A pro-life victory
occurred in El Salvador yesterday, one of the strongest pro-life countries in
the world, as anticipated votes on two bills to change the
criminal code to allow exceptions to abortion failed to materialize before Congress
adjourned. A new Congress begins May 1 under control of the conservative
Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) which is expected to maintain
protection of the unborn from the violence of abortion.
Pro-life advocates
lobbied against an international effort to add exceptions to El Salvador’s ban
on abortion. According to the New
York Times, “What appeared to be momentum a few weeks ago in favor of
relaxing the law was defeated by an alliance of social conservatives and
religious organizations who succeeded in convincing legislators in the final
days that their vote could have a political cost.”
The so-called ‘momentum’
resulted in large part from media outreach and hype created by leading
international pro-abortion activist organizations including the Center
for Reproductive Rights (CRR), Human
Rights Watch, and Ipas which
hoped the Salvadoran Congress would follow recent Chile’s lead and change its
constitutional protection for unborn children to allow exceptions for abortion;
it did not.
Pro-life leader Julia
Regina de Cardenal, the president the Yes to Life Foundation who in the past
was one of those responsible for the successful effort to amend the
constitution to protect children in the womb, voiced
strong opposition to international interference and called on the Attorney for
the Defense of Human Rights, Raquel Caballero, to investigate the financing of
organizations in El Salvador that were leading the effort to change the law to
determine the level of outside influence.
Pro-life advocates
argued that the vast majority of Salvadorans defend life from conception and
that “Legalizing the business of abortion is pure foreign interest not national
interest #sialavida #noalaborto #abortaresmatar”
The lead sponsor of one
of the bills to change the law, Deputy Johnny Wright Sol, had narrowed his bill
to allow exceptions for threats to the life and health of the mother and when
pregnancy of a minor is the result of rape but he realized that his bill still
did not have public support. Wright stated that the challenge would be “trying
to generate public opinion,” and that legislators “need to feel the pressure
from society.”
But lawmakers did feel
pressure as the Salvadoran business community joined civil and religious
organizations and institutions in the pro-life lobby effort. The
National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP) issued a statement asking
the Deputies to maintain “the right to life in all its phases”. The statement
stressed, "That the right to life of every human being, including the
unborn, is the fundamental basis of respect for the rule of law and the system
of freedoms… It would be a serious precedent that would open the doors to
justify in the future doing the same in another stage of human life...We demand
that the deputies not approve the reforms proposed by the abortion groups.”
(online translation)
Archbishop José Luis
Escobar Alas of San Salvador called on lawmakers to reject any proposed changes
saying, “There is no right to take the life of another person”.
Earlier this month,
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein expressed
pro-abortion support in a letter to legislators. According to the New York
Times article he asked them to relax the abortion ban “according to
international standards” and that this “would be a crucial step that would
improve the protection of human rights for women and children in El Salvador
and avoid future unjust suffering.”
In response to the loss,
the Center for Reproductive Rights’ statement confirmed pro-life charges of
international interference; it included,
"The Center for Reproductive Rights has been working for decades to expose
the consequences that El Salvador’s blanket abortion ban has on the lives of
Salvadorian women, and will continue to work with Salvadoran advocates and the
international community to achieve abortion reform.”
In its campaign to
overturn El Salvador’s pro-life protections, the Center used what it considers
to be ‘heavy hitters’ from Hollywood’— Alyssa Milano, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Amy
Brenneman— to tweet the CCR message #EyesonElSalvador
and that the Salvadoran Congress must “end this law”.
Yes, the world was
watching and the eyes of the world saw pro-life people in a pro-life country
rally on behalf of the vulnerable unborn child and again reject the violence of
abortion despite the work of international pro-abortion organizations and the
United Nations. El Salvador showed that it will continue to ‘love them both’.
#EyesonElSalvador
#ElSalvadorProVida