Manifiesto

This manifesto details the many objectives of the University of Costa Rica student union Organizate, which include plans to improve the lives of women. Specifically, the manifesto calls for an end to domestic violence and demands the right to accessible, legal, safe, and free abortions. The manifesto explains the importance of bodily autonomy and states that criminalizing abortion disproportionately impacts working class women. The authors also state that “se evidencia que las mujeres organizadas tenemos la capacidad de enfrentar a quienes sostienen la negación sistemática de un derecho democrático que nos pertenece” (it is evident that organized women have the capacity to challenge those that perpetuate the systematic denial of a democratic right that belongs to us). As of May 2019, Costa Rica only permits therapeutic abortion, meaning that abortion is only allowed in cases where a pregnancy threatens “the life or health of the mother.” The Tico Times reports that “the penalty for illegal abortion is from one to three years in prison” and that Social Security System records demonstrate that less than 80 abortions have been performed in Costa Rican public hospitals over the past 20 years. Doctors face up to ten years in prison for performing illegal abortions. Additionally, because the Costa Rican Penal Code article that grants access to therapeutic abortion is written vaguely and can be interpreted in multiple ways, women who arguably have the right to an abortion have been forced to continue their pregnancies anyway. Organizate fights not only for access to therapeutic abortion, but for access to abortion in general, regardless of the pregnancy’s impact on the mother’s health.