- Title: El Salvador women demand loosening country's abortion laws
- Date: 28th September 2021
- Summary: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR (SEPTEMBER 28, 2021) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS PLAYING DRUMS DURING PROTEST WOMEN CHANTING SLOGANS VARIOUS OF WOMEN MARCHING TOWARDS SALVADORAN CONGRESS PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS VARIOUS OF WOMEN MARCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PROTESTER, SARA GARCIA, SAYING: "The Salvadoran state is systematically violating the rights of girls, women, and pregnant women by not guaranteeing a law that allows women to terminate pregnancies. Currently, 20 women are being prosecuted and criminalized, women who are unjustly imprisoned. It is the situation that we want to transform." VARIOUS OF WOMEN MARCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PROTESTER, MORENA HERRERA, SAYING: "Our country has a high rate of pregnancies of girls and adolescents. It shows that there is sexual abuse, lack of protection of children. They are forced to continue with their pregnancies in cruel conditions, and that they have to put aside their life projects. It is a violation of the rights of girls and adolescents." POLICE OFFICERS GUARDING EXTERIOR OF SALVADORAN CONGRESS VARIOUS OF WOMEN PROTESTING OUTSIDE CONGRESS WOMEN THROWING ROSES
- Embargoed: 12th October 2021 23:13
- Keywords: El Salvador Protests abortion laws
- Location: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR
- City: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR
- Country: El Salvador
- Topics: South America / Central America,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001EWMXX6V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Scores of people in El Salvador waved green flags and marched through the capital San Salvador en route to Congress on Tuesday (September 28) to demand to loosen the country's "strict" abortion laws.
Holding up banners saying "it's our right to decide" and "legal abortion, safe and free," the mostly-women protesters met as part of the "International Safe Abortion Day" being marked around the globe.
The Salvadoran protesters sought to pressure the country's legislators to ease one of the world's strictest abortion laws, which prohibits termination of pregnancy in cases of rape and even if the mother's life is at risk.
The proposals taken to the Salvadoran Congress have been named "Beatriz Reform," in honor of a young woman who in 2013 openly called for an abortion to save her life as she suffered from a chronic disease, which took her life four years later.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele earlier this month ruled out any amendments to the abortion laws as part of controversial constitutional changes his government is planning.
Sweeping changes across a predominantly Roman Catholic Latin America have seen abortion law amended in some nations, including Argentina and parts of Mexico.
But several out of more than 20 Latin American nations still ban abortion outright, including El Salvador, which has sentenced some women to up to 40 years in prison.
(Production: Wilfredo Pineda, Manuel Carrillo, Liamar Ramos) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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