Hundreds of women gathered in San Salvador to demand the decriminalization of abortion and to reject Nayib Bukele’s decision to eliminate the gender perspective from school programs.
Hundreds of Salvadoran women marched this Friday, March 8, to ask for the decriminalization of abortion and demand that Nayib Bukele’s government reverse the decision to remove the gender perspective from school programs.
Within the framework of International Women’s Day, Protesters dressed in violet and yellow t-shirts gathered in a park in San Salvador under the slogan: “Our rights are not negotiated, they are respected”. In El Salvador, abortion and obstetric emergencies are punished as a crime, since it was prohibited in 1998. The punishment for a woman who carries out an abortion is two to eight years in prison, although it is usually classified as aggravated homicide. which can increase the penalty from 30 to 50 years in prison.
“The absolute criminalization of abortion continues to condemn hundreds of women to put their health and lives at risk, forcing many girls and women to wait for imposed pregnancies”, reads the document that was read over the loudspeakers at the demonstration. In the last 10 years, 73 women were accused of “aggravated homicide” for abortions, but all were freed thanks to the efforts of NGOs, such as the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion. “There must be protection on the issue of abortion”commented Nayarit Alvarado, from the International Democratic Federation of Women, and pointed out that girls and young people cannot be criminalized.
The Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, had shown in 2018 – before becoming president – interest in decriminalizing abortion, when he declared: “On the issue of abortion, we only agree when the mother’s life is at risk”. Today, as head of state of the Central American country, he has shown the opposite, and even went so far as to say that it was a genocide.
bukele cpac.jpg
The Beatriz case: the Salvadoran woman who was prohibited from having an abortion even though the pregnancy was unviable
In 2013, Beatriz, a 22-year-old woman diagnosed with lupus, who had already survived a pregnancy, received the news that she was pregnant with her second child. However, Beatriz was warned that she could die if she continued. It was then that the young woman filed a request for protection to receive an abortion, which was not granted and she underwent a cesarean section. Beatriz’s daughter died five hours after being born. Thus, this case became an emblem of the feminist struggle in El Salvador.
Source: Ambito
