Uruguay approved the decriminalization of abortion

October 17, 2012

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The Uruguayan Senate passed into law the legal abortion during the first 12 weeks of gestation and under certain conditions.

17 Uruguayans senators voted for the bill and 14 against, and now the text will go to the Executive for promulgation.

The bill provides that “abortion is not penalized” and articles of the Criminal Code relating to this subject are not applicable, “in the case that the woman voluntarily comply with the requirements set forth in the following articles and be performed before 12 weeks of pregnancy.”

In that period, “women should seek medical advice before an institution” health to “make known the circumstances arising from medical conditions that have befallen conception.”

Women should expose “situations of economic hardship, social or family, which in its discretion prevent them from continuing the pregnancy in progress.”