Pope Francis said Tuesday that during a special "year of mercy" he's designated that all priests would have the right to hear confession for abortion. Is it a symbolic gesture?
Salvadoran law provides for a sentence of two to eight years in prison for induced abortion. But if a spontaneous abortion is considered to be self-induced, the woman can be prosecuted for murder and face a sentence of up to 50 years in prison.
The complaints “seek to expose the government’s systematic failures in providing women with a protocol to handle therapeutic abortion requests when the health and lives of women are endangered.”
Last week, ruling party presidential candidate Johnny Araya tried to claim the mantle of family values, accusing opposition candidate Luis Guillermo Solís of having a different position than that of his own Citizen Action Party. While the abortion question could prove combustible in Costa Rica, Araya is not well positioned to strike the match.
Thousands of Evangelical Christians, Catholics and social conservatives in Costa Rica mobilized against perceived threats to the "traditional" family and pushed a constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and woman.
