El Salvador Congress upholds existing abortion law, overlooks appeal for exception

Avoiding women's rights groups petitioning to allow an exception in cases, El Salvador Congress on Wednesday voted to endorse a total ban on abortions in the country. In a 73 to 11 count the Congress members stood to uphold the current law leaving no scope for medical or social exceptions, the Associated Press reported.

The decision came after women's rights groups appealed to Congress to allow abortion in cases of rape, health risk in women or life-threatening deformities. However, the body refused to consider all petitions leading to maintaining the "draconian" law. According to LA Times, El Salvador is among the two dozen countries in the world that criminalise abortion without any exceptions for rape victims and medical conditions of the mother.

Populist President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele has always supported the ban on the law. Additionally, he has also over the times expressed his views against same-sex marriage. As per the Associated Press, the Salvadoran Abortion Law is one of the harshest in the hemisphere, besides Nicaragua.

28 year prison sentence prison for women undergoing abortion

As per LA Times, women in El Salvador face criminal charges like manslaughter,  homicide or aggravated homicide for undergoing an abortion. Under this women may face up to 30 years of prison term. Women can also face two months eight years in prison for aborting the fetus in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. Additionally, the doctors who perform abortions may also lose practice licenses besides facing 12 years of imprisonment.

Currently, at least 40 women are serving prison terms under criminal charges for aborting the fetus. As per AP, the sentences for the convicts range from 10 to 30 years. The law is similar to the hugely judged Texas Abortion Law, which is also called the "Heartbeat Law."

The "Heartbeat Law"

The controversial abortion law implemented by the Texas authorities prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect the cardiac activity of the child in the mother's womb. The law is also dubbed as a "six-week ban" since the aforementioned actions develop in the sixth week of pregnancy. However, the law has drawn considerable flak since, according to medical professionals, during the said time some women do not even know if they are pregnant.

With inputs from AP

Image: AP