Argh.

An article about abortion law in El Salvador printed in the NYTimes magazine this week shows just what a nation that outlaws abortion would be like (and IS). I never think much about the actual realities of a "pro-life nation" - my arguments in favor of choice are usually esoteric and principle-based. But this article managed to shock me a little bit, reminding me how important this issue is and just how tangible and relevant.

Scary/interesting excerpts:

"Today, Article 1 of El Salvador's constitution declares that the prime directive of government is to protect life from the "very moment of conception." The penal code detailing the Crimes Against the Life of Human Beings in the First Stages of Development provides stiff penalties: the abortion provider, whether a medical doctor or a back-alley practitioner, faces 6 to 12 years in prison. The woman herself can get 2 to 8 years. Anyone who helps her can get 2 to 5 years. Additionally, judges have ruled that if the fetus was viable, a charge of aggravated homicide can be brought, and the penalty for the woman can be 30 to 50 years in prison."

"'Yes, we sometimes call doctors from the Forensic Institute to do a pelvic exam,' Tópez said, referring to the nation's main forensic lab, 'and we ask them to document lacerations or any evidence such as cuts or a perforated uterus.' In other words, if the suspicions of the patient's doctor are not conclusive enough, then in that initial 72-hour period, a forensic doctor can legally conduct a separate search of the crime scene....In the event that the woman's illegal abortion went badly and the doctors have to perform a hysterectomy, then the uterus is sent to the Forensic Institute, where the government's doctors analyze it and retain custody of her uterus as evidence against her."

"Doctors in El Salvador now understand that it is their legal duty to report any woman suspected of having had an abortion. Abortion rights advocates point out that Salvadoran law also spells out a conflicting responsibility: the doctor's duty to keep the patient's medical information confidential."

"According to Sara Valdés, the director of the Hospital de Maternidad, women coming to her hospital with ectopic pregnancies cannot be operated on until fetal death or a rupture of the fallopian tube. 'That is our policy,' Valdés told me. She was plainly in torment about the subject. 'That is the law,' she said. 'The D.A.'s office told us that this was the law.'"