Jailing of a mentally ill woman exposes El Salvador's tough abortion laws - rights group

El Salvador bans abortion on any grounds and hospital staff are encouraged to report cases of abortion to the police

BOGOTA (TrustLaw) – A judge’s decision to jail a mentally ill woman for inducing an abortion in El Salvador highlights the country’s draconian abortion laws that are among the worst in Central America, a reproductive rights group says.

Mery, 27, ended up in hospital after suffering complications from a self-induced abortion seven months ago. Hospital staff diagnosed her with mental health problems and also reported her to the police, the Center for Reproductive Rights said.

In August, she was sentenced to two years in prison for inducing an abortion under El Salvador’s laws which ban abortion under all circumstances - even in cases of rape, incest, or when the woman's life is in danger or if the foetus is severely deformed.

“El Salvador has the worst abortion laws in Central America and the region. The country’s absolute ban on abor­tion has led to the arbitrary imprisonment of women suffering from miscarriages and complications in their pregnancies,” Alejandra Cardenas, Latin America legal adviser for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, told TrustLaw.

“Many women who arrive in hospital suffering miscarriages are often accused of having abortions. They end up having issues with the law and are shackled to hospital beds.”

Behind bars, Mery – a pseudonym to protect her identity - attempted suicide by slitting her wrists with a rusty nail, and was sent to a psychiatric ward where she now lies handcuffed in a hospital bed under the watch of armed policemen.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is campaigning on the woman’s behalf, says unless the judge’s decision is repealed, she will be released from the hospital’s psychiatric ward and returned to prison.

IMPRISONED FOR MISCARRIAGE

At hospitals across El Salvador, a note on the wall from the Attorney General’s Office reminds staff they are legally obliged to report any crimes to the police, including abortion.

Since abortion was made illegal in El Salvador in 1998, 604 women have been imprisoned for having an abortion. A further 24 women women were indicted for “aggravated murder”, after an abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth, according to local rights group, Citizens for the Decriminalisation of Abortion (CFDA).

In 2005, another Salvadoran, Sonia Tabora, was sentenced to 30 years for murder.

When Sonia was seven months pregnant, she went into premature labour. Her family found her bleeding heavily and took her to a health centre where she gave birth to a stillborn baby.

Sonia was then falsely accused of inducing an abortion and spent more than seven years in prison before finally being released in August.

Most young women who have been jailed for having abortions, or falsely accused of aborting in El Salvador are poor, live in rural areas, and have little schooling.

Wealthier women wanting an abortion can pay private, trained doctors to perform the procedure and they can also travel abroad, often to the United States, to have an abortion there.

But poor women don’t have such luxury. Instead, they are more likely to undergo dangerous backstreet abortions or resort to using dangerous methods to abort - from coat hangers, knitting needles to detergents.

DOMINANT CATHOLIC CHURCH

Latin America is a region with some of the world’s most extreme abortion laws. El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Chile all ban abortion under any circumstances.

The Roman Catholic Church’s lingering grip on Latin American politics, its influence among society and public condemnation of abortion, are all factors behind the region’s stringent abortion laws – as are the region’s patriarchal view.

“Restricting access to abortion is rooted in traditional patriarchal values perpetuated by laws, governments, judicial systems and religions that aim to control women’s reproductive function and sexuality,” the UK-based Central America Women's Network (CAWN) said in a recent report.

Christian groups working in Central America also play a role in spreading anti-abortion views, the Center for Reproductive Rights’ Cardenas believes.

“It’s not just the Catholic Church. It’s also U.S.-based Christian churches, like evangelicals, doing missionary work in Central America, which are growing stronger and stronger,” she said

“They spread the message that women’s sexuality is a sin and that reproductive rights are not human rights.”

“DISDAIN TOWARDS WOMEN”

Despite the region’s tough abortion laws, there has not been a drop in abortion rates.

In fact, they’ve had the opposite effect.

According to a 2008 study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Guttmacher Institute, Latin America has one of the world’s highest abortion rates, with more than 30 per 1,000 women of childbearing age, compared to 12 per 1,000 in Western Europe, where abortion is generally permitted on broad grounds.

Latin American women also have more unsafe abortions per capita than women in any other region - around four million women a year – WHO estimates.

Botched abortions are a leading cause of maternal death in Latin America and other parts of the world.

According to WHO, around 47,000 women die from botched abortions each year, accounting for almost 13 percent of maternal deaths worldwide.

It boils down to a lack of women’s rights.

“The underlying causes of morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion today are not blood loss and infection but, rather, apathy and disdain toward women,” a WHO journal report said. 

One country in Latin America, though, is bucking the trend.

Earlier this month, Uruguay became the third country in Latin America to decriminalise abortion, after Cuba and Guyana. The procedure is now allowed until the 12th week of pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Mery’s fate lies in the hands of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights which has been asked by the Center for Reproductive Rights to intervene in her case. The Commission is expected to rule on her case later this week.

See also: FACTBOX: Latin America’s tough abortion laws

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