Article: "El Salvador: pro-life nation" (criminalizing abortion)

[CBHagman]

For those of you who didn't catch the story in The New York Times Magazine or The International Herald Tribune, Jack Hitt recently published an account of the nature of the abortion ban in El Salvador. It is a disturbing, often chilling depiction of how the policy was formed and enforced. Considering the political landscape in this country, we should take note of these developments.


I do not know how long the IHT link will be available. The New York Times story has already moved to pay status and can be purchased at their website.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/09/america/web.0409abortioncomplete.php

"In this new movement toward criminalization, El Salvador is in the vanguard. The array of exceptions that tend to exist even in countries where abortion is circumscribed - rape, incest, fetal malformation, life of the mother - don't apply in El Salvador. They were rejected in the late 1990's, in a period after the country's long civil war ended. The country's penal system was revamped and its constitution was amended. Abortion is now absolutely forbidden in every possible circumstance. No exceptions.

"There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus - the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor's office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal. Like the woman I was waiting to meet."

(SNIP)

"The legislative battle and its outcome did not escape the attention of leaders of anti-abortion groups in the United States. Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, the head of Human Life International, based in Virginia, is intimately familiar with the campaign in El Salvador and says that there are lessons for Americans to learn from it. For one thing, as Euteneuer sees it, the Salvadoran experience shows that all moves to expand abortion rights are pushed through by 'elite' institutions of government (the U.S. Supreme Court, for example); by contrast, Euteneuer contends, when the laws are tightened, a grass-roots campaign is inevitably responsible. 'El Salvador is an inspiration,' he told me recently, an important victory in what he called 'the counterrevolution of conscience.'

"Today, Article 1 of El Salvador's constitution declares that the prime directive of government is to protect life from the 'very moment of conception.' The penal code detailing the Crimes Against the Life of Human Beings in the First Stages of Development provides stiff penalties: the abortion provider, whether a medical doctor or a back-alley practitioner, faces 6 to 12 years in prison. The woman herself can get 2 to 8 years. Anyone who helps her can get 2 to 5 years. Additionally, judges have ruled that if the fetus was viable, a charge of aggravated homicide can be brought, and the penalty for the woman can be 30 to 50 years in prison."

I can't emphasize strongly enough that you read the section on how they deal with ectopic pregnancies. Very disturbing.

[Joanne98]

1. forensic vagina inspectors?????

[DRoseDARs]

4. "Assume the position" takes on a whole new meaning... n/t

[Selatius]

2. Wow, talk about being authoritarian on social issues

The "Vagina Police" is a term that sounds absolutely ludicrous if not hilarious, but in practice, the sheer authoritarian nature of it smacks of fascist Germany or Soviet Russia, which both had strict controls on the personal lives of its citizens.

[CGrantt57]

3. You know what?

At least they're frickin' consistent.

In a weird way, I admire that.

I'm so tired of these wishy-washy anti-choice morons. I'm gonna slam them with this every chance I get:

"So, if abortion is murder, shouldn't we punish the participants as murderers?"

"Ummm...ummm...I dunno..."

"Well, think about it, Sparky. If you're calling abortion murder, wouldn't you like to see that poor, scared 17 year old fry for getting that abortion?"

"Ummm...ummmm...no...not really...I guess not..."

"Okay, look asshole. Why don't you develop a consistent position on this issue and get back to me? In the meantime, though, why don't you just S.T.F.U. and leave the thinking to those of us who can, okay?"

[CBHagman]

5. Perhaps you should ask them...

...if, for example, they would send a mother of four to prison for 50 years for having a late-term abortion (i.e., assuming there's "fetal viability"). See the article for the El Salvador policy.

You could also ask them if they would like for a woman with an ectopic pregnancy to have to wait until it's clear the fetus is dead or the woman is about to face a life-threatening rupture. Again, see the article for how they handle it in El Salvador.

[HockeyMom]

6. Been there, done that on the ectopic

Wasn't in El Salvador, but in Queens, New York, in 1982 in a Catholic Hospital.

PLEASE don't let these people get control HERE. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy what I had to endure.

[CBHagman]

9. That's absolutely ghastly.

I'm sorry you were put through such treatment.

[Nobody]

7. Common sense has gone straight out the window

and is continuing on its merry way to outer space.

Have you any idea how many ectopic pregnancies result in the birth of a healthy child? I know of none. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me, but last I heard it was a big fat zero.

But oh no, we have to wait until that ectopic pregnancy ruptures the fallopian tube it's lodged in or it dies on its own. Instead of dealing with the problem while it's still minor, we have to have an emergency on our hands before we can treat it.

That ectopic pregnancy is more important than the living breathing woman hosting it, according to El Salvador.

[Warpy]

8. The fact is that some of them would love to see that 12 year old

slut who was a temptress and seduced her poor innocent stepfather fry for getting an abortion. That's the way these guys really think.

The Catholic Church has been teaching its members starting in childhood that females are "occasions of sin" for the perfect males, that females bear the brunt of all sexual sins even if they're just going about their business and are completely unaware that some drooling male is committing the "sin of intention" when he looks at them.

It's a sick mindset.

[iamjoy]

10. Anti-Woman

This is byond anti-abortion, and even anti-choice. It is not Pro-Life. The way they deal with ectopic pregnancies clearly shows they are anti-woman.

The outcome of an ectopic pregnancy is well known. The pregnancy is terminated or the tube ruptures. If the tube ruptures, it seriously diminishes a woman's chances of conceiving again.

They are literally allowing women to become maimed for their own political agenda.

And one of America's so called Pro-Life leaders call the example inspiring.

[Iris]

11. Where are the fathers?

I don't know a single man my age who would want to raise children alone because his wife died of a tubal pregnancy or any other pregnancy complication that could be treated with a "therapuetic" abortion.