http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/venezuela.doc
Under the Criminal Code of 2 June 1964, the performance of abortions is generally illegal in Venezuela. A person who provokes the abortion of a woman with her consent is subject to 12 to 30 months’ imprisonment. If the woman does not consent, the penalty is increased to 15 months’ to three years’ imprisonment. A woman who intentionally performs her own abortion or consents to its performance by another person is subject to six months’ to two years’ imprisonment. Harsher penalties are applied if the abortion results in the death of the woman or if it is performed by the husband of the woman or by a health professional. Decreased penalties are applied if the abortion was carried out by a woman to preserve her own honour or carried out by another person to preserve the honour of a spouse, mother, descendant, sister or adoptive child.
Nonetheless, under the Criminal Code, an abortion may be legally performed by a health professional if necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. Moreover, the Code of Medical Ethics of 1971 authorizes an abortion to be performed for “therapeutic purposes,” although it does not define what therapeutic purposes are. Such an abortion may be performed only with the written consent of the woman, her husband or her legal representative. In case of emergency, however, the favourable opinion of another physician may suffice, if this can be obtained. A therapeutic abortion must be performed in a suitable environment, using all possible scientific resources. The physician selected to perform the abortion must inform the relatives if the pregnant woman is suffering from major obstetric complications and must clearly explain the procedure to be followed, with a view to obtaining their consent. In the event of a divergence of opinion, the physician must, where possible, transfer the case to another professional practitioner; otherwise, except in an emergency, the physician must request the relatives of the woman to make a written statement that they do not consent to the proposed procedure.
Proposals to reform the Venezuelan Penal Code, which were introduced in the National Congress in 1986, included recommendations to permit abortion on therapeutic grounds to preserve the physical and mental health of the mother; in cases of rape or incest; for eugenic reasons, in cases where either of the parents suffers from oligophrenia or epilepsy and a foetal injury is suspected, according to the opinion of three specialists; and in cases where the mother has suffered any sickness or exposure to radiation that might produce mental or physical defects in the foetus. These proposals, however, have not been incorporated into the Penal Code.
According to official data, complications from illegal abortions, which are often performed with unsterilized instruments by untrained persons, accounted for 24.6 per cent of all maternal deaths in Venezuela during the period 1980-1983. By 1995, that number had declined to 13.6 per cent, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
The Government of Venezuela has permitted the gradual expansion of family planning, for health-related reasons as well as to lower fertility. The total fertility rate has fallen in the period 1970-2000 from 5.9 children per woman to 3. The health-related aims of the national maternal and child health and family planning programme include providing safe and efficient contraceptives to help women avoid unwanted pregnancies; and contributing to the reduction of fertility rates among high-risk groups, such as adolescents and women with pregnancies spaced less than two years apart. A 1977 study reported a modern contraceptive prevalence rate of 38 per cent.
Sterilization is permitted in Venezuela only for medical or eugenic reasons. The Government views the high incidence of illegitimate births and abortion as a social problem that can be alleviated by the increased provision of family life education and family planning services. In 1987, the Government created the Ministry of the Family, the first and only institution of its type in Latin America, to coordinate sectoral programmes dealing with youth, women and the elderly. A project promoting family life and sex education in the informal sector was begun through the Ministry of Youth in 1987. Recognizing the social and health problems associated with adolescent childbearing, the Government established the permanent Commission for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy.
A woman's body is HER body, not everyone elses. The governments of Texas or Kansas or El Salvador or Venezuela or anywhere else authoritarians are in power need to stay the hell out of the equation.
= new reply since forum marked as read
