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Nicollette Roe
POL S 327
Research Paper
May 15, 2015

A Terrifying Abortion Ban

"Neglect of women's reproductive health, perpetuated by law, is part of a larger, systematic
discrimination against women. Laws obstruct women's access to reproductive health services.
Laws protective of women's reproductive health are rarely or inadequately implemented.
Moreover, few laws or policies facilitate women's reproductive health services. Epidemiological
evidence and feminists legal methods provide insight into the law's neglect of women's
reproductive health and expose long-held beliefs in the law's neutrality that harm women
fundamentally.... International human rights treaties, including those discussed in this article, are
being applied increasingly to expose how laws that obstruct women's access to reproductive health
services violate their basic rights. (Studies In Family Planning 1992)

Recently, the world has seen progressive changes in countries all over the
globe that are upholding womens human rights. Some of these ways in which
womens rights as human rights are being exemplified are by allowing women
the right to make decisions based on their own sexual and reproductive health,
giving them access to contraception, protecting their sexual security, and
letting them be free from harm based on gender. El Salvador is a country that
claims to support the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) which aims to
improve maternal health. Yet despite this alleged support, El Salvador has not
lived up to their pledge and rather maintained its status as one of the countries
in the world that have a total abortion ban. Even in situations where a woman

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or girl has been raped or will could die from childbirth, etc.; it is illegal in all
circumstances. A piece of legislation like this creates grave issues for women
and girls in El Salvador.

NGOs and organizations alike, along with the Committee against Torture
and the Committee of the Rights of the Child have put pressure on the El
Salvadoran government for their heinous law (The Center for Reproductive
Rights, 1). The question that this research paper prompts is why has El
Salvador maintained this strict abortion law and what have been the effects for
women's health? I argue that this legislation poses more harm than good,
particularly for women and girls in this specific country. This is an important

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issue to discuss because where womens rights are violated, it curates and
sustains gender inequality and injustice on a global scale.
In the first part, I will go over the history of El Salvadors political and
economic background starting from 1997 onward when this law was enacted
into place. This allows better understanding of the broad picture of any antiabortion law by knowing background information. Then I discuss statistics to
let the facts prove the tragedies that arise from a law like this. Then I will lead
into the analysis on the issue. This is where Ill introduce stories of women who
have are greatly impacted by this law; women like Beatriz, Christina, and
Manuela. Finally, I will conclude with the cons of this law weighing heavily on
all of the millions of girls and women living in El Salvador in general and
therefore pointing to why any kind of anti-abortion law should be eradicated.
To begin, in April of 1998, a new penal code was created that made
abortions illegal in all circumstances, even when it was life threatening for the
mother or child. Before this, although narrowly based, in some instances it was
accepted. For example, if rape of a minor occurred or there was fetal deformity.
However, that too is now not permitted (The Center for Reproductive Rights,
10). The next year in 1999, El Salvadors constitution was amended to protect
the right to life from the moment of conception (Political Constitution of El
Salvador, art 1). Prior to these two things happening, there were parties that

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highly influenced the political and judicial enactments into law. One was the
Catholic Church. It is no surprise that there is a predominant Catholic
population in El Salvador (Kulczycki, 199) and much of Latin America in
general. This is to show the pressure from the Catholic Church on the
government to ban abortions considering the Catholic Church highly opposes
abortions. Rebecca Cook comments on the integral church and state
happenings to influence the ban on abortion due to The dominant
justifications for criminalizing abortion being morally based. They are centered
on religious convictions embedded in retributive punishment (351). The
punishment that Cook mentions is what we will discuss later in the paper,
hearing about personal stories of women affected by this law.
Other factors include gender inequality stemming from pervasive
patriarchal influences says Kulczycki (206) and this in turn causes women to
face social stigma (Kulczycki, 200). With abortions being immensely frowned
upon both socially and politically, many carry out dangerous clandestine
abortions.

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(www.sentinelsource.com)

One charge in El Salvador is that if a woman is found guilty of abortion,

she can face up to twelve years in prison. This means that if a woman has a
miscarriage she can be charged with aggravated homicide and additionally be
charged with up to 50 years in prison. Another disturbing fact is that a quarter
of the abortions taking place are done by girls who are under the age of
eighteen (amnestyinternational.org); which speaks to the countrys high level of
teen pregnancies and frequent rape crimes (amnestyinternational.org). There
were approximately 1,346 rapes reported in the last year; however, the
numbers are projected to be much higher, as it is impossible to count how

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many of the rapes go unreported unfortunately. Furthermore, the suicide rate

among teens ages 15-19 in El Salvador are souring. Mario Soriano says
Theres a correlation between sexual violence and the high rate of suicides
among adolescents thats the reality. Pregnancy is a determining factor
behind teenage suicides, (Culp-Ressler, 1). When girls and women live in poor
economic conditions, lack resources or proper reproductive assistance; they are
then forced to make difficult decisions based on their life and their familys life
which creates space for clandestine abortions to occur. Amnesty International
says that some common methods to terminate a pregnancy include: digesting
rat poisoning, thrusting sharp objects such as knitting needles and pieces of
wood into the cervix, and taking ulcer treatment drug medicine called
misoprostol. (1).

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(A woman paints the grave of a relative at a cemetery on the eve of All Saints Day in San
Salvador, on Oct. 31, 2014. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas)

Not only are these methods of terminating a forced or unwanted

pregnancy dangerous to a womens health, it creates other issues that are far
more reaching than just affecting females. As I stated above, some women turn
to taking ulcer medication to terminate a pregnancy. This means that when
there is a group of people relying on a specific drug to deal with an issue, it
creates a mass black market for the drug to be obtained (Oberman, 281). This
staggering issue that is created by the abortion ban proves that just because
abortions are illegal, it doesnt mean abortions arent being had, but rather
occurring in a more dangerous setting. Oberman claims that evidence of this

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market is in plain view by yielding more than 453,000 hits on google when
she searched Misoprostol El Salvador (281). Oberman goes onto to tell that
the complications created from this black market are anywhere from uncertain
effects on the fetus, allergic reactions, bleeding, the need for surgical
intervention and much more (282). Lastly, this medicine however, goes for an
extremely high price. So high, to the tune of approximately $450 (Oberman,
282), the poorest women are not able to afford it and therefore resort to far
worse damaging solutions such as the inserting of sharp objects into the cervix
as stated earlier.
Those are just a few of the negative effects this law has on women and
girls. However, there are still more stories to be heard such as that of Christina,
Manuela and Beatriz. Each different women living in El Salvador, suffering
from this terrible law.
Lazaro writes about an eighteen year old girl named Christina who had
suffered a miscarriage that left her bleeding on the bathroom floor at her
parents house and thus prompted her mother to call the police to take her to
the hospital, for fear that her daughter would die. Lazaro interviewed Christina
where she says when she first woke up in the hospital she was still groggy from
the anesthesia and in pain. While in the bed Christina was arrested and
sentenced to thirty years in prison for aggravated homicide. Each day, she fears

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for her life because she says women in jail beat up others who they believe are
in there for killing their babies, and she has to be isolated to where she doesnt
even see sunlight (Lazaro, 1). All due to a mishap completely out of her control.
Manuela, another woman living in El Salvador, has a similar story to
Christinas that doesnt end well either. The Center for Reproductive rights says
that Manuela is a 33 year old mother of two who suffered severe complications
during child birth that caused her to lose her baby. Immediately, hospital staff
treated her like she was a criminal, accusing her of being a murderer rather
than giving her emotional support for the loss she had just experienced. She
was handcuffed to her hospital bed and arrested. She was sentenced to thirty
years in prison without being given the right to meet with a lawyer, speak on
her own defense and get a chance to appeal the decision. The judge told her
her motherly instincts should have prevailed and she should have protected
her child. (Center for Reproductive Rights, 1). Later, while in prison, she was
discovered to have advanced Hodgkins lymphoma, which hadnt been
accurately diagnosed for years when she sought medical help. She ended up
passing away in prison from this disease. The Center for Reproductive Rights
says that Manuela could have lived if years prior, medical officials treating her
during her emergency had paid any attention to her condition, rather than
focusing on reporting her to authorities. (1).

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(A woman sentenced to 40 years in prison for the crime of abortion.)

Another woman named Beatriz, is waiting on her death sentence by a

government that wont allow her an abortion despite the fact that she suffers
from medical complications and that her pregnancy is high risk as Dr.s say her
baby isnt expected to live long after infancy (Feminist Newswire, 1). Regardless
of conclusive tests that have shown the results awaiting Beatriz and her
unborn fetus, the Supreme Court in El Salvador struck down the request to
have an abortion. Beatrizs story has brought the attention of womens rights to
a global level, with the advocacy of womens groups, medical associations, and
others in the name of therapeutic abortion. (Feminist Newswire, 1.)

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The mere three cases just talked about are horrifying yet many other
women share their same experience-- being wrongfully accused and prosecuted
for killing their unborn children and without being given any justice to prove
their innocence. Instead, they are immediately found guilty, even without hard
evidence proving their innocence wrong. These stories and the statistics given
earlier on how many abortions approximately go on; even with this law
currently in place, show the tragedy women and girls face in many
circumstances when learning they are pregnant. Furthermore, it displays as
Oberman says, how little the law actually matters. El Salvadors experience
with its endeavor to ban abortion teaches us not only that the law fails to stop
abortion, but also much about the price of such an endeavor. (277). She
further goes on to state that There is little evidence that restricting access to
legal abortion lowers abortion rates. (278). In knowing that the abortions will
still be sought after or performed even with a law in place to make it illegal,
shows that rather than creating a safer, healthier world for womens bodies and
their rights to decision making on behalf of their own sexual and reproductive
health, it curates bigger problems that are very dangerous. Hence where the
clandestine abortions happen. The issue with this law is that it does not
anywhere in the constitution, mention the criminalization of raping of young
girls and women, or offer support to education on reproductive health and

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contraceptives, yet says that abortions are banned. Without all of these factors
and much more, being discussed in the debate over abortion, one cannot fully
understand or tackle the depths of this issue.
Although, not all women in the country are forced to subdue to
committing clandestine abortions; however, because the wealthier ones can
afford to travel to outside places to get the procedure done and have little to no
one know about it. Some women in rural and urban areas who are poor, have
few resources, and are less able to access medical services still resort to more
harmful methods, either self-administered or applied by untrained individuals.
(Kulczycki,

204). Moreover, Nancy Northup, CEO of The Center for Reproductive

Rights says that there are no positive outcomes to banning abortion outright,
closing my argument that this law poses more harm than good for all,
particularly women in El Salvador.
All in all, we have seen the negative impacts that arise from this antiabortion law and how it does not benefit women in this country. In closing, we
reviewed how it creates a black market on drugs used during clandestine
abortions, it prevents women who have had abortion from seeking medical help
due to fear of being prosecuted even in the event that health care is lifesaving
(McNaughton, 1), it breaks up families of women that are falsely accused of
aggravated homicide or abortion, like Manuela who left behind two children

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when she died in prison from a disease that was the reason for landing her in
jail in the first place but was accused of trying to kill her own baby. We know
that there is no justice for women that are raped and become pregnant, or if
they are pregnant yet too young for their bodies to be able to survive child
birth. It sustains the economic divide between the countries poorest and the
wealthy who do not argue the law because they can afford to go around it
without risking their health or risking their secret getting out. There is no
escape from this injustice and therefore there are no backing of womens
fundamental human rights in El Salvador when this law is in place.
Undoubtedly, because of the reasons listed above and many more, it is
concluded that this kind of legislation causes an immense amount of harm to
the health and livelihood of women and girls in El Salvador. Lastly, because of
the strict abortion laws in place in El Salvador countries like Australia, the
Czech Republic, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden and the
United Kingdom have called on the Central American country to reform its
abortion laws (Amnesty International, 1), showing that the pressure from
outside countries proves to display that this is a law that needs to be reformed.
I can only hope that in the future, El Salvador follows suite to all of the other
countries that uphold womens sexual and reproductive rights, to benefit all

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people and that they one day stay true to supporting the fifth goal outlined in
the Millennium Development Goals of improving maternal health.

Bibliography
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Laws. Amnesty International, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2015
Constitucin Poltica de la Repblica de El Salvador de 1983, title 1 cap. (1983)
Culp-Ressler, Tara. "El Salvadors Total Abortion Ban Is Driving Pregnant Teens To
Commit Suicide." ThinkProgress RSS. ThinkProgress.org, 13 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Mar.
2015.
The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. Persecuted: Political Process and
Abortion Lesgislation in El Salvador: A Human Rights Analysis.
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Oberman, Michelle. Christinas World: Lessons from El Salvadors Ban on Abortion.
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Review. 24.1.(2013). Print.

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