These Salvadoran Women Went to Prison for Suffering Miscarriages
October 9, 2015
These Salvadoran Women Went to Prison for Suffering Miscarriages
by Margaret Knapke
“Abortion” in English is aborto provocado in Spanish. “Miscarriage” is aborto espontáneo. Simple enough.
Yet in El Salvador, a largely Catholic Central American country of around 6 million, this distinction has been blurred. For many expectant mothers, pregnancy losses — unexpected, frightening, and tragic — have been declared intentional and criminal. Some of these mothers are doing hard time.
Why is this happening?
The country’s 1998 penal code — which was enacted under a right-wing president but remains in force under the country’s current center-left government — prohibits abortion in all circumstances. That includes even when the mother’s life is endangered by the pregnancy, the fetus is severely abnormal or nonviable, or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The following year, the country’s constitution was amended to give the embryonic human a right to life from the moment of conception, reinforcing the total ban.
Now a woman convicted of having an abortion can be sentenced to 2-8 years in prison, while medical professionals assisting her can serve 6-12 years. Complicating matters, penalties for women increase dramatically when they’re charged with aggravated homicide of a family member, which can happen when the lost fetus is considered to have been viable. Mothers can be sentenced up to 50 years in prison on these charges.
This August, I was part of a U.S. delegation led by Roy Bourgeois from the School of Americas Watch and organized by the Center for Exchange and Solidarity, or CIS. We went to San Salvador to learn more about this no-exception anti-abortion law and the punitive atmosphere it has fostered.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/09/these-salvadoran-women-went-to-prison-for-suffering-miscarriages-2/