Grounds on Which Abortion Is Permitted s3

ABORTION POLICY

Grounds on which abortion is permitted:

To save the life of the woman Yes To preserve physical health Yes To preserve mental health Yes Rape or incest No Foetal impairment No Economic or social reasons No Available on request No

Additional requirements:

An abortion must be performed by a physician, with the consent of the pregnant woman and after consultation with two physicians.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTEXT

Government view on fertility level: Too high

Government intervention concerning fertility level: To lower

Government policy on contraceptive use: Direct support provided

Percentage of currently married women using modern contraception (aged 15-49, 1996): 41

Total fertility rate (1995-2000): 3.0

Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000): 58

Government has expressed particular concern about: Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion Yes Complications of childbearing and childbirth Yes

Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990): National 280 South America 260

Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000): 70.9

Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.

32 Peru

BACKGROUND

Abortion in Peru is governed by the provisions of the Criminal Code of 11 January 1924, as amended in 1991, and the Health Code of 1969, as amended in 1981. Under the Criminal Code, the performance of abortions is generally illegal. A woman who causes her own abortion or consents to its performance by another person is subject to not more than two years’ imprisonment or to the provision of community service for 52 to 104 days. A person who causes the abortion of a pregnant woman with her consent is subject to one to four years’ imprisonment, and to three to five years’ imprisonment if she does not consent. Harsher penalties are applied if the pregnant woman dies, and health personnel who perform abortions are subject to suspension from practising their profession. The performance of abortions is not punishable if carried out by a physician with the consent of the pregnant woman when it is the only means of saving her life or preventing serious and permanent injury to her health.

The Health Code provides that human life and the right to health begin with conception. Thus, the process of pregnancy is to terminate in birth, except in the case of an unavoidable natural occurrence or a danger to the life or health of the mother, and abortions performed on moral, social, or economic grounds or as a means of birth control are prohibited. Like the Criminal Code, the Health Code allows the performance of abortions when carried out by a physician with the consent of the pregnant woman as the only means of saving the life of the pregnant woman or preventing serious and lasting injury to her health. Moreover, the Code requires two physicians to approve the abortion before it is performed.

Abortion is also mentioned to in Peru’s National Population Policy, Legislative Decree No. 346 of 6 July 1995. The Policy guarantees the individual the right to life from the time of conception and excludes abortion as a method of family planning.

In recent years there have been minor changes to the abortion law. The 1991 amendment of the Criminal Code reduced the penalties imposed on a woman who performed her own abortion or consented to its performance from up to four years’ imprisonment to not more than two years’ imprisonment or to the provision of community service for 52 to 104 days, as noted above. In addition, it greatly reduced the maximum sentence (three months) for the performance of an illegal abortion when the pregnancy is the result of rape or “involuntary artificial insemination” outside of marriage reported to the police; or when a medical diagnosis points to a probable risk of serious physical or mental defects in the child if it were born.

The Government of Peru considers the current rates of population growth and fertility to be too high and seeks to lower them through direct support of contraception. The National Population Policy Law of 1985 outlined a government plan of action concerning population, focused on promoting a balanced relation between population and socio-economic development and encouraging responsible parenthood. During the 1990s, the Government increasingly emphasized the crucial role of family planning in the development process. The modern contraceptive prevalence rate increased from 33 per cent in 1992 to 41 per cent in 1996. The government’s target fertility rate of 3.0 births per woman for the period 1995-2000 and target rate of population growth of about 2 per cent per by the year 2000 have both been met according to current estimates.

The Directorate-General of Family Planning within the Ministry of Health oversees the national programme and the coordination of all activities in the public and private sectors. The main targets of family planning services are the poor living in the suburbs of Lima and in other urban areas. Although adolescent fertility is a major concern, access to contraception is forbidden to unmarried adolescents.

33 Peru Female sterilization was legalized as a method of family planning in August 1995. The maternal mortality ratio, though in decline, continues to be one of the highest in South America. 1990 estimates place it at 280 deaths per 100,000 live births.