EL SALVADOR:
Lawmakers Against
Therapeutic Abortion
By Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR (IPS)
- The Salvadoran
parliament has given its
support to a "Libro de
la vida" (Book of Life),
which calls abortion "an
abominable crime,"
precipitating a storm of
criticism from women’s
organisations that
consider this blanket
endorsement an evasion
of serious debate on the
issue.
The activists also say
parliament’s decision
runs counter to
international
conventions on women’s
rights that El Salvador
has ratified.
"These actions close the
door on healthy debate
on the crude and
persistent reality" that
this country is
attempting to avoid,
said Ima Guirola of the
Institute of Women’s
Studies (CEMUJER).
Guirola said that the
question "is not whether
one is in favour of or
against abortion, but
what the state is going
to do" about this
practice which is
carried out illegally in
unsafe conditions.
Health authorities do
not have estimates of
the number of illegal
abortions performed in
this impoverished
Central American country
of nearly six million
people.
The stance taken by
parliament will not
contribute to "the
formulation of public
policies" in favour of
women, Guirola told IPS.
The "Libro de la vida"
is a declaration by
Honduran lawmaker Marta
Lorena Alvarado, which
won the support of the
Honduran Congress and
was brought to El
Salvador by the Catholic
Church hierarchy,
evangelical churches and
the conservative
Fundación Sí a la Vida
(Yes to Life
Foundation), which
oppose the legalisation
of therapeutic abortion.
The controversial
document has been signed
by about 100 Honduran
lawmakers, and its
promoters hope that some
150 of their Guatemalan
peers will soon do
likewise.
In El Salvador it was
signed by the vast
majority of the 84
members of the
legislature, including,
unexpectedly, members of
the leftwing opposition
Farabundo Martí National
Liberation Front (FMLN),
which for years has
backed women’s groups’
attempts to reopen the
debate on
decriminalising
therapeutic abortion.
Their U-turn has earned
them harsh criticism.
Socorro Gross, the
representative in
Nicaragua of the Pan
American Health
Organisation/World
Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO)
said at a forum on
Medical and Legal
Aspects of Therapeutic
Abortion there that
"therapeutic abortion is
a universal principle
accepted by most of the
United Nations member
countries, and
transcends cultural,
religious and
ideological differences.
"Forbidding termination
of pregnancy when the
life of the mother is in
danger does not reduce
the number of unsafe
abortions in a country,"
she said.
"To discuss the legality
or otherwise of
terminating a pregnancy
when the mother’s life
is threatened is not an
issue for women alone,
but for society as a
whole," the PAHO
representative said.
Therapeutic abortion
refers to the
termination of a
pregnancy when the
mother’s life is at
risk, the foetus is
deformed, or the
pregnancy is the result
of incest or rape.
Of the 18 million
pregnancies a year that
occur in Latin America
and the Caribbean, it is
estimated that 52
percent are unplanned,
and that 21 percent of
these end in abortions.
Paradoxically, the
Salvadoran parliament
signed the anti-abortion
document this month
while the Second Ibero-American
Conference on Gender,
attended by more than 20
women ministers and
policy-makers in charge
of gender equity
mechanisms, was being
held in the country.
At this meeting it was
agreed to "encourage the
formulation and
application of public
policies with a gender
perspective in the field
of sexual and
reproductive health in
accordance with the
interests of young
people," to prevent teen
pregnancies.
Raquel Caballero,
assistant prosecutor for
the rights of women and
the family in the Office
of the Ombudsman for
Human Rights (PDDH),
acknowledges that
"abortion is a very
sensitive subject." She
said her office "defends
life as a
constitutionally
guaranteed right," but
added that in some
"extreme cases" there is
a "conflict of rights"
between the mother and
the unborn child.
When the foetus
"develops outside the
uterus" in an ectopic
pregnancy, "there is
less than one percent
probability of the
pregnancy reaching
term," and then "the
rights of the mother and
of the foetus, which has
little hope of being
born but which seriously
threatens the mother’s
life," must be weighed
against each other, she
said.
FMLN lawmaker Enma Julia
Fabián, who did not sign
the book, said that her
party "is in favour of
life, which goes far
beyond the issue of
abortion," and her
fellow party members who
signed it had not
thereby renounced "the
party’s position on
supporting women’s
sexual and reproductive
rights."
She said, however, that
the initiative is a ploy
by "the Central American
right, which has made it
into an electoral issue,
but won’t be allowed to
turn it into a
campaigning instrument
against the FMLN."
She denied that her
party’s acquiescence in
signing the document was
"an electoral move,"
although in her view,
"it should act in
accordance with the
circumstances."
For months, conservative
media outlet have been
accusing the FMLN of
being pro-abortion and
of attacking religious
values, just at a time
when this party is
leading opinion polls in
the run-up to next
year’s elections.
A reform of the
Salvadoran criminal code
in 1998 reclassified
abortion as a crime
carrying sentences of
between two and 10 years
in prison, depending on
the circumstances, for
both the pregnant woman
and the health
professional who assists
her.
El Salvador has ratified
the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action
arising from the Fourth
World Conference on
Women, held in the
Chinese capital in 1995,
as well as the
Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW),
and participates in
regional initiatives on
mechanisms for
protecting women’s
rights.
"Signing that document
was like sweeping the
problem under the
carpet," said Guirola,
who argued that there
was no doubt that this
was an example of the
"double standards and
patriarchal views" that
predominate in
Salvadoran society. |
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