Abortion in El Salvador

On Sunday, the New York Times magazine had a long article about abortion in El Salvador called "Pro-life Nation." Abortion is illegal in El Salvador and the abortionist, the woman, and anyone that helps her obtain an abortion can be sent to jail. The article notes that if a woman cooperates with the authorities to find the abortionist it is unlikely that she will be sent to jail.

The article is written from the perspective of someone who is pro-choice and most of the information seems to come from abortion supporters but the article is worth the read and didn't come off as too biased. The article was missing the usual claims of deaths that I'm used to in an article about illegal abortion. Make sure you note the coercion that women who've had illegal abortions describe.

On page 1, D.C. says,

"I told the father. He said he didn't want another child. He didn't want to deal with problems like this. My mother told me she would kick me out if I ever got pregnant again."

On page 9, Carmen Climaco says,

"I never thought I could get pregnant because I had been sterilized. Suddenly I saw two doors shutting at the same time. There was nothing I could do. My mother said she'd toss me out of the house if I got pregnant."