pregnancy in the case of foetal malformation or if the pregnant person is a child or adolescent. In Bolivia, abortion is currently permitted in the event of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in jeopardy.
The Bolivian Episcopal Conference strongly opposes this “harmful” draft bill. “This bill is introducing a strange ideological colonisation which does not want children to be born vulnerable and accepts the tragic violence of abortion as a censored means of resolving social and economic problems”.
Radio Vatican (15/03/2017)