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Two Paraguayan women were run over as they and 60 others demonstrated in favor of legalized abortion.
About 60 pro-abortion advocates had gathered on Tuesday night in front of the Argentine Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay to support their Argentine neighbors as they vote on Wednesday whether or not to legalize a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy.
Traffic was blocked in parts of the area where activists had gathered, however, the driver of a large pickup truck drove through the blockade and toward the demonstrators.
A video that local news, ABC Digital, posted to Youtube shows the truck driving through the blocked off area where activists were, then proceeds to speed up and run over two women. Other demonstrators immediately ran to the wounded before the five-second clip ends.
Protesters told media they tried to let driver through but the male driver accelerated through the crowd and ran over protesters, Griselda Yudice and Luis Pineda, and fled from the site.
Those present criticized local police and authorities did little to monitor or help the situation.
In Paraguay, abortion is prohibited only when the woman’s life is in danger. Otherwise, “Anyone who performs an abortion, including a woman who causes her own abortion or consents to it, is subject to fifteen to thirty months’ imprisonment,” according to the country’s law, making one of the most restrictive abortion norms in Latin America.
The country attracted unfortunate attention in March when a 14-year-old rape victim outlawed from terminating her pregnancy died during childbirth. The baby survived.
Debate to provide free and safe abortions up to 14 weeks of inception continues on Wednesday in Argentina’s House of Representatives in Buenos Aires.
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