The human cost of El Salvador’s abortion laws

Americas Now

In El Salvador, having a miscarriage is sometimes considered the equivalent to committing a murder and could easily land a woman in jail. The country has some of the harshest abortion laws in the world — since 1998, abortion is illegal under all circumstances.

Human rights groups like Amnesty International claim this is having alarming repercussions.

In fact, according to research by the NGO Citizen’s Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, between 2000 and 2011 more than 200 women were reported to the Salvadoran police for having committed an abortion, of which 129 were prosecuted and 49 convicted.

But in a country with prevailing conservative traditions, few politicians are willing to endorse a change. Americas Now correspondent Michelle Begue went to El Salvador to take a look at how its abortion ban is impacting women, and this is what she found.

The human cost of El Salvador’s abortion laws

In El Salvador, having a miscarriage is sometimes equivalent to committing a murder, and could easily land you in jail. This country has some of the harshest abortion laws in the world. Since 1998, abortion there is illegal under all circumstances. But in a country with prevailing conservative traditions, few politicians are willing to endorse a change. Americas Now correspondent Michelle Begue went to El Salvador to take a look at how its abortion ban is impacting women, and this is what she found.