Abortion in Bolivia is illegal, except in the cases of rape, incest, or to protect the woman's health,[1] forming part of the Penal Code laid down in 1973, and has been in force since then.
According to the Bolivian Ministry of Health, almost all of the 67,000 abortions performed in Bolivia in 2011 were clandestine, with approximately half of the women who received them needing hospital care afterwards.
[3] Efforts were made to change the law in 2005, when legislators from the Movement for Socialism introduced a bill to legalise abortion, but it was quickly rejected.
[2] On 6 December 2017, Bolivia's National Assembly voted to decriminalize abortion before eight weeks of pregnancy for "students, adolescents, or girls".
Health Minister Ariana Campero supported this legislation as a measure to reduce the maternal mortality rate, and President Evo Morales signed the reform into law on 15 December 2017.