Move towards the full decriminalization of abortion in Bolivia.
Commitment description:By 2030, improve universal access to sexual and reproductive rights and health for all women, demanding and promoting the elimination of all legal, socioeconomic and cultural barriers and urging the Plurinational State of Bolivia to ensure access to freely available, safe, legal and free-of-charge abortion to all women who require it, whether campesina, indigenous, intercultural, rural, urban, young, adolescent or adult, contributing to a significant reduction and/or elimination of maternal deaths due to complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period, as well as incomplete abortions. Maternal deaths in Bolivia amount to 160 per 100,000 (one hundred thousand) live births. Of these, 13 per cent are due to unsafe abortions, making it the third most common cause of maternal death in the country. This means that the criminalization of abortion in the current Bolivian Penal Code must be removed from this regulation (Bolivian Penal Code, Articles 263, 265 and 266), and the necessary steps must be taken before the state, at its three levels, to formulate public health policies to move towards the full decriminalization of abortion in Bolivia and ensure access to voluntary termination of pregnancy that is freely available, legal, safe and free-of-charge.
Mode of engagement:
- Change or creation of legislationPropuesta de despenalización elaborada por activistas, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, redes e instituciones y presentada a la Asamblea Legislativa para modificar los artículos 263, 265 y 266 del Código Penal Boliviano que penalizan el aborto
Achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health as a part of universal health coverage (UHC)(3) Zero preventable maternal deaths and maternal morbidities, such as obstetric fistulas, by, inter alia, integrating a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health interventions, including access to safe abortion to the full extent of the law, measures for preventing and avoiding unsafe abortions, and for the provision of post-abortion care, into national UHC strategies, policies and programmes, and to protect and ensure all individuals’ right to bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive rights, and to provide access to essential services in support of these rights.
