Abortion Cases in El Salvador Could Loosen Restrictions on Reproductive Rights

The National Palace in San Salvador, El Salvador. David Stanley CC BY 2.0.

Reproductive rights in Latin America have a complicated history. While a handful of countries in the region allow for abortion at the mother’s request, the vast majority of Latin American countries only allow abortions to be performed in very specific cases, with El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras retaining complete prohibitions.

2021 may be a turning point, however. Argentina began the year with a new law legalizing abortion, which makes the country the third in Latin America to do so after Cuba and Uruguay. More recently, new abortion cases being heard in El Salvador could loosen laws in one of the world’s most restrictive countries for reproductive rights, opening the door for further decriminalization and legalization of abortion throughout the region.

El Salvador’s Historical Lack of Reproductive Rights

In 2012, a young Salvadoran woman named Sara had a miscarriage after she slipped and fell while washing laundry. Despite maintaining her innocence, the Salvadoran government sentenced Sara to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide due to the country’s prohibition on any and all abortions. Lawyers are currently working to appeal her conviction.

A mural in El Salvador which says “Hope Woman” in English. El Decertor. CC BY NC-ND 2.0.

Sara, who is only identified by her first name to protect her privacy, is one of countless women who have been subjected to El Salvador’s restrictive policies on reproductive rights. Another woman, Manuela, had a miscarriage in 2008. After going to the hospital, she was handcuffed to her bed by government authorities, accused of having an abortion and charged with aggravated homicide, which resulted in a 30-year sentence that was cut short when she passed away two years later due to lymphatic cancer.

El Salvador has historically maintained heightened restrictions on abortion access. While the country’s 1956 Penal Code permitted abortions if the woman’s life was at risk and the 1973 Penal Code expanded the exceptions to include circumstances of rape, statutory rape or detected congenital disorders in the fetus, El Salvador banned abortions under any circumstances in 1998 and amended its constitution in 1999 to recognize human life from the moment of conception.

A number of organizations, most notably the United Nations, have condemned El Salvador’s restrictive laws as human rights violations. However, the government has largely ignored these accusations.

Abortion-rights activists both within and outside of El Salvador are hopeful that 2021 could be a turning point for the country. Both Sara and Manuela’s cases are being heard by courts this year—Sara’s in a national court and Manuela’s at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. If either of these cases come back in favor of the women, it could force the country to expand upon reproductive rights after nearly two and a half decades of restrictions.

A Brief Look at Reproductive Rights in Latin America

A view of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The country legalized abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy in January 2021. Boris G. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

El Salvador’s restrictions on reproductive rights are by no means an outlier in Latin America. As of March 2021, only Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Mexico’s Federal District and the Mexican state of Oaxaca have legalized abortion at the mother’s request. Every other country in Latin America restricts access to abortions in some way.

One of the primary reasons for Latin America having such restrictive standards on abortion is due to the dominance of Roman Catholicism in the region, a religion which heavily stigmatizes the practice. According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of those in Latin America practice Catholicism, with every country in the region aside from Honduras and Uruguay retaining Catholic majorities. Even when new legislation has favored expanded access, stigmas against abortion remain high.

However, this stigmatization may be changing. Argentina rang in the new year with a groundbreaking abortion law guaranteeing women the right to seek out an abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy with no exceptions. This new law makes Argentina, which has the fourth highest population of any country in Latin America, the largest country in the region to have such a comprehensive set of reproductive rights standards.

Should El Salvador expand access to abortion in the near future, the change may serve as a catalyst for expanded rights in other countries such as Chile and Mexico, both of which have seen pro-feminist movements in recent years. For the time being, however, activists continue to fight for expanded abortion access throughout Latin America.

Jacob Sutherland

Jacob is a recent graduate from the University of California San Diego where he majored in Political Science and minored in Spanish Language Studies. He previously served as the News Editor for The UCSD Guardian, and hopes to shed light on social justice issues in his work.

The Glaring Sexism of the Sudanese Revolution

Although the Sudanese revolution was a success, the women of Sudan continue to fight against the sexism that is so latent in their country.

The forefront of the Sudanese revolution. Hind Mekki. CC BY 2.0.

Located in the northeast corner of Africa, Sudan gained its independence in 1956 from British and Egyptian rule. The young country has struggled internally ever since, with a multitude of political and religious divisions between the south and the north which broke out into multiple civil wars. South Sudan formed as the newest nation in the world in 2011, as a result of a majority vote for independence in a referendum created by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Present-day Sudan is majority Muslim, while South Sudan is mostly Christian.

Amid the turmoil which defined Sudan’s geopolitics rose Omar al-Bashir, the last president who was known for his cruel dictatorship, human rights violations and war crimes. Bashir came to power in 1989, overthrowing Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi through a nonviolent coup. His autocratic reign at first introduced Sharia, or Islamic law, thus creating more tensions between the Islamic north and the Christian south. Under Sharia, floggings for adultery and drinking alcohol were commonplace. Through the strict interpretation of Islamic law, women and girls were made victims of political persecution, violence, and genital mutilation. Bashir’s laws were indifferent toward cases of domestic violence against women, child marriage and marital rape. Sudan’s Article 152 of the penal code validated the flogging and imprisonment of women for what they wore. 

Sudanese protesters gathered in December 2018 to confront President Omar al-Bashir’s strict measures for economic relief. Bashir made cuts to bread and fuel subsidies, which exacerbated the dissent which was already festering among citizens. Although the movement was initially made up primarily of men, women soon became the driving force behind the revolution. Women made up about 70% of the protesters and were targeted for gender-based and political violence, including battery and rape, by Sudan’s security forces. 

The success of the coup took the media by storm, but there remained sexist overtones within the movement itself. The Sudanese Professionals Association, which has been organizing resistance against Bashir’s dictatorship throughout all three decades, suggested that female protesters come gather on the streets to clean on a day which was scheduled for a protest. This devalued the women who were fighting alongside men against Bashir’s regime, making them feel dismissed as mere cleaners instead of as members of the  uprising itself. This led to a more pressing concern for women’s rights in Sudan, which have been shot down for decades. 

 
 

A photo of a Sudanese woman, clad in white and towering over the crowds on top of a car, became the icon of the movement itself. Her defiance and resilience moved millions of onlookers around the world, and she became dubbed as “Kandaka,” which refers to the Nubian queens of the Kush kingdom who reigned in Sudan centuries ago. This apparition of gender equality left female protesters disgruntled, as it was sorely evident that women were still oppressed by the patriarchal society in Sudan. 

After the coup, Alaa Salah, the celebrated icon herself, told Time magazine that the Sudanese government still limits the role of women in the legislature. Salah is pushing for 50% female representation in Sudan’s parliament, and works alongside women’s rights activists to change the restrictions placed on women. The public law, which tormented women in Sudan for their behavior and their ways of dressing, was finally repealed in November 2019. Although Sudan’s systemic violence against women is entrenched in its society, women’s rights activists remain optimistic about the progress already seen since the ousting of Omar al-Bashir. 

Heather Lim

Heather recently earned her B.A. in Literatures in English from University of California, San Diego. She was editor of the Arts and Culture section of The Triton, a student-run newspaper. She plans on working in art criticism, which combines her love of visual art with her passion for journalism.