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El Salvador abortion law change could leave women facing 50 years in jail
Source: The Guardian
El Salvador abortion law change could leave women facing 50 years in jail
Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro
Thursday 14 July 2016 12.49 BST
El Salvador already has some of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the world, but they could become even stricter if Congress adopts an opposition proposal to imprison women for up to 50 years if they terminate a pregnancy.
The Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) has submitted a motion to reform article 133 of the penal code, which stipulates the penalty for women who cause or consent to an abortion.
Existing sentences range from two to eight years – far higher than most countries, even in conservative Catholic Latin America – but the rightwing opposition wants to increase this from a minimum of 30 years to a maximum of 50 years. This is equivalent to the sentence in El Salvador for aggravated murder with “extreme cruelty”.
A copy of the document seen by the Guardian claims the reform is necessary to keep penalties in line with a constitution that guarantees the right to life, which is defined as beginning from the moment of conception.
It also calls for maximum penalties for causing “negligent injury to the unborn” to be raised from 100 days to two years, and for “sale of products that induce abortion” to increase from 30 days to three years.
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Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro
Thursday 14 July 2016 12.49 BST
El Salvador already has some of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the world, but they could become even stricter if Congress adopts an opposition proposal to imprison women for up to 50 years if they terminate a pregnancy.
The Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) has submitted a motion to reform article 133 of the penal code, which stipulates the penalty for women who cause or consent to an abortion.
Existing sentences range from two to eight years – far higher than most countries, even in conservative Catholic Latin America – but the rightwing opposition wants to increase this from a minimum of 30 years to a maximum of 50 years. This is equivalent to the sentence in El Salvador for aggravated murder with “extreme cruelty”.
A copy of the document seen by the Guardian claims the reform is necessary to keep penalties in line with a constitution that guarantees the right to life, which is defined as beginning from the moment of conception.
It also calls for maximum penalties for causing “negligent injury to the unborn” to be raised from 100 days to two years, and for “sale of products that induce abortion” to increase from 30 days to three years.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/14/el-salvador-abortion-law-change-women-facing-50-years-jail
