El Salvador – They Were Jailed for Miscarriages. Now, Campaign Aims to End Abortion Ban.

They Were Jailed for Miscarriages. Now, Campaign Aims to End Abortion Ban.

By ELISABETH MALKIN
APRIL 9, 2018

SAN SALVADOR — When Teodora del Carmen Vásquez walked out of the Ilopango women’s prison a few weeks ago, she embraced her parents, her teenage son — and a movement to change an anti-abortion law that stole more than a decade of her life.

In El Salvador, where a total ban on abortion leads to an immediate suspicion of women whose pregnancies do not end with a healthy baby, Ms. Vásquez was marked as a criminal after she began bleeding and suffered a stillbirth. Sentenced to 30 years for aggravated homicide, she was released only after the Supreme Court ruled that there was not enough evidence to show she had killed her baby.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/world/americas/el-salvador-abortion.html

SOLIDARITY REQUEST: Urge El Salvador legislators to decriminalize abortion

SOLIDARITY REQUEST: Urge El Salvador legislators to decriminalize abortion
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
May 12, 2017

SOLIDARITY REQUEST:

In a statement on 8 May 2017, Amnesty International said that the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly has a historic opportunity to reject the criminalisation of abortion and protect the health and lives of millions of women throughout the country, in light of a debate due to start this month which could result in the first steps being taken towards partial decriminalization of abortion. It is the first time in almost 20 years that there is a real opportunity to change this law.

The ruling party, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, tabled the bill in October 2016. The bill would decriminalize abortion on four grounds: if the pregnancy poses a risk to the life of a pregnant woman or girl, or there is a risk to her physical or mental health, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if the fetus would be unable to survive outside the womb. Another bill was tabled by anti-abortion Assembly members that would increase the criminal penalties to up to 50 years.

Continued at source: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/solidarity-request-urge-el-salvadorian-legislators-to-decriminalize-abortion/

Feminist Movements Challenge El Salvador’s Total Abortion Ban

By Samantha Pineda
December 10, 2016, Z Communications

A version of this article was originally posted by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)

On November 25th, over 500 hundred people marched through the streets of San Salvador to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and to demand an end to all violence against women. Women-only drum crews pounded out a festive rhythm as participants from social movement organizations convened by the country’s feminist movement, including unions and labor groups, the LGBTQ community, healthcare workers, agricultural cooperatives, and environmentalists, all took to the streets.

A principal demand of the marchers was a call for El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly to ease the country’s total ban on abortion. While the feminist struggle for full reproductive rights is nothing new in El Salvador, organizing efforts over the past few years have gained momentum, found new openings, and are pushing forward the fight for women’s health, safety, and bodily autonomy.

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Source: Z Communications