By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica’s Renewal Party legislator, Gonzalo Ramírez, presented last week a bill that seeks to limit the expansion of abortion in the country, reported Diario Extra, the country’s main Spanish tabloid paper.

Currently, Costa Rica allows abortion only for therapeutic purposes  when a pregnancy represents a risk to a woman’s life. Anyone who practices abortion under other circumstances can face from six months to 10 years in prison.

At the end of March 2016, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations recommended that Costa Rica extend access to abortion for cases of a fetal malformation, incest, or rape.

Ramírez is attempting to prevent future reforms to article 21 of the criminal code which regulates abortion by clarifying and strengthening its text.

He claims the legislation’s wording that allows abortion when a “women’s health at risk” is too open to interpretation, and the law should specify that abortion is only allowed when a woman’s life is “in danger,” reported Diario Extra.

“The current text … can be a loophole to permit unjustifiable reasons for abortions. With this new text we eliminate the possibility that, in cases of rape, depression or some other emotional condition, abortion is allowed, and we close the doors to the international and national pressures that have tried to devalue the lives of the unborn,” concluded Ramirez.