In The Community
Just a few days earlier, on April 1, the Florida Supreme Court also ruled in favor of upholding a 6-week abortion ban, which will take effect on May 1. This further reduced the legal threshold for abortions in Florida, which used to be 24 weeks of pregnancy before Republicans passed a law in 2022 banning abortions after 15 weeks. Both of these rulings have sparked intense debate and outrage about their impact on women’s rights.
Overview of the Near-Total Abortion Ban in Arizona
Medical professionals have spoken out about how dire the situation will become for women with this near-total abortion ban. Dr. Jill Gibson, chief medical director of Planned Parenthood in Arizona, told CNN that this ruling will have “absolutely unbelievable consequences for the patients in our community.” She continued by saying, “Providers need to be able to take care of their patients without fear of legal repercussions and criminalization.”
Representatives from Arizona and other states across the country have also spoken up against this near-total abortion ban.
Video by Shontel Brown Member of the United States House of Representatives on InstagramVideo by Shontel Brown Member of the United States House of Representatives on Instagram
Image by Rubén Gallego Member of the United States House of Representatives on InstagramImage by Rubén Gallego Member of the United States House of Representatives on Instagram
Until this Arizona Supreme Court decision, abortion had been legal in the state up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. The right to abortion via Roe v. Wade prevented the enforcement of the near-total abortion ban, but since a majority vote in the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe, those opposed to abortion rights had been fighting to enforce the 160-year-old 1864 law.
This new abortion ban in Arizona is not effective immediately as the court has paused its ruling for 14 days until additional arguments are heard in a lower court about how constitutional the law is. However, the law will likely come into effect in May, a few weeks from now. Planned Parenthood Arizona, the largest abortion provider in the state, will continue serving the community until the ban is enforced.
An Overview of Florida's Six-Week Abortion Ban
The landscape of abortion in Florida has also undergone a significant change with the enforcement of a 6-week abortion ban, replacing the previous 15-week limit. This ban, similar to Arizona's, severely restricts access to abortion care and poses a significant challenge to reproductive rights in the state. Providers are bracing for a public health crisis due to the increased demand for abortion and limited options for patients.
Practically speaking, a 6-week abortion ban is a near-total abortion ban because pregnant people often don’t even realize they could be pregnant by this early stage. Combined with Florida’s strict abortion requirements, which include mandatory in-person doctor visits with a 24-hour waiting period, it’s nearly impossible for those who may want an abortion to be able to access it before 6 weeks. Not to mention that fulfilling the requirements is particularly challenging for low-income individuals.
Video by theluncheonlawyer on InstagramVideo by theluncheonlawyer on Instagram
Moreover, this Florida law also restricts telemedicine for abortion and requires that medication be provided in person, effectively eliminating mail-order options for abortion pills. While exceptions for rape and incest exist in Florida, the requirements are also strict, asking victims to provide police records or medical records. For victims who don’t always report sexual violence for many different reasons, these exceptions don’t make a difference.
The consequences of Florida’s ban extend to neighboring states with more restrictive abortion laws. For instance, residents of Alabama, facing a total ban on abortion, and Georgia, with its own 6-week abortion ban, have relied on Florida for abortion services. That will no longer be an option, further limiting care alternatives.
The Road Ahead
These recent abortion bans in Arizona and Florida are a major setback for women's rights, particularly impacting Latina women who already face barriers to accessing quality healthcare. These bans not only restrict women’s reproductive freedom but also endanger their lives.
Efforts to challenge these bans through legal means and ballot measures are ongoing, but the road ahead is uncertain. While there’s hope for overturning these abortion bans, the challenges of conservative laws and legal battles are formidable. The November ballot in both states will be crucial in determining the future of abortion rights and access for all.
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Activists have been fighting for years for the introduction of the “3 Causales,” or the three causes. The 3 Causales are exceptions to the abortion ban in the case of pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or if the pregnancy poses a risk to the life of the mother. Despite their tireless efforts and horrific track record of avoidable maternal death, infant mortality, and a litany of other related social implications like child marriage and poverty in the Dominican Republic, the 3 Causales still aren’t a reality in the Dominican Republic and a total ban on abortion remains in place.
What Are the “3 Causales”?
¿Qué son las 3 Causales?www.youtube.com
Women and teenage girls who face unplanned or unwanted pregnancies have no safe way to handle it. Moreover, women and doctors or midwives who assist them in getting abortions face prison sentences of 2 years or 5 to 20 years, respectively. Women in the Dominican Republic are forced, by law, to carry a pregnancy full term, with no exceptions.
As it stands, the only options to deal with an unwanted, unplanned, or non-viable pregnancy in the Dominican Republic are clandestine abortions, traveling to another country, which is impossible for most women because they don’t have the resources, or continuing with the pregnancy despite serious health risks, including death.
Tragically, many women die amid this total abortion ban.
Adilka Féliz: The Latest Tragedy
Adilka Féliz, 33 years old, was a legislative assistant who advocated for the 3 Causales, amongst other issues, to help make a difference in her country. She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother of one boy, Sebastián. Tragically, Féliz died during the course of her pregnancy because she was forced to carry it to term when it should have been declared unviable. This, like many other losses, was entirely preventable.
On February 27, at 23 weeks pregnant, Féliz went into premature labor after she had been advised that her pregnancy, which presented multiple complications, needed to be terminated. As reported by the Spanish-language news site, RCC Media, the former director of the National Health Service, Chanel Rosa Chupany, reported that Féliz’s death occurred due to the doctors' refusal to perform a cesarean section during her premature labor.
Instead of performing a C-section on her, doctors decided that, due to legal reasons, she should have a natural birth. She started to push, but there were complications. Her lungs filled with liquid, and she died of a heart attack; doctors tried for half an hour to resuscitate her, but to no avail.
@pauavilg Adilka Feliz didn't have to die. An abortion would've saved her life. Help us share her mother's words and ask President Abinader to approve the three exceptions. #abortionrights #lascausalesvan #republicadominicana
According to Féliz’s mother, Berkis Paulino, who took to social media to raise awareness about the tragic loss of her daughter, Féliz’s last words were: "I, who have fought so hard for the approval of the three grounds for abortion, but how ironic is life, look at the position I find myself in today."
Paulino also made a direct plea to President Luis Abinader, writing in a Facebook post: "Mr. President, @luisabinader, you also have daughters, on behalf of Claurys Adilka Féliz Paulino, we demand to resume the approval of the three grounds in the Penal Code (with the due regulation). We, people of faith and who fear to displease God, request that these issues be regulated so that we don’t continue to lose valuable mothers and women.”
When Is Enough Is Enough?
Féliz is only the latest more high-profile case of avoidable maternal death.
In 2012, Damaris Mejía died of sepsis caused by a dead fetus in her uterus. Mejía, who was also a mother of two, was 16 weeks pregnant with her third child when she went to the hospital after experiencing severe abdominal pain. According to medical records and the first-hand accounts of her sister, Juliana Mejía, Damaris Mejía was told by several doctors that she had lost so much fluid that her unborn baby would likely die.
Photo provided by Juliana Mejía
Instead of providing a medically necessary abortion, Mejía was sent home multiple times with nothing more than pain medications. Under the total abortion ban, the medical staff argued they could not interrupt the pregnancy because while it was deemed unviable, the fetus wasn’t yet considered dead.
After her condition worsened, doctors were still unwilling to take the risk of performing a procedure that was still technically considered an abortion. Mejía died at home less than a week after she first sought help at a hospital, leaving her two children behind.
To this day, her sister Juliana Mejía continues to fight for the 3 causales in memory of her sister and to prevent future tragedies. Mejía told Luz Media that the damage didn’t end with the loss of her sister. She described a suicide attempt by her niece, an attempted suicide by the Mejías’ father, and ultimately, a successful death by suicide of their father. Their family never fully recovered from the loss of their beloved Damaris. A death that Mejía describes as “obstetric state violence.”
Photo Credit: Ana Isabel Martinez Chamorro
The Fight for Women’s Lives Continues
During his campaign, now-President Luis Abinader promised to advocate for legislation that would amend the penal code and make the 3 Causales law. As of yet, President Abdinar hasn’t kept his campaign promises. Both local and international advocates and allies are reminding him of his failure to keep his word.
Advocates for the “3 Causales” are intensifying the pressure on President Abdinar during a crucial re-election year for him when even U.S.-based Dominicans with the right to vote in Dominican elections are weighing in. Their goal is to put pressure on him to fulfill his promises.
Advocates launched a social media campaign asking the public to share the statement written by Féliz’s mother using the hashtag #PorAdilka and tagging President Abdinar’s social media handles @luisabinader, urging him to protect the lives of women and girls in the Dominican Republic.
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At the end of 2023, I accompanied a delegation of U.S. state lawmakers who traveled to the Dominican Republic as part of a trip organized by the State Innovation Exchange and the Women’s Equality Center. The purpose of the trip was educational and experiential. The entire purpose was to get a first-hand account of what life is like for women in the Dominican Republic and to understand what the future may hold for them in a society plagued by violent patriarchy.
This is what I learned.
The History
What is new is the community activism that’s been steadily growing to pressure politicians to, at the very least, adopt reforms known as “las tres causales” or the three causes.
After heavy and sustained national and international political and community mobilizing, Congress passed, and President Danilo Medina signed into law, penal code reforms that were set to take effect on December 19, 2014. Those reforms called for the decriminalization of abortion under certain circumstances - las tres causales. But after three religious and conservative pressure groups challenged the new law, alleging procedural errors, amongst other things, the Dominican Constitutional Court ruled that the reforms were unconstitutional.
And with that, Dominican women were once again stuck in the patriarchal culture of 1884, where science is entirely ignored and the opinion that life is guaranteed “from conception to death” reigns supreme.
The "Sanctity" of Life
The answers are grim.
The Dominican Republic has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality and adolescent pregnancies in Latin America and the Caribbean. UNICEF reports that nearly 20 out of every 1,000 babies will die within 28 days of birth, and 95 out of every 100,000 women will die during childbirth. The National Statistics Office of the Dominican Republic reports that 20% of girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 19 are mothers. The average across Latin America and the Caribbean, where abortion restrictions vary but where the majority still lean towards criminalization, is 18%.
In a society where abortion has been criminalized so deeply and where women’s lives have been deemed inferior to clumps of cells for over a century, it’s no wonder that women risk their lives to seek alternative methods of abortion or avoid seeking healthcare when they experience a normal miscarriage.
Miscarriage is very common. In fact, some research suggests that more than 30% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and many end before a person even knows they’re pregnant.
Yet in the Dominican Republic, when a woman seeks medical assistance for a miscarriage, it’s presumed that she attempted an abortion and is immediately questioned by healthcare staff and often referred to law enforcement. The burden remains on her to prove she didn’t miscarry on purpose. And even when the viability of the fetus isn’t in danger, but the life of the mother is, healthcare professionals are so afraid of prison time that they will withhold medical treatment for the pregnant person if it means possibly inducing a medically necessary abortion.
The Public Maternity Hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic is staffed with guards and armed police. Lucy Flores
This was the case of Rosaura Almonte, a 16-year old young woman who discovered she was 4 weeks pregnant when health complications led to the discovery of luekemia. Almonte, known as “Esperanzita” was denied treatment because the chemotherapy would put the fetus at risk of death. Both Esperanzita and her 13-week-old fetus died in 2012.
Poverty and forced childbirth are strongly correlated. The marked difference between better-resourced women and impoverished women is evident in the different levels of access to reproductive healthcare and, despite being criminalized, self-managed abortions.
In a briefing on the reality of reproductive health access that included local gynecologist and fertility specialist Dr. Lilliam Fondeur, she described how under the private health system there are privacy rights and providers who are willing to help circumvent the ban.
But under the public health care system, where no privacy rights exist for reproductive medical assistance, women like Esperanzita suffer disproportionate government-sponsored violence. Their lives are decidedly less valuable than that of a 4-week old fetus.
In a country where child marriage was still legal up until 2021, 31% of young women are in a legal or religious union before the age of 18, and 12% of girls are in a union before their 15th birthday. Much of the advocacy work being done throughout the country is still focused on the basic dissemination of information, letting families know that child marriage is now illegal.
CONAMUCA, a rural advocacy organization, educates young women and families about their rights and opportunities. Lucy Flores
It’s a daunting task to accomplish when so many barriers exist that make it socially acceptable for young girls to marry.
María Teresa Hernández with the Associated Press reports that poverty forces some Dominican mothers to marry their 14 or 15-year-old daughters to men up to 50 years older.
This cultural acceptance helps explain why nearly 7 out of 10 women suffer from gender violence such as incest, and families often remain silent regarding the sexual abuse.
The barriers for women in the Dominican Republic are steep. Dr. Fondeur shared that it’s estimated that up to 50% of Dominican Women don’t have access to birth control and that up to 30% of women are unknowingly sterilized. The forced sterilization rates highlight the hypocrisy of the “sanctity of life” argument. If god determines who gets pregnant and when, it’s curious that the government chooses to sterilize impoverished women without their consent after they have already been impregnated at least once.
The Future
While the future for Dominican women may appear grim, significant progress has been made in the last decade. Dominican activists, advocates, and educators are making inroads across society. Young women, girls, and boys are being taught medically accurate sexual education in innovative ways within and outside of the school system. Local advocates are benefiting from international support from leaders of the successful marea verde Latin-American abortion rights movement and U.S. reproductive rights leaders and elected officials.
The legislators who joined the delegation included New York assembly members Karines Reyes, Amanda Septimo, and Jessica González-Rojas; Arizona state Sen. Anna Hernandez; and North Carolina state Sen. Natalie Murdock.
Collectively, New York Assembly Members Reyes, Septimo, and González-Rojas represent the largest voting bloc of Dominican voters outside the Dominican Republic itself.
This voting bloc is so influential that in 2023 for the first time in the 41-year history of the annual National Dominican Day Parade, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader, who is up for re-election this year, served as the parade grand marshal. He also attended the evening Dominican Day Parade Benefit Gala that same weekend in New York.
In a meeting with Dominican lawmakers, all of the lawmakers were very clear about why they where there. New York Assembly Member Septimo stated in no uncertain terms, “We’re here to support the three causes.” In an election year where U.S. influence can possibly determine the outcome of the Dominican presidential election, President Abdinar was put on notice. President Abdinar campaigned on his support of the tres causales, but has so far made no effort in moving it forward.
Photo by: ANA I. MARTINEZ CHAMORROANA I. MARTINEZ CHAMORRO
I must admit that seeing the abject misery that so many Dominican women are subject to in real time inspired a deep sense of despair and profound sadness. At the same time, however, I left with a sense of inspired pride and hope for the women of the Dominican Republic and the women of the United States as well, after witnessing the fire of perseverance in so many who refuse to let it be put out.
The future of Dominican women remains to be seen, but just as it’s happening in the U.S., and despite the crushing odds, there will always be an army of women who refuse to accept less than full dignity and the full freedom of self-determination that they deserve. And for this reason, the future feels hopeful despite it all.
