A YEAR SINCE THE ISSUANCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL JUDGEMENT NO.

0206/2014:
ADVANCES AND DIFFICULTIES IN ITS IMPLEMENTATION
The current Constitution establishes new guidelines to mainstream a gender-based approach
in all its regulations, opening up the possibility of implementing the accomplished gains for
Bolivian women in the area of women's rights and equality in its legislation. It was in this
setting that in 2012 Congresswoman Patricia Mancilla presented an action of
unconstitutionality against 13 Penal Code articles which were considered as infringing upon
women's rights, discriminatory and sexist.
Amongst the observed articles are those which criminalize abortion and are in conflict with
what is established under Article 66 of the Constitution, which states "the exercise of sexual
and reproductive rights is guaranteed to all men and women." On Feb. 5, 2014, after almost
two years of intense debate and the analysis of documents and legal grounds that sustained
the presented action of unconstitutionality, the Constitutional Court issued Constitutional
Judgment No. 0206/2014.
The issuance of Constitutional Judgment No. 0206/2014 constitutes one of the most significant
advances for womens rights in Bolivia since it considers several relevant aspects of a woman's
life and her sexual and reproductive health. The Bolivian Penal Code had not been modified in
over 40 years and this judgment succeeded in eliminating one of the core barriers for women's
access to safe abortion: "the judicial authorization." This reaffirms a woman's right to access
pregnancy termination services, in the case of rape, by solely presenting a declaration to the
Police or Prosecutor, and also establishes that in cases where the woman's life or health is at
risk, a medical diagnosis is enough to authorize the legal termination of a pregnancy.
These legal specifications protect women's lives by allowing for the timely access to safe
abortion services in those cases where abortion is legally permitted. Since the issuance of the
Judgment, 13 legal pregnancy terminations are reported to have been carried out in different
public hospitals throughout the country.
With the purpose of contributing to the proper implementation of the Judgment, a series of
actions have been implemented to inform different sectors on the scope of the Constitutional
Judgment and the obligations and rights of the actors who are responsible of its enforcement.
A fundamental step forward is the recent emission of the Regulation by the Ministry of Health
on Jan. 29, 2015, (Ministerial Resolution No. 0027) which regulates the provision of legal and
safe pregnancy terminations in health services, in accordance to the Judgment and in order to
guarantee women's right to have access to timely and quality health care services.
All of these achievements have been of great importance, but there continue to be obstacles
that must be overcome and barriers which must be eliminated that have been imposed by
opposing sectors, who disagree with the compliance of this Judgment on different grounds; a
Judgment which is legally binding and mandatory.

It has been a year since the emission of Constitutional Judgment No. 0206/20014 (Feb. 5,
2014) and significant progress has been observed. Nevertheless, continuous work must be
carried out to ensure its proper implementation and enforcement so girls and women who
become pregnant due to rape or those whose life or health are in danger, can have access to a
legal and safe pregnancy termination; exercising their most fundamental of rights.

In countries where abortion is not permitted by law, the risk of death and
morbidity due to abortion is 30 times higher than in countries where
abortion is legal.