May 28 is the international day of action for women's health. It is an indictment of global capitalism that so many of the world's women cannot access even the most basic of health services. Even in the wealthy countries like Australia I am learning that so many obstacles are put in the way of women accessing basic reproductive health care services, especially that of abortion.
It seems though that we have the same enemy, the same double standards. Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo the global trend has been towards liberalising access to abortion services for women. Only in two countries has there been a more repressive regime implemented, and they are the devoutly Catholic nations of Poland and El Salvador. And El Salvador can now claim the most repressive laws and practices in the world today.
In the mid-90s, the Catholic hierarchy appointed as bishop of San Salvador a leading member of Opus Dei. This bishop has very strongly led the moral minority who have retained formal political power in the National Assembly and the presidency since the end of the civil war in 1992.
The bishop and members of right-wing Christian groups, such as Say Yes to Life, have had the resources of the state and the ruling class at their disposal to implement a shocking campaign against women's reproductive rights. This resulted in the 1998 amendments to the penal code that provide for substantial jail terms to women and to health care providers, doctors, pharmacists etc.
The penal code reforms also led to the removal of exemptions which allowed for abortions to save women's lives.
So began the story of a young girl, Maria, aged only 8, who had been raped repeatedly by her abusive stepfather, running away only after her stepfather realised she had become pregnant. He organised his 18-year-old nephew to abscond with her, hoping the nephew would be blamed for the pregnancy.
Maria became the centre of the conservatives' campaign against abortion.
Maria's mother sought an abortion for her so she would not suffer further from the crimes committed against her by her stepfather. Although a devout Catholic, Maria's mother was convinced that this was the best solution to the trauma her daughter had already faced and would continue to face if the pregnancy continued.
But the laws in El Salvador prevented Maria from obtaining an abortion. The Say Yes to Life group offered housing and support if Maria continued the pregnancy.
Now nine years old, Maria has had a caesarian birth to minimise the physical and psychological trauma doctors felt sure would eventuate. But the painful reality for Maria is that while Say Yes to Life had held her up as a trophy to show how a young child can give birth to life and hope, it looks likely that a judge will now rule her too young and immature to be a parent and order that the child be adopted out to a suitable family.
In a country of 60% unemployed - where even two full-time working wages is less than half the poverty line in a family of five, where a third of the economy comes from remittances from Salvadorans living in the US and where currently at least 500 Salvadorans flee the country daily to take their chances as illegals - condemning a child to give birth to a child she won't be able to materially support demonstrates the anti-woman, anti-child priorities of Say Yes to Life.
El Salvador has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates - ranked third after only Haiti and Brazil. Women who seek medical care after the termination of a pregnancy, including from miscarriages, are carted off to jail for preventative detention until their trials. On average, four women a month are jailed for several months while awaiting trials. Yet the rate of convictions is much lower. This is one aspect of the hypocrisy that surrounds women's reproductive rights in El Salvador today.
Zoila Quijada
[Translated by Lara Pullin from a discussion with Zoila Quijada in Canberra on May 19. Quijada is a member of the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), El Salvador's main opposition party. She is the party's shadow minister for women, children and the family. She is also the FMLN's shadow minister for environment and public health.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 25, 2005.
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