apoyo al aborto en países de america y ecuador

8/13/2019 Apoyo al aborto en pases de America y Ecuador

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2013, Latin American Public Opinion Projectwww.AmericasBarometer.org

AmericasBarometer:TopicalBriefOctober21,2013

nOctober13,2013,seventysevenchanges

to the Ecuadorian Penal Code were

approved by the unicameral National

Assembly, the countrys legislature, and now

waittobesignedbyPresidentRafaelCorrea(El

Comercio,2013).

Included

among

these

reforms

was a proposalby legislators of the

Presidents ruling party, Alianza Pasto

decriminalizeabortioninallcasesofrape.The

current law allows the procedure when the

victim ismentally incapacitated, orwhen the

mothers health is in danger due to the

pregnancy.Duringashort legislativestandoff

with President Correa, the entire judicial

reformpackagewasjeopardizedby thissingle

proposed modification to the countrys

abortionlaw,

with

President

Correa

taking

the

followingstanceagainstabortion:1

If these betrayals and disloyalty

continueIwillpresentmyresignation...

they can do whatever they want, I will

never approve the decriminalization of

abortion(ElComercio2013,ElUniverso,

2013).

1Fundingforthe2012roundmainlycamefromtheUnitedStates Agency for International Development (USAID).

ImportantsourcesofsupportwerealsotheInterAmerican

Development Bank (IADB), the United Nations

DevelopmentProgram(UNDP),andVanderbiltUniversity.

ThisTopicalBriefreport issolelyproducedbyLAPOPandtheopinionsexpressedarethoseoftheauthorsanddonot

necessarily reflect the point of view of theUnited States

Agency for International Development, or any other

supportingagency.

In

the

face

of

Correas

immense

popularity,

legislators from his own party backed down

and removed the proposal from the reform

package. In this Topical Brief I exploreEcuadorians views on the issue of allowing

abortioncaseswherethehealthofthemotheris

threatenedinanefforttounderstandtheextent

to which President Correas position reflects

those of his supporters and the Ecuadorian

publicmoregenerally.

o

LegislatorsandthePresidentClashinEcuadoroverAbortionIssue:Whohasthesupportofthepeople? ByDianaOrcs,VanderbiltUniversity

Figure1.SupportforAbortionwhentheMothersHealthisinDangeracrosstheAmericas,2012

33.0%

39.1%

41.7%

44.9%

45.3%

46.2%

49.3%49.6%

49.7%

51.3%

51.9%

52.4%

53.4%

55.8%

58.9%

59.6%

61.0%

61.2%

61.5%

65.9%

66.0%

67.6%

68.9%80.2%

81.9%

Honduras

Panama

Guyana

Nicaragua

Guatemala

Belize

Paraguay

Ecuador

Trinidad & Tobago

Mexico

El Salvador

Venezuela

Chile

Costa Rica

Haiti

Bolivia

Suriname

Dom. Rep.

Colombia

Argentina

Peru

Brazil

Jamaica

United States

Uruguay

0 20 40 60 80 100

95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effects Based)

Support for an abortion when the mother's health is in danger


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Ianalyzeaquestionaskedinthe2012roundof

the AmericasBarometer survey, which

interviewedover42,000people in26countries

in the Americas, including a nationally

representative sample of 1,500 of voting age

Ecuadorians. Respondents were asked about

theirsupportforanabortionwiththefollowing

yes/noquestion:2

W14A.Doyouthinkitsjustifiedtointerrupta

pregnancy, that is, tohave an abortion,when

themothershealthisindanger?

Figure 1 shows the percentages of citizens in

the Americas who would allow an abortion

when the mothers health is in danger.

Ecuadoriansexpressamongthelowest levelof

supportfor

abortion

in

the

Americas

and

also

exhibit a highly polarized public opinion

landscape, with an even split of Ecuadorian

respondentssupportingandopposingabortion

incaseswherethemothershealthisindanger.

Only Panamanians (39%) and Hondurans

(33%) are significantly less supportive of an

abortion than Ecuadorians, with Paraguay,

Belize,Nicaragua,andGuyanaallfallinginthe

same statistical range asEcuador.Conversely,

morethan80%ofUruguayansandU.S.citizens

supportthe

right

to

an

abortion

when

the

mothershealthisindanger.3

What these initial results suggest is thatboth

Correa and legislative proponents of even

limited abortion rights have a strongbase of

popularsupportamongtheEcuadorianpublic,

but also face a significant percentage of the

population who oppose their respective

positions. In sum, the legislative push to

decriminalize abortion in certain situations

reveals

a

stark

and

divisive

split

running

throughEcuadoriansociety.

2PriorissuesintheInsightsseriescanbefoundat:

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights.php.

Thedataonwhichtheyarebasedcanbefoundat

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/surveydata.php.3Itemnonresponsewas7%;thosewhodidnotanswerare

notanalyzedinthisshortreport.

In order tobetter understand the contours of

this issueamongtheEcuadorianpublic, Inow

turn to an analysis of the characteristics of

thosewhosupportexpandedabortionrightsin

Ecuador.InanotherrecentLAPOPTopicalBrief,BoidiandCorrales(2013)findthatsupportfor

abortion rights across Latin American and

Caribbean publics is lower among thosewho

feel religion is important in their liveswhile

support is higher among women, wealthier

citizens,those

with

higher

levels

of

education,

and those living in urban areas. I take these

findingsasapointofdepartureforananalysis

ofthesocioeconomicandattitudinalprofilesof

abortionopponentsandsupportersinEcuador

inaneffort to identify thecompetingbasesof

popular support on which Correa and his

legislative opponents have staked their

positionsonthishotlycontestedissue.

Beginningwith abreakdown of supportersof

expanded

abortion

rights

by

sex,

Figure

2

reveals, perhaps surprisingly, no statistically

significant differences between Ecuadorian

males (53.5%)andEcuadorian females (46.2%)

in their support for an abortion when the

mothers health is in danger. For a more

complete assessment of supporters and

opponentsofthisprovision,though,Iturntoa

multivariate analysis inwhich various factors

Figure2.SupportforabortionwhenthemothershealthisindangerbysexinEcuador

53.5%

46.2%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Male Female

95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effect Based)

Source: AmericasBarometer by LAPOP


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related toEcuadorians views on abortion are

considered.

Figure3showsagraphicalrepresentationofa

logisticregressionmodel thatseeks to identify

the main socioeconomic and attitudinal

characteristics of abortion rights supporters.

Whenthedotfallstotherightofthegreenaxis

(0.0), that variable is positively related to

supportforabortion;whenitfallstotheleft,it

is negatively related to this support. The

horizontallinessurroundingeachdotrepresent

95%confidenceintervalfortheestimate.When

the confidence intervals do not overlap the

green axis,we canbe 95% confident that the

variable is statistically significant related to

support for abortion (for the sake of clarity,

thesevariablesarehighlightedinred).

TheresultsinFigure3indicatethatthereareno

statistically significant differences across

various sociodemographic indicators as sex,

religion, civil status, age, education, area of

residencyandethnicselfidentification.Norare

theredifferencesamong thosewhoapproveof

President Correas performance, those who

locate themselves to the right or left of the

ideological spectrum, those who trust the

Catholic Church, think that religion is

importantin

their

lives

or

attend

church

frequently. The only statistically significant

differences are wealth, which echoes results

found by Boidi and Corrales (2013) for the

general population in the Americas, and

marginallyforthoserespondentswithchildren.

Wealthy individuals and thosewith kids are

significantlymorelikelytosupporttherightfor

an abortion when the mothers health is in

dangercompared to thosewith lower incomes

andthosewithoutkids.

It remains tobeseenhow thedebateover the

decriminalization of abortion unfolds in

Ecuador. What the above analysis suggests,

given the relative absenceofmany significant

correlatesofEcuadoriansviewsoftheabortion

debate, is thatPresidentCorreamay riskvery

little in making his stance against abortion

becausetheissuedoesnotcutonewayor

another across subgroups in the population.

Further,heisnottakingapositionsignificantly

at oddswith his supportersbut neither is he

taking a position that is in line with his

supporters.At the time of thewriting of this

Topical Brief, various womens organizationshaveexpressedtheirviewsopposingPresident

Correasefforts tohalt the liberalizationof the

currentcriminalizationofabortionlaws,thisin

acountrywhereone inevery fourwomenhas

suffered some kind of sexual violence (El

Comercio,2013,

line

7).

It

remains

to

be

seen

whether Ecuadorwill remain a countrywith

oneofthemostrestrictiveabortionrightslaws

inLatinAmericaorwilleventually follow the

pathofcountrieslikeUruguay,wheretheright

to an abortion isprotectedby law andwhere

morethan80%ofthepopulationsupportssuch

rights.

Figure3.DeterminantsofEcuadorianssupportforabortionwhenthemothershealthisindanger

F=1.209N =559

Extreme left

Extreme right

Married

Trust in the Catholic Church

Importance of Religion

Frequency of Church Attendance

Female

Catholic

With children

Age

Education

Quintiles of Wealth

Size of Place of Residence

Mulatto

White

Black

Indigenous

Presidential Approval

-0.40 -0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60

95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effect Based)

Source: AmericasBarometer by LAPOP


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ReferencesBoidi,Mara Fernanda andMargarita Corral.

2013. Public Opinion and Abortion

Rights in the Americas.AmericasBarometer: Topical Brief 8.Vanderbilt

University.

LAPOP.

Organizaciones femeninas rechazaron

penalizacin del aborto en Ecuador.

2013.ElComercio (14October).Retrievedfrom:

http://www.elcomercio.com/politica/Cod

igoPenal_AsambleaabortoEcuador

mujeres_0_1010899064.html.

Lastaccessed14October2013.

77 fueron loscambios finalesde laAsamblea

enel

Cdigo

Penal.

2013.

ElComercio(14

October). Retrieved from:

http://www.elcomercio.com/politica/cam

biosCodigoPenalAsamblealeymala

practicamedicatransitolicencia

conduccionconducircontrabando

violencia_0_1010899031.html.


Presidente anuncia su renuncia si se

despenalizaelaborto.2013.ElComercio(11

October).

Retrieved

from:

http://www.elcomercio.com/politica/corr

earenunciarabortocodigopenal

ecuador_0_1009099174.html


Mujeresoficialistasretrocedensobreelaborto,

luegodeadvertenciapresidencial.2013.

ElUniverso(11October).Retrievedfrom:http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2013

/10/11/nota/1570371/mujeresoficialistas

retroceden

sobre

aborto

luego

advertencia.


Advertencia de Correa baj el tono de

discusin por el aborto. 2013. ElUniverso (12 October). Retrieved from:

http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2013

/10/12/nota/1571806/advertenciacorrea

bajotonodiscusionaborto.


Dr. Diana Orcs ([email protected]) is

ResearcheratLAPOP.

Full results of the 2012AmericasBarometer survey

and the AmericasBarometer 2012 comparative study

canbe consulted online atwww.LapopSurveys.org.

The full data set is available for online analysis or

download(inSPSSandStataformats)atnocost.

apoyo al aborto en países de america y ecuador

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