It is a country where women have little representation in politics, the legislative sphere and places where important decisions are made. Rights such as deciding over their bodies, pregnancy and abortion are still denied to them. This is why they have denounced the state’s breach of international treaties by failing to offer alternatives to those who face obstetric complications and give birth outside hospital.
Luis Beaton
In 1997 a reform of El Salvador’s penal code established the absolute prohibition of abortion. It remains a capital sin today and is regarded as murder according to the minister of justice and security, Gustavo Villatoro.
This situation is complex in a country where women, according to 2024 census data, make up 52.8% of the total 6,029,976 inhabitants and where most politicians turn their back on the subject either through fear, ignorance or political expediency. If her pregnancy is interrupted, even if naturally, the woman is subjected to persecution and on many occasions sentenced to many years in prison. Minister Villatoro even criticises those who promote the legalisation of abortion, which he describes as homicide.
However, we should ask poor women, often raped and made pregnant, how they view the situation.
Article 133 of El Salvador’s penal code sets the penalty for abortion at between two and eight years in prison, and up to twelve years if the offence is aggravated, which proves that women here face ‘criminalisation’, according to denouncements by the Feminist Assembly, the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion and the Feminist Collective.
In this round of protests and demands the memory of ‘Manuela’ will be in the foreground. ‘Manuela’ was a young woman from the rural area of Morazán who suffered an obstetric emergency and gave birth outside hospital in 2008, for which she was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated murder. While in prison, she was diagnosed with nodular sclerosis Hodgkin lymphoma. She was prescribed chemotherapy which her representatives’ claim was denied to her for a time. She died on 30th April 2010 in the prison wing of the Rosales hospital in San Salvador, according to activists.
Morena Herrera, president of the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion, says that when the Salvadoran state treats obstetric emergencies with the tools of the Exception Regime it commits a double discrimination and violation of rights.
“The state criminalises poor women, treating them as delinquents who are threats to public safety which is not the case,” she says.
With regard to this type of legislation and policy, in a markedly religious country, activists like Ivonne Polanco, of the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion, state their concern over the serious effects this regulation against the interruption of pregnancy has on women’s lives and health.
But this is only part of the problem.
El Salvador has one of Latin America’s biggest imbalances in terms of labour market participation. This is highlighted in a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) according to which little more than half of women participate in the labour market, compared to 8 out of 10 men.
The figures are alarming in a context where in the last few years women in the region have progressed in the educational sphere, finishing secondary and tertiary education in greater proportions than before and accounting for more students in higher education.
The organisation draws attention to gaps in the quality of employment and the type of “labour niche” experienced by women compared to their male peers, because female workers across the continent have more difficulty finding employment and are ‘over-represented’ in part-time jobs.
The gap between men and women is also seen in the salaries they receive since, on average, in Latin America men earn 11% more than women, something that is also true of Salvadorans. PL
(Translated by Philip Walker – Email: philipwalkertranslation@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay
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