The Entre Ríos (Argentina) Ministry of Health authorized gynecologist Leandro Rodríguez Lastra to return to practice his profession in private, nullifying the precautionary measure that had punished him for not having an abortion in 2017.
In November 2020, the Entre Ríos Ministry of Health canceled the registration of the doctor who at the time had opened a private practice in the municipality of Gualeguaychú.
This disqualification was the result of the October 4, 2019, judgment of the Rio Negro District Court, which sentenced the physician to one year and two months in prison and two years and four months disqualification from holding public office.
However, the doctor’s defense appealed the court’s decision. In addition, he filed an appeal with the ministry in December 2020, to which the response was positive.
The ministry’s resolution of February 11 indicates that “the sentence of imprisonment and disqualification (of the court) is not final and approved”, so that the precautionary measure “against Rodríguez Lastra” remains ex officio ineffective.
Damián Torres, one of Rodríguez Lastra’s defense attorneys, told ACI Prensa that even if the court’s ruling is upheld, the physician can only be barred from practicing medicine in a public office, not in the private sector, where he could appeal. continue.
The abortion case
Gynecologist Leandro Rodríguez Lastra was convicted in 2017 of avoiding an abortion, which saved the lives of the mother and her 23-week-long son.
In April 2017, the 19-year-old young mother arrived with severe pain at Pedro Moguillansky Hospital in the city of Cipolleti, after taking misoprostol administered by the organization La Revuelta to attempt a clandestine abortion.
Rodríguez Lastra, who was on duty as a doctor, intervened when the patient arrived at risk of death, more than five months pregnant. The baby weighed about 500 grams. The gynecologist did not perform the abortion because he not only ended the child’s life but also endangered the mother.
The gynecologist stabilized the mother and when the baby was seven and a half months pregnant, the medical board ordered that she give birth by caesarean section. Finally, the newborn was put up for adoption.
Marta Milesi, a defender of the non-punishable abortion protocol and a deputy for Río Negro province at the time, was the one who denounced the doctor.
During the trial, in September 2019, prosecutor Santiago Márquez Gauna accused the doctor of putting his will “above the patient’s will” and breaking the law. “He didn’t ask for permission to do everything he did,” and prevented an abortion that had already started, he said.
In addition, he accused him of leaving a scar on the C-section woman that will “remind her of the ordeal she has endured all her life.”
The Río Negro court ruled that Rodríguez Lastra was guilty of violation of his duties as a public official. Judge Álvaro Meynet argued that the doctor performed “a delay maneuver” and that, since he was not registered in the register of conscientious objectors, he was legally obliged to perform the abortion.
An appeal has been lodged against the court’s decision.
Via a video message on his Twitter account, Rodríguez Lastra thanked all those who “helped him in one way or another” on February 24. “The way is this: respect and respect for the rights of everyone,” he stressed.
If you prevent me from working by thinking differently, who violates whose rights …
I share some excellent news about my situation in Entre Ríos.@leanjacobi @datorresok @MxlaVidaoficial @RTLnews @elentrerios pic.twitter.com/UCYkF9gaTE
– Leandro Rodriguez Lastra (@LeandroRLok) February 24, 2021