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In this small Central American country, the law prohibiting voluntary termination of pregnancy is absolutely intransigent.
More than 2,000 women demonstrated in San Salvador on Sunday March 6, 2022.
AFP
Some 2,000 women demonstrated Sunday in San Salvador to demand the decriminalization of abortion and protest against feminicides, in this Central American country where the law prohibiting voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) is absolutely intransigent.
The demonstrators marched under the slogans “It’s my body, abortion is my right” or “No more patriarchal violence”, as International Women’s Day approaches on March 8.
They called for “the decriminalization of abortion in the country” in certain cases such as rape or fetal malformations, “so that women are no longer imprisoned, unjustly criminalized for having undergone an obstetric emergency”, declared to the AFP Morena Herrera, president of the Association of Citizens for the Decriminalization of Abortion.
Banned since 1998
According to Morena Herrera, abortion should be decriminalized to save women’s lives, when a malformation of the fetus incompatible with extra-uterine life has been detected and when the pregnancy is the result of rape. Abortion has been banned in El Salvador since 1998, even in cases of rape or if the health of the mother or fetus is in danger.
Terminating a pregnancy can land a woman in prison for up to eight years, but Salvadoran judges often find the accused guilty of “aggravated homicide”, punishable by 50 years in prison.
Many women are prosecuted after seeking medical help for complications during pregnancy on suspicion of having attempted an abortion. At least a dozen women are currently serving various prison sentences for having abortions.
The protesters also called on the authorities to combat feminicides in the country. According to the Observatory on Violence against Women, 132 women were killed in 2021, compared to 130 in 2020.
(AFP)