Legalizacion Del Aborto En El Salvador

Karen and three other women were released in December last year after years of campaigning by abortion activists. In this context, with the support of the Feminist Collective for Local Development of El Salvador, the Citizens` Group for the Decriminalization of Therapeutic, Ethical and Eugenic Abortion and the Center for Justice and International Law (cejil), the intervention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was requested. Before the case was referred to the Inter-American Court of Justice, the IACHR took provisional measures to ensure that the Salvadoran state followed the recommendations of the Medical Committee regarding abortion. I am a journalist in El Salvador, where abortion in all its forms has been banned since 1998. Promoting laws like ours is not a success. In my country, they force girls to give birth, applaud them and call them “brave”. It took the members of the Supreme Court 48 days to render a verdict against amparo. In this regard, the Minister of Health said: “We have analysed the ruling of the Constitutional Court and believe that it gives us the opportunity to act without violating the Constitution. The court recognized that everything must be done to save Beatriz`s life and ordered that all care and means be used to do so. This means that everything is in the hands of the health authorities, and I, as the highest health authority that evaluates the performance of doctors, believe that if the need to terminate the pregnancy arises, it would not be an abortion, but induced labour. Thus, neither women nor doctors would have legal consequences” (Sahuquillo 2013b). “Elsy goes home”: With this slogan, Salvadoran civil society celebrated on Wednesday (9.02.2022) on social networks the release of Elsy, who spent ten years and seven months in prison for a miscarriage. El Salvador in Central America has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world, prohibiting all types of abortion, even if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother`s life or is the result of rape or incest.

This is the fourth initiative since 1998 to be presented to Congress to call for the decriminalization of abortion. In December 2014, the NGO coalition led by Agrupación Ciudadana and the Center for Reproductive Rights launched the “Las 17” campaign, calling for the release of Guadalupe and 16 other Salvadoran women who had suffered obstetric emergencies and had been tried for abortion and convicted of murder. “Mirna”, one of the “17”, was released in December after being in prison. In February 2015, Guadalupe was pardoned and released after seven years in prison. And in May 2016, Maria Teresa was released under a decision by San Salvador`s Third Criminal Court, which decided to acquit her and overturn her conviction. In February of this year, Sonia Tábora received her final freedom. There are still countless women who continue to serve prison sentences ranging from 30 to 40 years for crimes they never committed. During the CEDAW review, Carmen Guadalupe Vásquez Aldana (“Guadalupe”), a Salvadoran unjustly imprisoned after suffering an obstetric emergency in 2015, testified before the United Nations Committee – the world`s leading women`s human rights organization. In 2007, Guadalupe became pregnant after being raped. A few months later, she suffered an obstetric emergency, fainted and gave birth to a stillborn child. She woke up in hospital, where the medical team informed the police of her situation, as it was suspected that she had arranged an abortion.

In February 2008, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder. After the Centre and the Agrupación Ciudadana presented Guadalupe`s case to the national government and the United Nations, she was pardoned and released in February 2015 when El Salvador`s Supreme Court found serious due process violations in her case. Morena Herrera is one of the country`s best-known women`s rights activists and has been fighting for years for women sentenced to long prison terms due to El Salvador`s restrictive abortion laws. She is co-founder and spokesperson for the NGO Feminist Collective for Local Development (CFDL), which obtained a reduction in Elly`s sentence after years of litigation. “She was denounced and convicted in an emergency situation following an unfair trial, full of irregularities and without her rights as defendants being guaranteed,” Morena Herrera said in an interview with DW. 12 million Although polls suggest that a majority of Salvadorans would support legalizing abortion in cases of non-viable pregnancies or when maternal health is at risk, there is strong opposition led by conservative politicians and religious leaders. Diplomatic work was also the key to a strong mobilization. The Spanish Socialist Workers` Party (PSOE) sent deputy Javier Barrero to El Salvador, who met with the ministers of justice, public security and education to ask them to make an exception to the current legislation and perform an abortion to save the young woman`s life. At the same time, Elena Valenciano of the PSOE Executive Committee made the same request to the Ambassador of El Salvador to Spain. During the strict quarantine imposed in the country, I learned of three cases of women who had managed to have an abortion at a time when one could not go out without risking arrest. In El Salvador, even the pandemic has not stopped abortions. Cinthya, who spent 10 years in prison under abortion law, says she was attacked by other inmates for her “crime.” For nearly three months, the Salvadoran feminist movement and numerous women`s rights and health groups lobbied and obtained statements in support of Beatriz, in addition to a significant presence of the debate on her situation in the national and international media.

One of the most important decisions was handed down by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on 29 May (IACHR 2013). The resolution of this judicial body of the Organization of American States (OAS) is of paramount importance, as it is the first time that it has ruled on an abortion case and thus sets an important precedent for our region. The CEDAW committee recommended that the state approve reforms to the penal code to legalize abortion for at least four reasons. That is, if the pregnancy endangers the health, life and integrity of girls or women, if the pregnancy is the result of rape, legal rape or human trafficking, or in cases where the ectopic life of the fetus is not viable. CEDAW also expressed serious concern about the violation of the duty of confidentiality of medical personnel when reporting cases of women with obstetric complications resulting in miscarriage.