President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, signed this week the “technical norm for the therapeutic interruption of pregnancy” for cases where the health or life of the pregnant women is in danger, as a guideline and in support of what Article 121 of the Criminal Code states.

The Ministry of Health elaborated the text of this technical norm which was sent to mandatory but non binding consultation to the Social Security (CCSS) authorities, the institution approved unanimously the proposal and offered recommendations that were considered by the Ministry of Health.

“As part of the commitment I took on with the life and health of women and with the assistance of the Ministry of Health, I have signed the technical norm”, announced President Alvarado, “with this we hope to clear part of the historical debt we have with women in this country. As of this week the Social Security has six months to comply with what is stated in the technical norm. This decision aims to safeguard the life of women and protect their health”, concluded Alvarado.

The Ministry of Health made special emphasis in clarifying that by no means this norm gives freedom to other types of abortion. “This guide guarantees the application of medical criteria and the therapeutic interruption of pregnancy only when there is no other alternative and the woman has agreed to it”.

Some of the aspects included in the norm include:

-The procedure to evaluate whether it is necessary to interrupt a pregnancy: when the health or life of a pregnant women is in danger, her doctor or the patient can request that a group of three professionals in medicine evaluate the situation, once they give their criteria it is decided whether the recommendation is accepted or not.

-The places where it can be done: is establishes the conditions to define which medical centers can evaluate an intervention of this nature.

-The time-frame to give the criteria: the norm establishes that once the evaluation of a case is requested the group of doctors has three days to respond.

-The process to follow in case of negative criteria: in the event that the response of the group of doctors is negative, the pregnant patient can request for one time only a second evaluation.

-Information that the patient must receive: at all times the patient must receive understandable, clear, prompt information of her situation based on scientific facts to make her decision.

-Therapeutic abortion cannot be applied unless the patient gives her consent.