{"id":256021,"date":"2022-08-07T04:54:48","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T08:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=256021"},"modified":"2022-08-07T08:55:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T12:55:57","slug":"abortion-in-cuba-a-right-to-be-shielded-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/abortion-in-cuba-a-right-to-be-shielded-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion in Cuba: a right to be shielded (I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

With more than 50 years of legal and institutionalized practice in Cuba, and a more flexible and tolerant interpretation than in many other nations in previous decades, <\/span>abortion<\/b><\/a> has not been a taboo subject on the island for a long time. The voluntary interruption of pregnancy is assumed mostly as legitimate and acceptable on a social level, while it is considered a conquest, a right earned and maintained, both by the authorities and by activists, experts and a good deal of the female community.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, this right \u2014 included in the group of sexual and reproductive rights enshrined collectively in the <\/span>Cuban Constitution<\/b><\/a> \u2014 does not escape controversy today, a controversy fueled by the advance of conservative and fundamentalist currents, both in the world and in Cuba, their growing influence at the political and social level, and their dispute over norms and rights already established or in the process of construction and debate. And, on the other hand, by the consolidation of activisms that, especially from civil society and the academic environment, confront these conservatisms and summon the political power to maintain and expand what is already regulated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the phenomenon is not exactly new in the Caribbean country, several factors have worked in recent times as a backdrop to a dispute that has been rising in tone and has made each party position itself more strongly \u2014 not only at the level of discourse, but also of concrete actions \u2014 in the face of a presumably greater escalation of the controversy. Outside of Cuba, mention should be made of the extensive legislative, social and political debates on abortion in several Latin American nations in recent years, which have led to the rejection or approval of laws on this matter, and the consequent confrontation between movements in favor and against this practice \u2014 the so-called <\/span>green tide <\/b><\/a>(pro-abortion) and blue tide (anti-abortion) \u2014, and also the recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to <\/span>reverse the historic Roe vs. Wade ruling<\/b><\/a>, which supported the right to abortion at the federal level, leaving millions of women at the mercy of the conservatism of many state legislatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Cuba, first the debates and public consultations on the Magna Carta and, recently, those focused on the new <\/span>Family Code<\/b><\/a>, even though they have had other issues \u2014 such as same-sex marriage, adoption by non-heterosexual couples and gestation solidarity \u2014 as the focus of the greatest discussions, they have shown the increasingly visible struggle of conflicting and even antagonistic positions on sexuality, reproduction and their associated rights, and have brought to light the power of influence of religious movements and other conservative currents, to the point of provoking the postponement of the possible legal support for same-sex marriage from the Constitution to the Family Code, something that will finally have to be decided in a popular referendum on<\/span> September 25.<\/b><\/a> In this way, it is not unreasonable to foresee new and bitter public disputes around related issues, such as the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Family Code: the referendum and the country we will be<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n