On January 27, 2022 Law 10081 came into force, which establishes principles and rights in favor of women before, during and after childbirth. In this blog we comment on some important rights included in this Law, as well as some challenges of this Law for the LGBTQI+ population.
What rights does the new Law enshrine?
– Right of the mother to choose at least one person to accompany her
– Right of the mother to choose pharmacological or alternative methods for pain relief
– Right of the mother to request analgesia or obstetric anaesthesia so that the process is not traumatic
– Have a natural birth, if she so wishes
– To make a birth plan
– Be treated with respect and in protection of her intimacy and privacy
– To have skin-to-skin contact with her child
– Respect for gestational grief
What challenges does this Law have for the LGBTQI+ community?
Although this Law is an important advance in the protection of the sexual and reproductive rights of women, this Law seems to be premised on the concept of a family constituted by a man and a woman. For example, the Law mentions that «the father of the unborn child» has the right to know the health status of his child, but it is not entirely clear whether in the case of a family of lesbian mothers the non-pregnant mother would also have this right. It is also not evident in the case of a homosexual male couple, whether any of them could obtain this information or only one of them. It would be important to clarify the application of this Law in the case of homoparental families to prevent the birth process from resulting in violations of the human rights of the LGBTQI+ community.
At CELIG we provide specialized services to the LGBTQI+ community. If you want more information or make an appointment with us, call us at 2253-0256 or write to us at info@celigcr.com.
We are located in San José, Barrio Escalante.
M.Sc. Ana Isabel Sibaja Rojas CELIG – Center for Equal Litigation
