A prison for a woman who had a miscarriage. Refusing to treat a pregnant woman with cancer - so as not to harm the fetus. Some countries are particularly uncompromising about the problem of termination of pregnancy. What are the risks in them for carrying out an illegal procedure?
El Salvador
El Salvador opens the list of countries where abortion is completely forbidden and severely punished for illegal abortion. In this Central American country, women who choose to terminate a pregnancy do so at their own risk and responsibility. They are aware that illegal abortion may cost them health, life or freedom.
Anti-abortion regulations provide for up to 2 years imprisonment for a woman. A doctor who conducts a prohibited procedure may spend up to 12 years in prison. If, on the other hand, a woman is charged with aggravated murder (that is, heavy, comparable to intentional murder), she faces a prison sentence of up to 40 years! Doctors must report miscarriage to the police. Between 2000 and 2011, 129 women were convicted of illegal abortion.
A total ban on abortion was introduced in El Salvador almost 20 years ago, in 1998. Before that, from 1973, a compromise law was in force. It allowed the procedure to be performed in three exceptional situations:when the health condition of the woman required it, the fetus had serious defects, or when the pregnancy was a result of rape. The tightening of the law was mainly caused by pressure from Catholic and conservative circles. The right-wing party, ARENA, would also like to tighten the law in force. In July last year, the group presented a proposal to extend the penalty for abortion up to 50 years.
Chile is one of the countries where strict anti-abortion legislation persists. For several years, however, demonstrations for the liberalization of the law have intensified there. The photo shows the pro-choice march from July 2013 (photo:Santiago Times, license CC BY 2.0).
Catholics are the vast majority in El Salvador. The strong bond between society and the Church was consolidated during the 20-year-long civil war. Despite this, there is no unanimous consent in society against the prohibition of abortion. A 2012 poll revealed that 51 percent of Salvadoran residents believe abortion should be legal when the fetus has serious defects. 57 percent said the law should be amended to protect the mother's life. 22 percent believe rape victims should have the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Protests against the uncompromising law took place in May 2013. Women associated with the feminist movement protested in front of the Supreme Court in San Salvador. The issue of 22-year-old Beatriz became the flash point. She fought in court for permission to perform a therapeutic abortion. The pregnancy was life-threatening and the fetus was severely damaged. Beatriz was refused an abortion. However, she was allowed to deliver an early cesarean delivery. Thanks to this, she survived… The delivery took place in the 27th week of pregnancy. The baby was born without a head part and died after a few hours.
Chile
Another South American country with very strict anti-abortion laws is Chile. Illegal abortion in Chile is a risk. The legal regulations, which have been in force since 1989, say that a woman may be imprisoned for five years. The total prohibition of abortion was introduced during Pinochet's military dictatorship. Even so, there are around 300,000 illegal surgeries carried out in Chile each year.
In September 2016, the senate passed a bill that would ease the restrictive law. It allows for the possibility of an abortion in exceptional circumstances, if the pregnancy endangers the mother's life or if the woman became pregnant as a result of rape. The vast majority of the population (70%) believe that abortion should be legal in certain cases.
However, the Catholic Church, which has considerable influence in Chile, and right-wing political groups supported the maintenance of strict law. 100,000 people associated with pro-life organizations protested against the liberalization of the abortion law in September last year.
Dominican Republic
The absolute law also applies in the Dominican Republic, where the prohibition of termination of pregnancy was introduced in 2009. In 2014, abortion was allowed in strictly defined cases. The liberalization of the law has been severely criticized by the hierarchs of the Catholic and Evangelical churches.
In the Dominican Republic, a complete ban on abortion was introduced during the presidency of Leonel Fernández. Pictured with his wife, President Barack Obama, and the American First Lady (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson, source:public domain).
Pro-life organizations argued that the new law was inconsistent with the constitution that protects life from conception. The bishops published a letter supporting the actions of defenders of unborn children. In 2016, the earlier restrictive law was reinstated, which sparked a wave of public discontent. Crowds of women protested in the streets against the violation of the 2014 consensus.
Participants in the protests alarmed that illegal abortion is a threat to their lives. The number of illegal surgeries is estimated at nearly 100,000 annually. Women decide to take this step knowing that they face up to 3 years imprisonment . If a patient dies during the procedure, the person who performed it and does not have a medical education may be sentenced to 20 years in prison. A doctor who performs an illegal abortion may be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
Nicaragua
Can a woman with cancer be legally refused chemotherapy? Yes, if she is pregnant and lives in Nicaragua. The laws there refuse to treat a pregnant woman if the therapy can kill the fetus. Nicaragua is one of the countries where abortion is strictly prohibited, without any exceptions.
Until 2006, it was permissible to terminate the pregnancy due to the health condition of the future mother. The total ban on abortion was preceded by intense actions by Catholic circles. Among other things, a mass procession to parliament was organized. An information campaign was also carried out in the media with the use of photos of mutilated fetuses. Defenders of the conceived life also struck the medical community through the media. They accused the doctors of wanting to legalize abortion because of… their own material benefits.
In Nicaragua, strict anti-abortion laws were passed under Enrique Bolaños Geyer (source:public domain).
Currently, a doctor for performing an abortion can lose his license to practice for five years and go to prison for three years. The penalty for a woman who chooses to act illegally is one to two years in prison.
Women's rights activists have been organizing protests against uncompromising regulations for 10 years. The medical community also does not support the criminalization of abortion. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former abortion advocate, however, now declares that his faith prevents him from continuing to support the pro-choice movement. He is in favor of a total ban on abortion, introduced during the time in office of his predecessor and political rival Enrique Bolaños.
Malta
The abortion ban does not only apply to developing countries. Also in Europe, you can go to jail for performing this procedure. The criminal code in force in Malta provides for a term of imprisonment of up to three years for a woman who has had a fetus removed. The person performing the procedure may face the same penalty. Malta is the only European country where the abortion ban does not provide for any exceptions.
Strict anti-abortion laws also persist in some European countries. In Malta, the woman who underwent the procedure and the doctor who performed it face a sentence of up to three years in prison (photo:Briangotts, source:public domain).
As in Latin America, also in Malta, the abortion ban can be linked to religious influences. Catholicism is the state religion of Malta and half of the population attend mass regularly.
Northern Ireland
You can get a life sentence for an illegal abortion in Northern Ireland. Since 1945, a law has been in force here that allows termination of pregnancy if it threatens a woman's life. In 2015, the Belfast Supreme Court ruled that legal abortion should be possible if the fetus is severely deformed. The Catholic Church, however, pressed the Attorney General to appeal against this ruling. The bishops argued:
A law that is illogical and self-contradictory is on the one hand against discrimination against children born with Down syndrome or with spina bifida, and on the other hand allowing abortion to children could not be born.
Ultimately, the parliament did not agree to the relaxation of the law. Supporters of abortion protest against strict regulations. In 2016, when a woman was sentenced to three months in prison (suspended for three years) for attempting to terminate a pregnancy, hundreds of people gathered in a Belfast court demanded the right to legal abortion. In other parts of Great Britain, termination of pregnancy has been allowed since 1967.
Iran
In Iran, anti-abortion legislation seems paradoxically quite liberal compared to other countries. The 2005 Act allows women to have an abortion in two cases:if it is necessary to save their health and life, or if there is a serious defect in the fetus. The penalties for illegal surgery, however, are drastic.
For Iranian women, the pregnancy itself - the extra-marital one - can be a deadly danger. Losing their virginity before marriage is threatened with death at the hands of their own father or brother (the so-called honor murder) . Often, surgery is their only chance to survive.
In Iran, abortion laws were tightened after the overthrow of the Shah Reza Pahlavi regime and the arrival of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, in the wake of the revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (source:public domain).
It is the problems of unwanted pregnancy that the Iranian author Kooshyar Karimi focuses in his novel "Leila's Mystery". Although the events depicted in the novel took place in the 1990s, according to Karimi, the laws have not changed and Iranian women continue to suffer at the hands of extremists . Karimi has performed several hundred illegal abortions in a country governed by strict Sharia law. In "Leila's Secret" he describes how he himself risks his life and the well-being of his own family to help desperate women. For this activity he faced the death penalty by hanging. This is how he explains his behavior:
Abortion is never a happy ending, it always makes me sad. In fact, if I were practicing in a western country and had a patient who says the pregnancy happened at an inconvenient time, I would probably advise her to find a way out. In a society based on the barbaric principle of sin and punishment, I was cast in a role that I would never have assumed in a rational, tolerant world.