El Salvador Feminists Fight for Justice

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4415
Date Written:  2017-05-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2015
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20948

The 1997 Salvadoran law banning abortion under all circumstances is one of the most punitive in the world.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

El Salvador's 12-year civil war between the U.S.-backed rightwing government and military and the leftist FMLN guerrillas ended in 1992 with the signing of the Peace Accords, and the FMLN became a political party. However, the rightwing ARENA (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista) party maintained control of the government, dominating from the last few years of the war until 2009.

The fight for abortion rights in El Salvador has complex roots, tightly interwoven with the profound religious and social stigma around abortion and the reluctance of the traditional male-dominated left to take on the issue. The struggle for abortion rights has been included in the feminist agenda since the early days of the movement in the late 1980s, but not always as an action item. The tremendous social stigma, varying relationships with the left, and differences in visions around strategies play into the political complexities.