Clashes erupt after Ecuador fails to decriminalize abortion for rape victims

Pro-choice activists say decision is a death sentence, after illegal abortions resulted in 15.6% of maternal deaths in 2014

Clashes have erupted between pro-choice demonstrators and police outside Ecuador's national assembly after lawmakers rejected a bill which would decriminalize abortion in cases of rape.

Abortion is illegal in Ecuador except in cases where the life of the mother is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of the rape of a woman with mental disabilities.