JINHA

NEWS CENTER - Police attacked a march for the legalization of abortion in Lima, Peru on Wednesday. Women resisted the attacks by forming a human chain.

In Peru, women can be jailed for up to six years for having an abortion. In a country which has one of the highest rates of rape in the world and the highest in South America, abortion is illegal even for rape cases, including of children (who constitute 80% of rape victims). Every year, 35,000 women and girls become pregnant from rape in Peru.

On Wednesday evening, thousands of women marched in Lima as part of the Déjala Decidir (Let Her Decide) campaign for the legalization of abortion. As the march headed toward the congress building, police attacked the marchers with tear gas and water cannons. With purple masks on their faces and feminist slogans on their naked bodies, the women formed a human chain to stand up against police vehicles.

"The police, on behalf of the authorities, have repressed us with gas and water, trying to scare us. But we made it to Congress because there's a large number of us. We're young, we're strong and we're keen to fight for our rights," said Maria del Carmen Gutierrez, speaking to AFP at the march. "We're claiming the right of all women to decide what to do with our bodies. We're demanding the legalization of abortion, unfortunately only in case of rape, because Peru is a backward country."

Slogans calling for the legalization of abortion also appeared on city buses during the demonstration, and citizens along the march route mounted signs of support from their balconies.

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