Nestled between the Pacific Ocean, Honduras, and Guatemala, along the coast of the Central American isthmus, lies continental America's smallest country, El Salvador (The Savior). It is sometimes affectionately referred to as the “Tom Thumb of the Americas” (Pulgarcito de America). The country is dotted with lakes that have filled volcanic craters, and is partitioned by two parallel mountain ranges. With vine-tangled rainforests and mangrove-fringed estuaries, El Salvador is home to a variety of flora and fauna: thousands of butterfly species, hundreds of species of birds, 400 different species of orchids.
For the wealthy and well-connected, El Salvador is a paradise. For the international movement against reproductive rights for women and girls, El Salvador is a different kind of paradise— for reasons having nothing to do with the tiny country’s beauty and tropical climate. El Salvador is a “pro-life paradise.” Americans United for Life, Heartbeat International, National Right to Life Committee, Live Action, Human Life International: all these groups, and more, acclaim El Salvador as “one of the strongest pro-life countries in the world.”
In this newsletter – and in several following newsletters this week – we will embark on a voyage into this “pro-life paradise.” The restrictions and policies that are lauded by the international movement against reproductive rights for women and girls “are on display” in El Salvador. [1]
Series Introduction
In 1997, El Salvador completely abolished abortion. In 1999, El Salvador’s constitution was amended, recognizing life as beginning from fertilization. Abortion is “absolutely forbidden in every possible circumstance. No exceptions.” — Not even to save the life of the pregnant person.
“El Salvador legally abides by the pro-life manifesto that abortion is murder.” [2] If an egg is a “person” from the moment it is fertilized, as enshrined in the Salvadoran constitution, then deliberately killing an embryo or a fetus could be considered homicide. [3] “The penal code detailing the Crimes Against the Life of Human Beings in the First Stages of Development provides stiff penalties” for both providers of abortion and for the people who have the abortions. [4] “[T]he abortion provider, whether a medical doctor or a back-alley practitioner, faces 6 to 12 years in prison.” [5] As for pregnant women, “Salvadoran law distinguishes between abortion and homicide, treating as homicide any case involving a fetus beyond seven months gestation. Thus, if it turns out that the fetus was beyond seven months gestation, the charges against the woman are elevated from abortion, which is punishable by two to eight years imprisonment, to homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of fifty years in prison.” [6] Furthermore, when all abortions are a crime, miscarriages inescapably arouse the menacing suspicions of the government. Every miscarriage is conceptualized as a potential crime— a potential murder.
El Salvador aggressively enforces its criminal code, and prosecutors are incentivized to seek the longest possible sentence. [7] Margarita Sanabria, a Salvadoran magistrate who has handled several abortion cases, explained, "The more years one can send someone away for, the better it is for the prosecutors." [8] Sanabria “cited this motivation to account for… more later-term abortions being reclassified as ‘aggravated homicide.’" [9]
In the United States, powerful groups that are against reproductive rights persistently insist that, "No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen an abortion.” [10] Out of the spotlight, however, these same powerful U.S. groups consistently defend El Salvador’s imprisonment of pregnant people who have suffered obstetric emergencies. [11] [12]
As we will see in our exploration of El Salvador throughout this week, criminalizing all abortions mandates “that the full force of the medical team must tend toward saving the fetus under any circumstances.” [13] Adhering to Roman Catholic dogma, “the rights of the mother cannot be privileged over those” of the embryo or fetus. [14] “In the meantime, the rights of the fetus are very much privileged over those of the woman.” [15]
In the coming newsletters in this series, we will examine how such draconian restrictions came about in El Salvador, and what it is truly like to be pregnant in this oppressive “pro-life paradise.”
Citations:
[1] Filipovic, J. (2013, June 9). A peek into a pro-life Paradise. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/6/9/a-peek-into-a-pro-life-paradise
[2] Ibid. 1
[3] Oberman, M. (2018). Beatriz and Her Case. In Her Body, Our Laws: On the Front Lines of the Abortion War, from El Salvador to Oklahoma (pp. 31). essay, Beacon Press.
[4] Hitt, J. (2006, April 9). Pro-life nation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/prolife-nation.html
[5] Ibid. 4
[6] Oberman, M. (2018). Assessing the Impact of El Salvador’s Abortion Ban. In Her Body, Our Laws: On the Front Lines of the Abortion War, from El Salvador to Oklahoma (pp. 68). essay, Beacon Press.
[7] Hitt, J. (2006, April 9). Pro-life nation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/prolife-nation.html
[8] Ibid. 7
[9] Ibid. 7
[10] Hoffarth, T., Marrin, P., & Luxmoore, J. (2017, February 21). El Salvador’s proposal to increase jail sentences of women seeking abortions must be rejected. National Catholic Reporter. https://www.ncronline.org/el-salvadors-proposal-increase-jail-sentences-women-seeking-abortions-must-be-rejected
[11] Cariboni, D., & Hovhannisyan, T. (2021, December 3). European and US right groups backed El Salvador criminalising abortion – and lost. openDemocracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/europe-us-right-groups-elsalvador-criminalising-abortion/
[12] Amici curiae brief, Inter-American Court Of Human Rights San José, Costa Rica Manuela And Family V. El Salvador, https://aul.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/PUBLICATION-VERSION.pdf
[13] Hitt, J. (2006, April 9). Pro-life nation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/prolife-nation.html
[14] Filipovic, J. (2013, June 9). A peek into a pro-life Paradise. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/6/9/a-peek-into-a-pro-life-paradise
[15] Ibid. 14