In early December, a delegation of U.S. state lawmakers traveled to the Dominican Republic as part of a trip organized by State Innovation Exchange and the Women’s Equality Center. I was one of a group of journalists, and the only one based full time in the United States, who tagged along.
The lawmakers on the trip were New York assembly members Karines Reyes, Amanda Septimo, and Jessica González-Rojas—the former executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice—along with North Carolina state Sen. Natalie Murdock and Arizona state Sen. Anna Hernandez.
We traveled to the Dominican Republic to learn about the consequences of the Caribbean nation’s total abortion ban. There are no exceptions, even in life-or-death circumstances. The law carries penalties of up to two years in prison for pregnant people who have or attempt abortions and between five and 20 years for health-care workers.
Of course, many people find a way: Those with means can travel or pay for care in private clinics that might be more permissive, and there are networks that help people obtain abortion pills. But it’s a high-risk proposition. Public hospitals, one nurse told us, are monitored by police, who often arrest women who come in with vaginal bleeding. (If you’re thinking that sounds like a direction many U.S. states are headed in, you would be right.)
For decades, feminist activists in the Dominican Republic—one of whom told me that they’re the “most hated women in the country”—have been fighting for “las tres causales,” or the three causes, a policy........