Between blue and green flags, the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies yesterday, with knowledge of the draft law of the Criminal Code of the Dominican Republic, began reading the report of the special committee that studied it for several months.
Once the doors of the delegates’ conference room were opened, their actors tied pennants and handkerchiefs to their respective chairs with the colors identifying their ideology in favor of life or the interruption of pregnancy among the three causes.
This new decoration on the seats of the deputies is due to the debate currently underway in society about whether or not abortion under three causes should be included in the new Criminal Code.
A few minutes before the start of the session, Alexis Jiménez, chair of the Justice Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, confirmed that the three causes were not included in the final report.
Deviating report
As a result of this decision, the deputy members of this committee, José Horacio Rodríguez and Santiago Vilorio Lizardo, filed a dissidents report requesting the inclusion of the three causes in the bill of the Criminal Code.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, ordered that the report of the draft law of the Criminal Code, containing 412 articles, be read in parts in several working sessions and at the end the dissident report be read aloud.
Yesterday, the first 76 articles were read, including the accumulation of sentences, meaning that when a prosecuted person is “found guilty, in several separate trials, the sentences handed down will be executed cumulatively”.
The lecture will continue in the following sessions, once the dissident report has been read, the debates will resume, ending with the vote on both reports.
They then vote on the bill, which must be passed in two readings, and then it goes to the Senate, which first examines the legislative initiative and goes through a process similar to that of the lower house.
The three causes
As Congressman Jiménez announced, the three causes were removed from the legislative piece and sent to a special committee for study.
However, in Article 112 it defends a specific situation: “The interruption of pregnancy by specialized medical personnel in public or private health facilities is not punishable if, in advance, the life of the mother and of the fetus is to be saved. all available scientific and technical resources have been exhausted as far as possible. In these circumstances, the conduct will be considered appropriate for the justification of the emergency.
KEYS
Easter week.
Pacheco announced that the Chamber of Deputies will close for Holy Week next week, so work will resume from Monday, April 5.
Observation Act.
Faced with the possibility that the Code will be approved in this way by the majority of ‘pro-life’ lawmakers, José Horacio Rodríguez and Juan Dionicio Rodríguez hoped that President Luis Abinader will follow suit.